papers
published
Evidentials and Questions in Cheyenne. To appear in Proceedings of Semantics of Under-represented Languages of the Americas 5, 2009; Cambridge, MA. [ paper || slides || slides 4-up || bibtex ]
In Cheyenne, evidentials are part of the illocutionary mood paradigm, in morphological alternation with, e.g., the yes/no interrogative mood. Questions formed with the yes/no interrogative mood are evidentially unspecified -- they can be answered with any evidential. However, there is an alternate strategy for forming yes/no questions: with a clitic, which can co-occur with evidentials. This type of question can only be answered with the evidential specified in the question. In this paper, I extend the analysis presented in Murray (in press a) to the two types of yes/no questions and their interaction with evidentials. Under the proposed analysis, Cheyenne evidentials and illocutionary mood markers form a natural semantic class.
A Hamblin Semantics for Evidentials. To appear in proceedings of Semantics and Linguistic Theory 19, 2009; Columbus, OH. [ paper || slides || slides 4-up || bibtex ]
It has been noted that sentences with evidentials make two contributions: a ‘propositional’ contribution, which can be directly challenged, and an ‘evidential’ contribution, which cannot be directly challenged. In this paper, I argue this distinction can be thought of as a distinction in assertion between what is at-issue and what is not. The not-at-issue component of assertion is not negotiable: it added directly to the common ground. The at-issue contribution of an assertion, which is up for negotiation, is a proposal to update the common ground. I implement the analysis building on the treatment of declarative and interrogative sentences in Hamblin (1973).
Reflexivity and Reciprocity with(out) Underspecification. In Grönn, Atle (ed.), Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 12. Oslo, Norway: University of Oslo, ILOS. [ paper || handout || bibtex ]
In languages like English, reflexivity and reciprocity are expressed by distinct proforms. However, many languages, such as Cheyenne, express reflexivity and reciprocity with a single proform. In this paper I utilize Dynamic Plural Logic (van den Berg, 1996) to a draw a semantic parallel between reflexive and reciprocal anaphors in English. I propose that they contribute overlapping but distinct requirements on the relations introduced by transitive verbs, requirements which fully specify reflexivity and reciprocity. This parallel is then extended to Cheyenne by appealing to underspecification. I propose the Cheyenne affix which expresses both reflexivity and reciprocity contributes only the shared requirement of the English anaphors. It is thus underspecified, not ambiguous. This accounts for its compatibility with both singular and plural antecedents as well as its variety of construals.This paper is an extension of the Sixteenth Amsterdam Colloquium paper.
Dynamics of Reflexivity and Reciprocity. In Aloni, Maria, Paul Dekker, and Floris Roelofsen (Eds). Proceedings of the Sixteenth Amsterdam Colloquium. Amsterdam: ILLC/Department of Philosophy, University of Amsterdam. [ paper || handout || bibtex ]
Plural reflexives and reciprocals are anaphoric not only to antecedent pluralities but also to relations between the members of those pluralities. In this paper, I utilize Dynamic Plural Logic (van den Berg 1996) to analyze reflexives and reciprocals as anaphors that elaborate on relations introduced by the verb, which can be collective, cumulative, or distributive. This analysis generalizes to languages like Cheyenne (Algonquian) where reflexivity and reciprocity are expressed by a single proform that I argue is underspecified, not ambiguous.
The African Anaphora Project. In: Workshop Proceedings, Networking the Development of Language Resources for African Languages. LREC 2006; Genoa, Italy. With Ken Safir, Andrei Anghelescu, and Jessica Rett. [ paper ]
The goal of the African Anaphora Project is threefold: to elicit a research-directed database of African language data, which is collected and analyzed with native speaker linguist consultants; to organize and present this collected data in a manner such that it is as widely accessible as possible; and, to provide a forum where project directors, consultants, linguists, and in general anyone interested in African languages or linguistics can share an interactive community research space. The achievement of these goals necessitates the development of an interactive, dynamic site capable of allowing many users with many different objectives to access, input, edit, search, and browse data. Such an implementation requires sophisticated language resources, such as a site management component, a data storage component, and a query component, as well as a tool to input and display Unicode correctly, and tools to export the data in a variety of formats. It is our hope that our project design and our technical implementation will be generalizable to other projects that seek to collect complex linguistic data online and make it available to online users.
manuscripts
Reflexivity and Reciprocity: From English to Cheyenne. Second Qualifying Paper, Rutgers. (email me for draft)
This paper presents a crosslinguistic surface-compositional analysis of reflexivity and reciprocity in Dynamic Plural Logic (van den Berg 1996). This dynamic systems makes it possible to draw a semantic parallel between English reflexives and reciprocals. In addition, by appealing to underspecification, the semantic parallel can be extended to Cheyenne, a language which expresses both reflexivity and reciprocity with a single verbal suffix.
English reflexive and reciprocal anaphors are both analyzed as presupposing global identity, which identifies two arguments (sets of entities) of the verb. Additionally, they each presuppose a further relation, distributive overlap or distributive non-overlap, which specifies a reflexive or reciprocal relation, respectively. Cheyenne -ahte presupposes just global identity and is thus underspecified for a reflexive or reciprocal construal. This accounts for otherwise puzzling facts about Cheyenne -ahte, as well as the semantic parallels and differences between English and Cheyenne.
This was research for my second qualifying paper; my advisors were Maria Bittner, Roger Schwarzschild, and Matthew Stone. See also related presentations.
Selectivity and Voicing Assimilation. First Qualifying Paper, Rutgers. (email me for draft)
This paper develops a novel account of voicing assimilation and neutralization -- Selectivity -- which can account for both the patterns of heterosyllabic assimilation and tautosyllabic assimilation. This was research for my first qualifying paper; my advisors were Paul de Lacy, Alan Prince, and Bruce Tesar. See also related presentations.
Remarks on Reportative Evidentials. Ms, Rutgers. (email me for draft)
This paper identifies five crosslinguistically attested patterns of use for reportative evidentials, as displayed in Quechua, Kalaallisut, and Cheyenne, and evaluates two current analyses of reportatives with respect to how they predict these data patterns. The analyses, Faller 2002 and Bittner 2006b, go some distance in accounting for the crosslinguistically attested patterns, and their limitations provide guidance for future research. The achievements of and the problems for each theory are outlined, and a directions for future research are identified.
