Colloquium by Colin Brown: Clause typing and clitic linearization in Gitksan
events
Date and time: Thursday, May 1st, 11:30am-12:30pm
Location: RCB 7402 and Zoom (email lingcomm@sfu.ca for the link)
About the speaker
Colin Brown is an SSHRC Postdoctoral Scholar at who received a PhD from the Department of Linguistics at . He is interested in the interaction between syntax, semantics, and morphology. The empirical basis of his research comes from novel fieldwork on understudied languages, primarily Sm'algyax and Gitksan (Tsimshianic, Canada/USA) and more recently, Mam (Mayan, Guatemala/Mexico). His research focus includes the morphosyntax of A'-movement, the semantics of non-canonical questions, and the linearization of sentential clitics.
Title
Clause typing and clitic linearization in Gitksan
Abstract
Gitksan, like all Tsimshianic languages, distinguishes between independent and dependent clauses, a contrast that broadly corresponds to the matrix/embedded clause distinction. However, some matrix clauses鈥攖hose introduced by negation or certain tense/aspect markers鈥攅xhibit the morphosyntactic profile of dependent clauses. In this talk, I present novel evidence from clitic linearization, the paradoxical ordering of left-peripheral elements, the doubling of aspectual and irrealis markers, and other diagnostics, to argue that some, but not all, dependent clauses exhibit a biclausal structure. I propose a more fine-grained typology of dependent clause triggers, distinguishing between those that occur within dependent clauses (e.g., complementizers, subordinators, and coordinators) from those that select dependent clause complements (e.g., negation and aspectual markers). Crucially, all matrix-dependent clause triggers belong to the latter category, supporting the view that so-called matrix dependent clauses are in fact structurally biclausal.