Parameterizing Case and Activity: Hyper-raising in Bantu

Case theory has long played a crucial role in explaining the distribution of nominal expressions. Raising constructions are a well-established case in point (Chomsky 1981, George & Kornfilt 1981, Chomsky 2000, Chomsky 2001, among others). A raising verb may have an expletive subject and take as complement a finite clause containing a thematic subject. Many Bantu languages exhibit apparent raising out of a finite clause in a construction known as HYPER-RAISING (cf. Harford Perez 1985; and Tanaka 2002, Martin & Nunes 2005, Nunes 2008, Ura 1998, Zeller 2006 for similar problems in various languages). This paper explores HYPER-RAISING in Lubukusu and Lusaamia, two members of the Luyia subgroup of Bantu spoken in Kenya.This research was supported in part by an NSF Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement grant and by a University of Missouri Research Council grant

DP Positions in African Languages

A handout of a presentation given at the Afranaph Project Development Workshop on December 10-11, 2010, at Rutgers University in New Jersey.A central concern of syntactic theory has long been to explain and predict the distribution of nominal expressions, henceforth D(eterminer) P(hrases), and their involvement in morphosyntactic relations. Where can they occur? When can they move, control agreement, and bear Case? The study of Indo-European (IE) languages has yielded strong generalizations upon which the theory is based. As we illustrate, a number of African languages in which such phenomena have been explored seem to turn these generalizations more or less on their heads. Our project seeks to determine and to explain the possibilities and limitations of DP positions, focusing primarily on Bantu languages. Some of the issues arise also in non-Bantu African languages including Igbo and Ibibio (see Ura 1998 on Igbo hyper-raising, = raising from tensed clauses; Baker and Willie 2010 on Ibibio multiple agreement), and we hope the project can be extended to them as well

Properties of Subjects in Bantu Languages

A handout of a presentation given at the Afranaph Project Development Workshop on December 11, 2010, at Rutgers University in New Jersey.This handout discusses how subject words function in various Bantu languages. Bantu languages are pro-drop, hence null subject languages (NSLs). Our initial findings are that preverbal subjects can, in fact, be non-specific indefinites (in at least Lubukusu and Kirundi). In Kirundi, expressions that are not licit in left-dislocated positions are fine as subjects. Person and tense/aspect influence the availability of inverse scope relations. Our preliminary conclusion is that at least some Bantu subjects are in Spec, TP; hence the nature of subject agreement in NSLs does not in general preclude subjects from occupying that position

Exposure to Mycobacterium remodels alveolar macrophages and the early innate response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection

Alveolar macrophages (AMs) play a critical role during Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) infection as the first cells in the lung to encounter bacteria. We previously showed that AMs initially respond to Mtb in vivo by mounting a cell-protective, rather than pro-inflammatory response. However, the plasticity of the initial AM response was unknown. Here, we characterize how previous exposure to Mycobacterium, either through subcutaneous vaccination with Mycobacterium bovis (scBCG) or through a contained Mtb infection (coMtb) that mimics aspects of concomitant immunity, impacts the initial response by AMs. We find that both scBCG and coMtb accelerate early innate cell activation and recruitment and generate a stronger pro-inflammatory response to Mtb in vivo by AMs. Within the lung environment, AMs from scBCG vaccinated mice mount a robust interferon-associated response, while AMs from coMtb mice produce a broader inflammatory response that is not dominated by Interferon Stimulated Genes. Using scRNAseq, we identify changes to the frequency and phenotype of airway-resident macrophages following Mycobacterium exposure, with enrichment for both interferon-associated and pro-inflammatory populations of AMs. In contrast, minimal changes were found for airway-resident T cells and dendritic cells after exposures. Ex vivo stimulation of AMs with Pam3Cys, LPS and Mtb reveal that scBCG and coMtb exposures generate stronger interferon-associated responses to LPS and Mtb that are cell-intrinsic changes. However, AM profiles that were unique to each exposure modality following Mtb infection in vivo are dependent on the lung environment and do not emerge following ex vivo stimulation. Overall, our studies reveal significant and durable remodeling of AMs following exposure to Mycobacterium, with evidence for both AM-intrinsic changes and contributions from the altered lung microenvironments. Comparisons between the scBCG and coMtb models highlight the plasticity of AMs in the airway and opportunities to target their function through vaccination or host-directed therapies

Agree to Agree: Agreement in the Minimalist Programme

Agreement is a pervasive phenomenon across natural languages. Depending on one’s definition of what constitutes agreement, it is either found in virtually every natural language that we know of, or it is at least found in a great many. Either way, it seems to be a core part of the system that underpins our syntactic  knowledge. Since the introduction of the operation of Agree in Chomsky (2000), agreement phenomena and the mechanism that underlies agreement have garnered a lot of attention in the Minimalist literature and have received different theoretical treatments at different stages. Since then, many different phenomena  involving dependencies between elements in syntax, including movement or not, have been accounted for using Agree. The mechanism of Agree thus provides a powerful tool to model dependencies between syntactic elements far beyond φ-feature agreement. The articles collected in this volume further explore these topics  and contribute to the ongoing debates surrounding agreement. The authors gathered in this book are internationally reknown experts in the field of Agreement

Agree to Agree: Agreement in the Minimalist Programme

Agreement is a pervasive phenomenon across natural languages. Depending on one’s definition of what constitutes agreement, it is either found in virtually every natural language that we know of, or it is at least found in a great many. Either way, it seems to be a core part of the system that underpins our syntactic  knowledge. Since the introduction of the operation of Agree in Chomsky (2000), agreement phenomena and the mechanism that underlies agreement have garnered a lot of attention in the Minimalist literature and have received different theoretical treatments at different stages. Since then, many different phenomena  involving dependencies between elements in syntax, including movement or not, have been accounted for using Agree. The mechanism of Agree thus provides a powerful tool to model dependencies between syntactic elements far beyond φ-feature agreement. The articles collected in this volume further explore these topics  and contribute to the ongoing debates surrounding agreement. The authors gathered in this book are internationally reknown experts in the field of Agreement

Agree to Agree: Agreement in the Minimalist Programme

Agreement is a pervasive phenomenon across natural languages. Depending on one’s definition of what constitutes agreement, it is either found in virtually every natural language that we know of, or it is at least found in a great many. Either way, it seems to be a core part of the system that underpins our syntactic  knowledge. Since the introduction of the operation of Agree in Chomsky (2000), agreement phenomena and the mechanism that underlies agreement have garnered a lot of attention in the Minimalist literature and have received different theoretical treatments at different stages. Since then, many different phenomena  involving dependencies between elements in syntax, including movement or not, have been accounted for using Agree. The mechanism of Agree thus provides a powerful tool to model dependencies between syntactic elements far beyond φ-feature agreement. The articles collected in this volume further explore these topics  and contribute to the ongoing debates surrounding agreement. The authors gathered in this book are internationally reknown experts in the field of Agreement

Agree to Agree: Agreement in the Minimalist Programme

Agreement is a pervasive phenomenon across natural languages. Depending on one’s definition of what constitutes agreement, it is either found in virtually every natural language that we know of, or it is at least found in a great many. Either way, it seems to be a core part of the system that underpins our syntactic  knowledge. Since the introduction of the operation of Agree in Chomsky (2000), agreement phenomena and the mechanism that underlies agreement have garnered a lot of attention in the Minimalist literature and have received different theoretical treatments at different stages. Since then, many different phenomena  involving dependencies between elements in syntax, including movement or not, have been accounted for using Agree. The mechanism of Agree thus provides a powerful tool to model dependencies between syntactic elements far beyond φ-feature agreement. The articles collected in this volume further explore these topics  and contribute to the ongoing debates surrounding agreement. The authors gathered in this book are internationally reknown experts in the field of Agreement

Agree to Agree: Agreement in the Minimalist Programme

Agreement is a pervasive phenomenon across natural languages. Depending on one’s definition of what constitutes agreement, it is either found in virtually every natural language that we know of, or it is at least found in a great many. Either way, it seems to be a core part of the system that underpins our syntactic  knowledge. Since the introduction of the operation of Agree in Chomsky (2000), agreement phenomena and the mechanism that underlies agreement have garnered a lot of attention in the Minimalist literature and have received different theoretical treatments at different stages. Since then, many different phenomena  involving dependencies between elements in syntax, including movement or not, have been accounted for using Agree. The mechanism of Agree thus provides a powerful tool to model dependencies between syntactic elements far beyond φ-feature agreement. The articles collected in this volume further explore these topics  and contribute to the ongoing debates surrounding agreement. The authors gathered in this book are internationally reknown experts in the field of Agreement

Agree to Agree: Agreement in the Minimalist Programme

Agreement is a pervasive phenomenon across natural languages. Depending on one’s definition of what constitutes agreement, it is either found in virtually every natural language that we know of, or it is at least found in a great many. Either way, it seems to be a core part of the system that underpins our syntactic  knowledge. Since the introduction of the operation of Agree in Chomsky (2000), agreement phenomena and the mechanism that underlies agreement have garnered a lot of attention in the Minimalist literature and have received different theoretical treatments at different stages. Since then, many different phenomena  involving dependencies between elements in syntax, including movement or not, have been accounted for using Agree. The mechanism of Agree thus provides a powerful tool to model dependencies between syntactic elements far beyond φ-feature agreement. The articles collected in this volume further explore these topics  and contribute to the ongoing debates surrounding agreement. The authors gathered in this book are internationally reknown experts in the field of Agreement