Speaker: Heidi Duressi (MIT)
Title:An analysis of the Albanian verbal paradigm with with multiple exponence and paradigm contrast
Time: Monday, April 1st, 5pm – 6:30pm
Location: 32-D831
Abstract: Albanian verbs are typically analyzed to be broadly split into 2 categories: those with roots ending in vowels (Class 1) and those with roots ending in consonants (Class 2) (Newmark, Hubbard, & Prifti 1982; Camaj, 1984). There are certain segments (alternating between j and n) that are present in the indicative present forms of some verbs in Class 1, but not those of Class 2. There have been attempts at further characterizing these alternations (Trommer 2013) but there is no complete explanation of why they surface in the person/number combinations that they do. The goal of this talk is: 1) to present an analysis of this phenomenon, which combines ideas of multiple exponence, as suggested and used by (Matthews, 1974; Müller, 2006; Müller & Trommer, 2007), with paradigm contrast (Rebrus & Törkenczy, 2005; Hall, 2007) and 2) to explore the implications of this analysis for the general Albanian verbal paradigm.