Variation in the syntax and semantics of predicative possession in Quechua

This paper employs comparative evidence from two closely-related Quechua languages to argue that predicative possession constructions do not always share a single underlying source crosslinguistically (contra Freeze 1992; and in support of Boneh & Sichel 2010; Levinson 2011). This Quechua case study is especially striking in that the constructions involved are superficially almost identical–the crucial differences between them emerge only when theoretically-informed fieldwork is carried out

Complex copula systems as suppletive alomorphy

Languages are known to vary in the number of verbs they exhibit corresponding to English "be", in the distribution of such copular verbs, and in the presence or absence of a distinct verb for possession sentences corresponding to English "have". This paper offers novel arguments for the position that such differences should be modeled in terms of suppletive allomorphy of the same syntactic element (here dubbed v BE), employing a Late Insertion- based framework. It is shown that such a suppletive allomorphy approach to complex copula systems makes three predictions that distinguish it from non-suppletion-based alternatives (concerning decomposition, possible and impossible syncretisms, and Impoverishment), and that these predictions seem to be correct (although a full test of the possible and impossible syncretisms prediction is not possible in the current state of knowledge)

Two places for causees in productive isiXhosa morphological causatives

Gave a guest lecture on my joint work with Zoliswa Mali on isiXhosa causatives.Othe

Cliticization feeds agreement: a view from Quechua

Recent years have seen a surge in work on Person Hierarchy Effects (Béjar and Rezac 2009; Georgi 2011; Lochbihler 2009; Nevins 2007, 2011; Oxford 2014; Walkow 2009; Wiltschko 2008). In this paper, I analyze a curious case of such an effect which has been widely discussed in theoretical and descriptive work on the Quechua family (van de Kerke 1996; Lakämper and Wunderlich 1998; Milliken 1984; Muysken 1981; Weber 1976, 1989). In many Quechua languages, objects bearing the feature [Addressee] interact with subject agreement, but 1st person exclusive objects do not, even in the presence of a 3rd person subject. I dub this effect the [Addressee]-driven Subject Marking Anomaly (A-SMA), adapting the terminology of Weber (1976). After showing that object markers in Quechua languages are in fact object clitics, I argue that the A-SMA emerges from the interaction of cliticization with subject agreement: [Addressee] clitics raise above the subject in the clausal hierarchy, thus feeding agreement, but non-[Addressee] clitics do not. The analysis is extended to a related agreement effect involving plural objects in certain Bolivian and Argentine varieties of Quechua

Movement and Silence in the English have yet to Construction

This paper discusses the syntax of the have yet to construction in English, as in John has yet to eat dinner. As pointed out by Kelly (2008), this construction raises a number of questions. How is the NPI yet licensed? Why is have interpreted as a perfect auxiliary verb, in spite of the fact that it appears to take an infinitival complement, rather than a perfect participle? We argue that have in the have yet to construction is, for many speakers, perfect have, which selects for a silent raising predicate that has negative implicative semantics. This predicate, which we identify as a silent counterpart of fail, is responsible for licensing the NPI yet. We propose that FAILED is made silent as a result of yet moving into its specifier (invoking Koopman’s (1996) Generalized Doubly-filled COMP filter). This same movement accounts for yet’s unusual word-order behavior in the have yet to construction

Nuevos hallazgos en morfosintáxis quechua: aplicativos, reflexivos, y las marcas del objeto

Title translation: "New Findings in Quechua Morphosyntax: Applicatives, Reflexives, and Object Markers"Othe

Causative~applicative interactions and the nature of appl: the case of isiXhosa (based on joint work with Zoliswa Mali)

Published versio

How to turn a (not-yet-)possessed DP into a predicate nominal in Cochabamba Quechua

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