We're writing to remind you that our fifth meeting of the Morphology & Syntax Workshop for Spring 2025 (and the final one for the year!) will be taking place this Friday, May 30, from 12:30 PM - 2:30 PM Central Time, in Wieboldt 103 (or Zoom: https://uchicago.zoom.us/j/91869256368?pwd=NMyxitzL8hOd9t91qxvIpcoyKdwX36.1 ). We are happy to welcome Prof. Jessica Coon (McGill), who will be presenting on the following:
Invisible Inanimates in Kanien’kéha: Consequences for Polysynthesis
This talk examines puzzles in the realization and distribution of agreement markers or “pronominal prefixes” in Kanien’kéha (Northern Iroquoian), with an empirical focus on (1) an alignment split in the stative aspect and (2) restrictions on the distribution of animate arguments. In order to account for patterns, I propose—in line with recent work on Algonquian and Dene languages (Oxford 2019; Lochbihler et al. 2021)—that inanimate nominals in Kanien’kéha lack person, number, and gender (“phi”) features altogether. I show that this proposal, together with standard assumptions about argument structure and agreement, allows for an account of the complex agreement patterns. However, if correct, the absence of phi-features on inanimates also requires a rejection of Baker’s (1996) Polysynthesis Parameter, a macroparameter according to which all arguments in polysynthetic languages must be morphologically referenced on the verb. The conclusion will be that polysynthetic properties of Kanien’kéha do not require appeal to a macroparameter, but rather can be seen as the cumulative effect of smaller independently-motivated differences.
As always, please reply with any questions/comments/suggestions/concerns, and check out our website (https://voices.uchicago.edu/morphologyandsyntax/) for more general information about the workshop!