Syntax and Semantics

Ergative case and hidden argument structure: Studies in Indo-Aryan

Shweta Akolkar

2026

This dissertation examines the occurrence of ergative marking outside of overtly transitive clauses, arguing through case studies in two Indo-Aryan languages that such marking can reveal hidden argument structure. The first case study centers on Marathi modal clauses, which exceptionally allow ergative case on intransitive subjects. The second focuses on subject case marking in Bishnupriya Manipuri, a fluid-S language in which agentive intransitive subjects generally bear ergative case. In both languages, I argue that ergative marking appears on an intransitive subject only when that...

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Amy Rose Deal

Associate Professor of Linguistics

PhD, UMass Amherst

Syntax, semantics, fieldwork, Nez Perce

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QP fest 2018!

November 22, 2018

QP Fest will be held on Monday, November 26, in Dwinelle 370, from 3-5pm. (Note the rescheduled date!)

The schedule is as follows:

Introduction (3:10-3:15) Tessa Scott: "Conjoint/disjoint in Ndengeleko: A head movement alternation" (3:15-3:35) Karee Garvin: "Positional effects on timing and coordination of segments within the syllable" (3:35-3:55) Yevgeniy Melguy: "Talker ethnicity and listener expectation in the perception of foreign-accented speech" (3:55-4:15) Mini-break (4:15-4:20) Noah Hermalin: "Ambiguity and efficiency trade-offs in Sumerian cuneiform" (4:20-4:40) Myriam Lapierre: "A phonological analysis of Panãra" (4:40-5:00)

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Alrenga visits

October 11, 2018

Welcome to Pete Alrenga, who has just joined us as a visitor! Pete sends the following words about himself:

Hi! I'll be visiting from UMass Amherst until mid-November, and I'll be working with Line Mikkelsen while I'm here. Line and I are developing a project around a long-standing mutual interest of ours, namely the structure and interpretation of identity, similative, and equative constructions. In English, these notions are canonically expressed by same, different, like, such, so, etc., and our own previous work has explored the intriguing double lives that these items lead as comparative operators and anaphoric devices. One of the major goals of our project is to extend our understanding of such items/constructions to lesser-studied languages, and to assess the extent to which this range of uses is attested cross-linguistically.

Most of my past work has explored issues in the semantics and pragmatics of scalarity: degree comparatives, numerals and their modifiers, and more recently, scalar implicatures and Grice's nondetachability doctrine. I'm looking forward to my stay here at UC Berkeley...stop by some time and say hello!

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Zachary O'Hagan

Manager, California Language Archive

PhD, UC Berkeley

Caquinte (Arawakan), Chamikuro (Arawakan), Omagua (Tupí-Guaraní), Taushiro (isolate), and Omurano (isolate); language documentation, description, history and contact in Amazonia; historical linguistics; morphosyntax; semantics; information structure

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Interactions between pronouns and clausal structure: Perspectives from Atchan

Rebecca Jarvis

2025

This dissertation examines the syntax and semantics of long-distance dependencies involving pronouns in Atchan, a Kwa language of Côte d’Ivoire. In addition to describing a range of morphosyntactic and semantic properties of Atchan, the dissertation takes as its focus two case studies of phenomena in Atchan where pronominal form and interpretation intimately relate to long-distance dependencies. One case study focuses on the syntax of resumption, while the other focuses on the semantics of prominence-sensitive, disjointness-marking pronouns.

The resumption case study focuses on a...

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Deal presents in Massachusetts

March 13, 2025

Last week Amy Rose Deal traveled to Massachusetts to give talks at UMass and in the MIT colloquium series (on case sensitivity in syntax), along with a ling-lunch talk on de re attitude reports.

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The morphosyntax of verbal agreement in Uab Meto

Tyler Lemon

2024

This dissertation describes and analyzes the morphology and syntax of verbal agreement in Uab Meto, an Austronesian language of Indonesia and Timor-Leste. The introduction provides background on Uab Meto, its speakers, and previous work on the language. Then the dissertation presents analyses of several aspects of Uab Meto grammar. The second chapter analyzes the syntactic structure of Uab Meto verbs and the morphology and allomorphy of elements within it, except agreement. The third chapter analyzes the allomorphy displayed by the language’s verbal agreement prefixes. The fourth chapter...