Whamit!

The Weekly Newsletter of MIT Linguistics

Syntax Square 2/22 - Bethany Lochbihler

Speaker: Bethany Lochbihler
Title: Transitivity and animacy mismatches in the Ojibwe verbal paradigms
Time: Tuesday, February 22, 11:30am-12:30pm
Location: 32-D461

This paper proposes a unifying account of verb finals in Ojibwe (Central Algonquian) using Cyclic Agree (Béjar & Rezac 2009) to license Person features. I give an account of the long-standing puzzle of transitive inanimate verbs bearing animate intransitive theme-signs, even though these two types of verbs mismatch in both animacy and transitivity. Further, I argue for revisions to the mechanics of Béjar & Rezac’s (2009) Cyclic Agree, and account for the Inverse System found with transitive animate verbs in Ojibwe, which is extended to the verbal finals on ditransitive verbs.