Fieldwork and Language Documentation

Person-based split ergativity in Nez Perce is syntactic

Amy Rose Deal
2016

Nez Perce is one among many ergative languages that consistently use nominative case, rather than ergative, for 1st and 2nd person transitive subjects. Two major lines of analysis have been proposed for the synchronic grammar of this type of ergative split. Morphological analyses approach the phenomenon as a case of syncretism between ergative and nominative in 1st and 2nd person; all transitive subjects are assigned an identical syntax. Syntactic analyses posit a featural or structural distinction between 3rd person subjects and 1st and 2nd person subjects, or the clauses containing...

Plural exponence in the Nez Perce DP: a DM analysis

Amy Rose Deal
2016

This paper analyzes two patterns of number marking in the DP in Nez Perce (Sahaptian) within the framework of Distributed Morphology. The first involves under-realization of plural on nouns. Number has classically been understood as a feature inherent to nouns, rather than to adjectives that modify them. In Nez Perce, however, only a small set of nouns show number morphology, whereas number morphology is highly productive on adjectival modifiers. Adjectives in fact may realize the plural more than once per word—an instance of multiple exponence. I show that the puzzle of under-...

Cyclicity and connectivity in Nez Perce relative clauses

Amy Rose Deal
2016

This article studies two aspects of movement in relative clauses, focusing on evidence from Nez Perce. First, I argue that relativization involves cyclic Ā-movement, even in monoclausal relatives: the relative operator moves to Spec,CP via an intermediate position in an Ā outer specifier of TP. The core arguments draw on word order, complementizer choice, and a pattern of case attraction for relative pronouns. Ā cyclicity of this type suggests that the TP sister of relative C constitutes a phase—a result whose implications extend to an ill-understood corner of the English that-trace...

Raising to ergative: remarks on applicatives of unaccusatives

Amy Rose Deal
2019

Applicatives of unaccusatives provide a crucial test case for the inherent case view of ergativity. If ergative is assigned only to external arguments, in their theta-positions, there can be no “raising to ergative” in applicative unaccusatives; an internal argument subject can never receive ergative case. In this paper I present evidence from Nez Perce (Sahaptian) that this prediction is false. In Nez Perce applicative unaccusatives, the theme argument raises over the applicative argument and is accordingly marked with the ergative case. Nez Perce thus demonstrates raising to...

Nee files dissertation

December 1, 2021

Congratulations to Julia Nee, who has filed her doctoral dissertation:

"Participatory Action Research in Teotitlán del Valle Zapotec Language Revitalization"
Committee: Andrew Garrett, Leanne Hinton (co-chairs), Chris Beier, Beth Piatote

Participatory Action Research in Teotitlán del Valle Zapotec Language Revitalization

Julia Nee
2021

CLA updates

November 14, 2021

Here's the latest from the California Language Archive:

Hannah Sande, with the assistance of Julianne Kapner, has archived a new collection of materials related to Nobiin (Nile-Nubian; Egypt, Sudan), stemming from the Georgetown field methods course she taught in the spring of 2018. The collection consists of sound recordings of elicitation sessions and texts, with accompanying transcriptions, glossing, and translations of sessions. Hannah has also added 32 file bundles of sound recordings of elicitation sessions and texts to her collection related to Guébie (Kru; Côte d'Ivoire) from fieldwork in 2015, 2016, and 2017 (see 049-080). More is forthcoming!

CLA updates

November 7, 2021

Here's the latest from the California Language Archive:

Hannah Sande, with the assistance of Julianne Kapner, has archived a new collection of materials related to Gã (Kwa; Ghana), from the Georgetown field methods course she taught in the fall of 2019. The collection consists of sound recordings of elicitation sessions, with accompanying transcriptions, glossing, and translation of sessions. We hosted a visit by Mischelle Dressler, Lisa Enos, Herman Fillmore, and Mitchell Osorio, who consulted William Jacobsen's (PhD 1964) lexical file slips of Washo (isolate; CA). The visit was sponsored by the Advocates for Indigenous California Language Survival.

A theory of indexical shift

Amy Rose Deal
2020

A comprehensive overview of the semantics and syntax of indexical shift that develops a constrained typology of the phenomenon across languages.

CLA updates

November 1, 2021

Here's the latest from the California Language Archive:

We remodeled our research room! Thanks go to Erik Maier, Edwin Ko, and Allegra Robertson for assisting. The remodel moves our collection of reference books out of the archive room, making available space for cabinets and shelving for new archival materials. Come by and check it out! We are hosting a weeklong research visit by Dr. Darla Garey-Sage, who is working with William Jacobsen's (PhD 1964) numerous Washo (isolate; CA) lexical file slips. We hosted a tour of the CLA for a group organized by Sharon Inkelas, Professor of Linguistics and Associate Vice Provost for the Faculty, including: Khira Griscavage, Associate Chancellor and Chief of Staff to the Chancellor; Martha Chavez, Associate Chief of Staff to the Chancellor; Christine Treadway, Assistant Chancellor for Government and Community Relations; Linda Rugg, Professor of Swedish Literature and Associate Vice Chancellor for Research; Phenocia Bauerle, Director, Native American Student Development; Peter Nelson, Assistant Professor of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management and Ethnic Studies; and Carolyn Smith, Postdoctoral Scholar, Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research. Thanks to Emily Remirez, who alerted us to a drawer of analogue recordings in 51 Dwinelle: 50 reel-to-reel tapes, 19 cassettes, 15 VHS tapes, six U-matic tapes, and one 45! The recordings generally stem from work done in the PhonLab. Represented are 23 languages, in addition to unidentified Siberian languages: Arabic, Ashaninka (Arawak; Peru), Dutch, French, Guatemalan Sign Language, Hindi, Hmong, Hungarian, Ikalanga (Bantu; Botswana, Zimbabwe), Kalabari (Ijoid; Nigeria), Korean, Mandarin, Mazahua (Oto-Pamean; Mexico), Mixtec (Mixtecan; Mexico), Northern Pomo (Pomoan; CA), Nyamwezi (Bantu; Tanzania), Polish, Quechua, Quiotepec Chinantec (Chinantecan; Mexico), Tamil, Thai, Xhosa (Bantu; South Africa, Zimbabwe), and Yucatec Maya (Mayan; Mexico). Most are "speech sound" recordings, described in accompanying paper documentation as "designed primarily to provide the user practice recognizing and transcribing some of the important sound contrasts" in these languages. Others come from, for example, Leanne Hinton's courses on Chalcatongo de Hidalgo Mixtec in 1981 and 1982 (with Nicolás Cortés), and from Michelle Caisse (PhD 1988) and Catherine O'Connor's (PhD 1987) early documentation of Northern Pomo, including unique recordings of stories told by Edna Guerrero.