Speaker: Giovanni Roversi (MIT)
Title: Workshopping φ-marking in Äiwoo
Time: Tuesday, February 13th, 1pm – 2pm
Location: 32-D461
Abstract: Äiwoo verbs usually carry markers indexing the φ-features of the subject (agreement? Clitics/reduced pronouns? We’ll talk about it). Beyond this one basic fact, not much is neat or clear. These markers show different patterns in different voices, in terms of the morphological exponents, their position (prefixes vs suffixes), their ability to simultaneously co-occur with an overt subject DP, and more. Moreover, there are also cases where these markers index the object’s φ-features instead of the subject’s. And of course, a theory that correctly derives the behavior of the φ-markers is only a good one inasmuch as it can fit well into a general theory of Äiwoo syntax (word order facts, the morphosyntax of voice, patterns of Ā-extraction, etc.). I have the data, now please help me out!