2022/06/15 by Elizabeth Cowper, Daniel Currie Hall
Arts and Humanities · Computer Science · #Linguistics and Discourse Analysis #Natural Language Processing Techniques #Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation
paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/cnj.2022.25
openalex publication_date 2022/06/15 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
Abstract This article analyzes Marshallese pronouns and demonstratives, arguing that both privative and binary morphosemantic features are necessary, and that the two types coexist in a single domain. Marshallese encodes number with atomic , and person with [ ± author] and [ ± participant]. In the complex system of Marshallese demonstratives, atomic and [ ± human] map to the same head, subject to a constraint that only one feature appears at a time. The element χ , which derives person orientation in demonstratives and pronouns, does not universally map to the same syntactic position. While in Heiltsuk χ is a dependent of the person head, in Marshallese it heads a projection above the person head. And while in Heiltsuk the person features occupy the same position in both pronouns and demonstratives, Marshallese pronouns have a different structure, with person and number features mapping to a single syntactic head. The contribution of UG is thus not a set of specific features or specific structures, but a set of more abstract principles.