Amy Rose Deal | University of California, Santa Cruz (original) (raw)

Papers by Amy Rose Deal

This dissertation investigates several topics in the morphology, syntax and semantics of the Nez ... more This dissertation investigates several topics in the morphology, syntax and semantics of the Nez Perce verb and verbal clause. The topics chosen here reflect ways in which Nez Perce grammar casts light on cross-linguistic investigation and on the process of integrating understudied languages into linguistic theories and typologies.

This paper investigates the meanings of object nominals in two types of 2-participant clauses in ... more This paper investigates the meanings of object nominals in two types of 2-participant clauses in Nez Perce (Niimiipuutimt): canonically marked TRANSITIVE clauses, where both subject and object agree and mark case (1a, 2a), and non-canonically marked CASELESS clauses, where only subjects agree and no case is marked (1b, 2b). 1 (1) a.'ip-ním 3SG-SUBJ pée-qn'i-se 3/3-dig-INC qeqíi-ne edible. root-OBJ He digs qeqíit roots.(Crook 1999, 238) b.'ipí

Abstract. While expletive there has primarily been studied in the context of the existential cons... more Abstract. While expletive there has primarily been studied in the context of the existential construction, it has long been known that some but not all lexical verbs are compatible with there insertion. This paper argues that there insertion can be used to diagnose vPs with no external argument, ruling out transitives, unergatives, and also inchoatives, which are argued to project an event argument on the edge of vP.

This is a paper about object non-specificity.

The last two decades have seen a marked change in the way that verbs have been understood to comp... more The last two decades have seen a marked change in the way that verbs have been understood to compose with their arguments. The traditional view took transitive verbs to express relations between individuals, and (given the VP-internal subject hypothesis) took these relations to compose with their various arguments within the VP. On this view the VP structure for sentence (1) looks as in (2a), where the semantic composition of the VP works as shown in (2b).

Abstract Various languages allow instances of external possession–possessive encoding without a p... more Abstract Various languages allow instances of external possession–possessive encoding without a possessive structure in DP. The analysis of these cases has long been a battleground of raising versus control. I provide a new argument from Nez Perce in support of possessor raising of a type thematically parallel to raising to subject. The possessor phrase moves from a possessum-DP-internal position to an a-thematic A-position within vP.

(2) He could park in the remote lot. a. Epistemic possibility context. Smith has called to say th... more (2) He could park in the remote lot. a. Epistemic possibility context. Smith has called to say that he has parked in his campus parking spot. However, he is taking a long time to get to the meeting. He could park in the remote lot.(It's consistent with the evidence.) b. Deontic possibility context. For a special campus event, the parking rules have been changed to permit open parking in the remote lots. He could park in the remote lot.(It's consistent with the rules.)

Some natural languages do not lexically distinguish between modals of possibility and modals of n... more Some natural languages do not lexically distinguish between modals of possibility and modals of necessity. From the perspective of languages like English, modals in such languages appear to do double duty: they are used both where possibility modals are expected and where necessity modals are expected. The Nez Perce modal suffix o’qa offers an example of this behavior. I offer a simple account of the flexibility of the o’qa modal centered on the absence of scalar implica- tures. O’qa is a possibility modal that does not belong to a Horn scale; its use is never associated with a scalar implicature. Accordingly, in an upward-entailing environment, φ-o’qa is appropriate whenever there are accessible φ-worlds, even if indeed ALL accessible worlds are φ-worlds. In a downward-entailing environment, the flexibility of the o’qa modal is seen no more. Here, neither o’qa nor English possibility modals are associated with scalar implicatures, and the use of o’qa exactly parallels the use of English modals of possibility.
Given that o’qa is a possibility modal that does not contrast with a modal of necessity, just how do you talk about necessities in Nez Perce? Speakers translating into Nez Perce rely on a variety of techniques to paraphrase away expressions of simple necessity. Their strategies highlight an area where Nez Perce and English plausibly differ in the range of propositions they convey. The data cast doubt on any strong form of effability as a language universal.

Syntax, Jan 1, 2009

While expletive there has primarily been studied in the context of the existential construction, ... more While expletive there has primarily been studied in the context of the existential construction, it has long been known that some but not all lexical verbs are compatible with there insertion. This paper argues that there insertion can be used to diagnose vPs with no external argument, ruling out transitives, unergatives, and also inchoatives, which are argued to project an event argument on the edge of vP. Based on the tight link between there insertion and low functional structure, I build a case for low there insertion, where the expletive is first merged in the specifier of a verbalizing head v. The low merge position is motivated by a stringently local relationship that holds between there and its associate DP; this relationship plays a crucial role in the interaction of there with raising verbs, where local agreement rules out cases of ‘‘too many theres’’ such as *There seemed there to be a man in the room. An account of these cases in terms of phase theory is explored, in which I ultimately suggest that there must be merged in a nonthematic phasal specifier position.

Presentation at SSILA, Jan 1, 2009

Natural Language & Linguistic Theory, Jan 1, 2010

Ergative case, the special case of transitive subjects, raises questions not only for the theory ... more Ergative case, the special case of transitive subjects, raises questions not only for the theory of case but also for theories of subjecthood and transitivity. This paper analyzes the case system of Nez Perce, a “three-way ergative” language, with an eye towards a formalization of the category of transitive subject. I show that it is object agreement that is determinative of transitivity, and hence of ergative case, in Nez Perce. I further show that the transitivity condition on ergative case must be cou- pled with a criterion of subjecthood that makes reference to participation in subject agreement, not just to origin in a high argument-structural position. These two results suggest a formalization of the transitive subject as that argument uniquely accessing both high and low agreement information, the former through its (agreement-derived) connection with T and the latter through its origin in the specifier of a head associ- ated with object agreement (v). In view of these findings, I argue that ergative case morphology should be analyzed not as the expression of a syntactic primitive but as the morphological spell-out of subject agreement and object agreement on a nominal.

Proceedings of SALT18, Jan 1, 2008

This dissertation investigates several topics in the morphology, syntax and semantics of the Nez ... more This dissertation investigates several topics in the morphology, syntax and semantics of the Nez Perce verb and verbal clause. The topics chosen here reflect ways in which Nez Perce grammar casts light on cross-linguistic investigation and on the process of integrating understudied languages into linguistic theories and typologies.

This paper investigates the meanings of object nominals in two types of 2-participant clauses in ... more This paper investigates the meanings of object nominals in two types of 2-participant clauses in Nez Perce (Niimiipuutimt): canonically marked TRANSITIVE clauses, where both subject and object agree and mark case (1a, 2a), and non-canonically marked CASELESS clauses, where only subjects agree and no case is marked (1b, 2b). 1 (1) a.'ip-ním 3SG-SUBJ pée-qn'i-se 3/3-dig-INC qeqíi-ne edible. root-OBJ He digs qeqíit roots.(Crook 1999, 238) b.'ipí

Abstract. While expletive there has primarily been studied in the context of the existential cons... more Abstract. While expletive there has primarily been studied in the context of the existential construction, it has long been known that some but not all lexical verbs are compatible with there insertion. This paper argues that there insertion can be used to diagnose vPs with no external argument, ruling out transitives, unergatives, and also inchoatives, which are argued to project an event argument on the edge of vP.

This is a paper about object non-specificity.

The last two decades have seen a marked change in the way that verbs have been understood to comp... more The last two decades have seen a marked change in the way that verbs have been understood to compose with their arguments. The traditional view took transitive verbs to express relations between individuals, and (given the VP-internal subject hypothesis) took these relations to compose with their various arguments within the VP. On this view the VP structure for sentence (1) looks as in (2a), where the semantic composition of the VP works as shown in (2b).

Abstract Various languages allow instances of external possession–possessive encoding without a p... more Abstract Various languages allow instances of external possession–possessive encoding without a possessive structure in DP. The analysis of these cases has long been a battleground of raising versus control. I provide a new argument from Nez Perce in support of possessor raising of a type thematically parallel to raising to subject. The possessor phrase moves from a possessum-DP-internal position to an a-thematic A-position within vP.

(2) He could park in the remote lot. a. Epistemic possibility context. Smith has called to say th... more (2) He could park in the remote lot. a. Epistemic possibility context. Smith has called to say that he has parked in his campus parking spot. However, he is taking a long time to get to the meeting. He could park in the remote lot.(It's consistent with the evidence.) b. Deontic possibility context. For a special campus event, the parking rules have been changed to permit open parking in the remote lots. He could park in the remote lot.(It's consistent with the rules.)

Some natural languages do not lexically distinguish between modals of possibility and modals of n... more Some natural languages do not lexically distinguish between modals of possibility and modals of necessity. From the perspective of languages like English, modals in such languages appear to do double duty: they are used both where possibility modals are expected and where necessity modals are expected. The Nez Perce modal suffix o’qa offers an example of this behavior. I offer a simple account of the flexibility of the o’qa modal centered on the absence of scalar implica- tures. O’qa is a possibility modal that does not belong to a Horn scale; its use is never associated with a scalar implicature. Accordingly, in an upward-entailing environment, φ-o’qa is appropriate whenever there are accessible φ-worlds, even if indeed ALL accessible worlds are φ-worlds. In a downward-entailing environment, the flexibility of the o’qa modal is seen no more. Here, neither o’qa nor English possibility modals are associated with scalar implicatures, and the use of o’qa exactly parallels the use of English modals of possibility.
Given that o’qa is a possibility modal that does not contrast with a modal of necessity, just how do you talk about necessities in Nez Perce? Speakers translating into Nez Perce rely on a variety of techniques to paraphrase away expressions of simple necessity. Their strategies highlight an area where Nez Perce and English plausibly differ in the range of propositions they convey. The data cast doubt on any strong form of effability as a language universal.

Syntax, Jan 1, 2009

While expletive there has primarily been studied in the context of the existential construction, ... more While expletive there has primarily been studied in the context of the existential construction, it has long been known that some but not all lexical verbs are compatible with there insertion. This paper argues that there insertion can be used to diagnose vPs with no external argument, ruling out transitives, unergatives, and also inchoatives, which are argued to project an event argument on the edge of vP. Based on the tight link between there insertion and low functional structure, I build a case for low there insertion, where the expletive is first merged in the specifier of a verbalizing head v. The low merge position is motivated by a stringently local relationship that holds between there and its associate DP; this relationship plays a crucial role in the interaction of there with raising verbs, where local agreement rules out cases of ‘‘too many theres’’ such as *There seemed there to be a man in the room. An account of these cases in terms of phase theory is explored, in which I ultimately suggest that there must be merged in a nonthematic phasal specifier position.

Presentation at SSILA, Jan 1, 2009

Natural Language & Linguistic Theory, Jan 1, 2010

Ergative case, the special case of transitive subjects, raises questions not only for the theory ... more Ergative case, the special case of transitive subjects, raises questions not only for the theory of case but also for theories of subjecthood and transitivity. This paper analyzes the case system of Nez Perce, a “three-way ergative” language, with an eye towards a formalization of the category of transitive subject. I show that it is object agreement that is determinative of transitivity, and hence of ergative case, in Nez Perce. I further show that the transitivity condition on ergative case must be cou- pled with a criterion of subjecthood that makes reference to participation in subject agreement, not just to origin in a high argument-structural position. These two results suggest a formalization of the transitive subject as that argument uniquely accessing both high and low agreement information, the former through its (agreement-derived) connection with T and the latter through its origin in the specifier of a head associ- ated with object agreement (v). In view of these findings, I argue that ergative case morphology should be analyzed not as the expression of a syntactic primitive but as the morphological spell-out of subject agreement and object agreement on a nominal.

Proceedings of SALT18, Jan 1, 2008