The Representation of Gender and Inflectional Class in Italian: A Reply to Kučerová 2018

In a recent article, Kučerová 2018 (henceforth K18) puts forward a novel theory of the morphology and interpretation of nominal gender in Italian. This paper takes issue with this theory from both empirical and theoretical standpoints. We first show that several generalisations presented as empirical support for it are in fact incorrect. We then point out a series of fundamental challenges for the theory. First, the proposed three-way classification of nouns misrepresents the full range of facts, because it does not take into account plural morphology or the interdependencies of CLASS and GENDER features. Second, the account of gender mismatch in terms of “semiconservativity” fails to capture the Italian data, once the full paradigm is considered. Finally, K18’s use of Phase Theory to model contextual valuation of gender faces an insurmountable lookahead problem.

Relativized Locality: Phases and Tiers in Long-Distance Allomorphy in Armenian

Linguistic processes tend to respect locality constraints. In this paper, we analyze the distribution of conjugation classes in Armenian verbs. We analyze a type of Tense allomorphy which applies across these classes. On the surface, we show that this allomorphy is long-distance. Specifically, it is sensitive to the interaction of multiple morphemes that are neither linearly nor structurally adjacent. However, we argue that this allomorphy respects ‘relativized adjacency’ (Toosarvandani 2016) or tier-based locality (Aksënova, Graf, and Moradi 2016). While not surface-local, the interaction in Armenian verbs is local on a tier projected from morphological features. This formal property of tier-based locality is substantively manifested as phase-based locality in Armenian (cf. Marvin 2002). In addition to being well-studied computationally, tier-based locality allows us to capture superficially non-local morphological processes while respecting the cross-linguistic tendency of locality. We speculate that tier-based locality is a cross-linguistic tendency in long-distance allomorphy, while phase-based locality is not necessarily so.

Interaction, Satisfaction, and the PCC

The person-case constraint (PCC) is a family of restrictions on the relative person of the two objects of a ditransitive. PCC effects offer a testing ground for theories of the Agree operation and of syntactic features, both those on nominals and (of special interest here) those found on agreement probes. In this paper, I offer a new theory of PCC effects in an interaction/satisfaction theory of Agree (Deal 2015a) and show the advantages of this framework in capturing PCC typology. On this model, probes are specified for interaction features, determining which features will be copied to them, and satisfaction features, determining which features will cause probing to stop. Applied to PCC, this theory (i) captures all four types of PCC effect recognized by Nevins (2007) under a unified notion of Agree; (ii) captures the restriction of PCC effects to contexts of “Double Weakness” in many prominent examples, e.g. in Italian, Greek, and Basque, where PCC effects hold only in cases where both the direct and indirect object are expressed with clitics; (iii) naturally extends to PCC effects in syntactic environments without visible clitics or agreement for one or both objects, as well as the absence of PCC effects in some languages with clitics or agreement for both the direct and indirect object. Two refinements of the interaction/satisfaction theory are offered. The first is a new notation for probes’ interaction and satisfaction specifications, clarifying the absence from this theory of uninterpretable/unvalued features as drivers of Agree. The second is a proposal for the way that probes’ behavior may change over the course of a derivation, dubbed dynamic interaction.

Definiteness Effect in the PP

This paper demonstrates that abessive PPs impose the same type of definiteness restriction on their complements that existential predicates impose on their subjects. The DE in PPs is accounted for in the framework of the DE theory of Szabolcsi (1986a,b), who derives the DE from the incompatibility of a presuppositional subject and a logical predicate of existence that is present in a wide class of predicates (including verbs meaning ‘(cause to) come to exist in a particular fashion’, and nominal predicates meaning ‘(non-)existence at a particular location’). The analysis points out this predicate of existence in the small clause complements of abessive Ps.

What Divides, and What Unites, Right-Node Raising

We argue, following Barros and Vicente (2011), that right-node raising (RNR) results from either ellipsis or multidominance. Four considerations support this claim. (i) RNR has properties of ellipsis and of multidominance. (ii) Where these are combined, the structure results from repeated RNR: a pivot created through ellipsis contains a right-peripheral secondary pivot created through multidominance. (iii) In certain circumstances, one or the other derivation is blocked, so that RNR behaves like pure ellipsis or pure multidominance. (iv) Linearization of RNR-as-multidominance requires pruning. The same pruning operation delivers RNR-as-ellipsis, which explains why the two derivations must meet the same ordering constraints.

Serial Reduplication Is Empirically Adequate and Typologically Restrictive

Wei and Walker (2020) and Zymet (2018) claim that derivational lookahead effects are attested in the interactions between reduplication and other phonological processes in Mbe and Logoori, respectively. On the basis of this evidence, they argue that reduplication in these languages cannot be modeled by Serial Template Satisfaction (McCarthy, Kimper, and Mullin, 2012), a theory of reduplication set in Harmonic Serialism. This paper refutes these claims, and provides serial analyses for both languages. It further identifies a novel prediction of Base-Reduplicant Correspondence Theory (McCarthy and Prince, 1994, 1995, 1999), a parallel theory of reduplication, that reduplicants may surface with marked structures unattested elsewhere in the language, and demonstrates that these patterns are not replicated in serial.

The Impersonal Use of German 1st Person Singular Ich

This paper replies to Ackema and Neeleman’s (2018) claim that 1st person singular pronouns are grammatically blocked from having impersonal uses. In connection with this claim, they argue that the impersonal use of German 1st person singular ich described in Zobel 2014 does not exist. I show that Ackema and Neeleman’s alternative analysis of the German data analyzed in Zobel 2014 is flawed, and that new considerations inspired by their proposal further support the claim that German ich has an impersonal use. This result not only has ramifications for Ackema and Neeleman’s account of the morphosyntax and semantics of (impersonally usable) personal pronouns, but for anyone researching the morphosyntax and semantics of pronominal expressions and how these interact.

Case as an Anaphor Agreement Effect: Evidence from Inuktitut

The Anaphor Agreement Effect (AAE) is the cross-linguistic inability for anaphors to co-vary with Φ-agreement (Rizzi 1990; Woolford 1999), with languages making use of a variety of strategies that conspire to circumvent this effect. In this short paper, I identify and confirm a prediction arising from two previous observations by Woolford (1999) concerning the scope of the AAE, based on new evidence from Inuktitut (Eastern Canadian Inuit). I propose that anaphors in Inuktitut are lexically specified as projecting additional syntactic structure, spelled out as oblique case morphology; because Φ-Agree in Inuktitut may only target ERG and ABS arguments, encountering an anaphor inevitably leads to failed Agree in the sense of Preminger (2011, 2014). I moreover argue that this exact AAE pattern is previously unattested, yet is predicted to arise given the range of existing strategies. Finally, this paper provides evidence against previous detransitivization-based approaches to reflexivity in Inuktitut (e.g. Bok-Bennema 1991).

Rapa Nui: A Case for Correspondence in Reduplication

This squib argues for the role of correspondence in reduplication by examining the vowel length alternations in Rapa Nui reduplication. The analysis shows that vowel shortening in the base after reduplication is due to the enforcement of vowel length identity through Base Reduplicant Correspondence, while the motivation of vowel shortening is problematic for theories without surface-to-surface correspondence. The findings suggest that reduplication-phonology interactions cannot be handled solely by serialism or cyclicity, and a parallel Optimality-Theoretic evaluation with BR-correspondence is supported.