Morphosemantic features in Universal Grammar: What we can learn from Marshallese pronouns and demonstratives. (September 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Cowper, Elizabeth; Hall, Daniel Currie
• Editors: Ritter, Elizabeth; Storoshenko, Dennis Ryan
• Is Part Of: Canadian journal of linguistics. Volume 67:Number 3(2022)
• Page Start: 242
• Page End: 266
• Publication Date: 2022-09
• Subjects: Marshallese -- demonstratives -- pronouns -- phi-features -- person; Marshallais -- pronoms -- traits phi -- personne; Linguistics -- Periodicals; Periodicals; 410.5
• DOI: 10.1017/cnj.2022.25
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0008-4131

Abstract

Abstract: This article analyzes Marshallese pronouns and demonstratives, arguing that both privative and binary morphosemantic features are necessary, and that the two types coexist in a single domain. Marshallese encodes number with atomic, and person with [ $\pm$ author] and [ $\pm$ participant]. In the complex system of Marshallese demonstratives, atomic and [ $\pm$ human] map to the same head, subject to a constraint that only one feature appears at a time. The element $\chi$, which derives person orientation in demonstratives and pronouns, does not universally map to the same syntactic position. While in Heiltsuk $\chi$ is a dependent of the person head, in Marshallese it heads a projection above the person head. And while in Heiltsuk the person features occupy the same position in both pronouns and demonstratives, Marshallese pronouns have a different structure, with person and number features mapping to a single syntactic head. The contribution of UG is thus not a set of specific features or specific structures, but a set of more abstract principles.