Cover not available
Part of
Cross-linguistic Investigations of Nominalization Patterns
Edited by Ileana Paul
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 210] 2014
► pp. 25–50

Nominalizing Inner Aspect

Evidence from Blackfoot

| University of Calgary

Blackfoot abstract nominalizations are deverbal process/result nominalizations with rather unusual properties: They are never derived from morphologically transitive verbs, and as a consequence do not license a DP or NP object, but if they have a possessor, it must refer to the agent of the source verb. Moreover, they may contain tense and aspect prefixes, but not temporal adverbs. Assuming that they are nominalizations of some clausal functional category, I interpret these facts as evidence of cross-linguistic variation in clausal functional categories. Following Ritter and Wiltschko (2009; to appear), I assume that clausal functional categories in Blackfoot have participant-based, rather than temporal substantive content, and show that abstract nominalizations are nominalized I(nner)-AspP in a language with atemporal functional categories.

Published online: 18 February 2014
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/la.210.02rit
References
Armoskaite, Solveige
2011 The Destiny of Roots in Blackfoot and Lithuanian. PhD dissertation, University of British Columbia.Google Scholar
Bliss, Heather
2005 Formalizing Point-of-View: The role of sentience in Blackfoot’s Direct/Inverse System. MA thesis, University of Calgary.Google Scholar
2010 Argument Structure, applicatives and animacy in Blackfoot. In Proceedings of the 13th and 14th Workshop on the Structure and Constituency of Languages of the Americas [UBC Working Papers in Linguistics 26], Heather Bliss & Raphael Girard (eds). Vancouver: UBC Department of Linguistics.Google Scholar
Bliss, Heather, Ritter, Elizabeth & Wiltschsko, Martina
To appear. A comparative analysis of theme marking in Blackfoot and Nishnabemwin. In Papers of the 42nd Algonquian Conference , Monica Macaulay & Rand Valentine (eds). Chicago IL: University of Chicago.
Bloomfield, Leonard. et al.
1946 Algonquin. In Linguistic Structures of Native America [Viking Fund Publications in Anthropology 6], Harry Hoijer, (eds), 85-129. New York NY: Viking Fund Publications.Google Scholar
Borer, Hagit
1993 Derived nominals. Ms, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.Google Scholar
2005 The Normal Course of Events, Vol. 2. Oxford: OUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Brittain, Julie
2003 A distributed morphology account of the syntax of the Algonquian verb. In Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the Canadian Linguistics Association , Stanca Somesfalean & Sophie Burelle (eds), 25-39. Montreal: UQAM.Google Scholar
Déchaine, Rose-Marie & Martina Wiltschko
To appear. Micro-variation in agreement, clause-typing and finiteness: Comparative evidence from Blackfoot and Plains Cree. In Papers of the 42nd Algonquian Conference, Monica Macaulay & Rand Valentine (eds). Chicago IL: University of Chicago.
Dowty, David
1991 Thematic proto-roles and argument selection. Language 67: 547-619.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Enç, Mürvet
1987 Anchoring conditions for tense. Linguistic Inquiry 18: 633-657.Google Scholar
Folli, Rafaella & Heidi Harley
2007 Causation, obligation and Argument Structure: On the nature of little v. Linguistic Inquiry 38: 197-238. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Frantz, Donald
2009 Blackfoot Grammar, 2nd edn. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Fu, Jingqi, Roeper, Thomas & Borer, Hagit
2001 The VP within process nominals: Evidence from adverbs and the VP anaphor do-so. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 19: 549-582. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Glougie, Jennifer
2000 Topics in the Syntax and Semantics of Blackfoot Quantifiers and Nominals. MA thesis, University of British Columbia.Google Scholar
Grimshaw, Jane
1990 Argument Structure. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Harley, Heidi
2009 The morphology of nominalizations and the syntax of vP. In DP, QP and Nominalizations, Monika Rathert & Anastasia Giannadikou (eds), 321-343. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
2012 External arguments and the Mirror Principle: On the distinctness of Voice and v. Lingua 125: 34-57. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hirose, Tomio
2001 Origins of Predicates: Evidence from Plains Cree. PhD dissertation, University of British Columbia.Google Scholar
Klein, Wolfgang
1994 Time in Language. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Kratzer, Angelika
1996. Severing the external argument from its verb. In Phrase Structure, the Lexicon, Johan Rooryck & Laurie Zaring (eds), 109-137. Dordrecht: Springer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Louie, Megan
2008 Atemporal Anchoring of Individuals, Events and Sub-events in Blackfoot: Consequences for the Syntax-semantics Interface. MA thesis, University of Toronto.Google Scholar
MacDonald, Jonathan E
2008 The Syntactic Nature of Inner Aspect: A Minimalist Perspective [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 133]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mathieu, Eric
2006 The syntax of abstract and concrete finals in Ojibwe. In NELS 37: Proceedings of the 37th Annual Meeting of the North East Linguistic Society , Vol. 2, Emily Elfner & Martin Walkow (eds), 101-114. Amherst MA: GLSA.Google Scholar
Pesetsky, David & Torrego, Esther
2002 Tense, case, and the nature of syntactic categories. In The Syntax of Time, Jacqueline Guéron & Jacqueline Lecarme (eds), 495-538. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Pires, Acrisio
2001 Clausal and TP-defective gerunds: Control without Tense. In Proceedings of NELS 31 , Minjoo Kim & Uri N. Strauss (eds), 386-406. Amherst MA: GLSA.Google Scholar
Pylkkänen, Liina
2008 Introducing Arguments. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Reuland, Eric
1983 Governing -ing. Linguistic Inquiry 14: 101-136.Google Scholar
Ramchand, Gillian Catriona
2008 Verb Meaning and the Lexicon: A First Phase Syntax. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ritter, Elizabeth & Thomas Rosen, Sara
1998 Delimiting events in syntax. In The Projection of Arguments: Lexical and Compositional Factors, Miriam Butt & Wilhelm Geuder (eds), 135-164. Stanford CA: CSLI.Google Scholar
Ritter, Elizabeth & Rosen, Sara Thomas
2010 Animacy in Blackfoot: Implications for event structure and clause structure. In Syntax, Lexical Semantics and Event Structure, Edit Doron, Ivy Sichel & Malka Rappaport-Hovav (eds), 124-152. Oxford: OUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ritter, Elizabeth & Wiltschko, Martina
2005 Anchoring events to utterances without tense. In Proceedings of the 24th West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics, John Alderete, Chung-hye Han & Alexei Kochetov (eds), 343-351. Somerville MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
2009 Varieties of INFL: Tense, location, and person. In Alternatives to cartography, Jeroen van Craenenbroeck (ed.), 153-201. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
To appear. The composition of INFL: An exploration of tense, tenseless languages, and tenseless constructions. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory.
Smith, Carlota
1991 The Parameter of Aspect. Dordrecht: Kluwer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tenny, Carol
1994 Aspectual Roles and the Syntax-Semantics Interface. Dordrecht: Kluwer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Travis, Lisa
1991 Inner aspect, and the structure of VP. In NELS 22: Proceedings of the North East Linguistic Society, University of Delaware.
2010 Inner Aspect: The Articulation of VP. Dordrecht: Springer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Williams, Edwin
1981 Argument structure and morphology. The Linguistic Review 1: 81-114. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wilhelm, Andrea
2007 Telicity and Durativity: A Study of Aspect in Dëne Sųłiné (Chipewyan) and German. New York NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Vendler, Zeno. Vendler, Zeno
1957 Verbs and times. Philosophical Review 66: 143-160. Reprinted in 1967 Linguistics in Philosophy. Ithaca NY: Cornell University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
van Voorst, Jan
1988 Event Structure [Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 59]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 1 other publications

Kim, Kyumin
2020. Oblique nominals, a verbal affix and late merge. Linguistics 58:6 ► pp. 1737 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 20 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.