23.3619, Diss: Eskimo/ Linguistic Theories/ Morphology/Semantics/ Syntax/Inuktitut, Eastern Canadian: Compton: 'The Syntax and Semantics of Modification in Inuktitut...'

Wed Aug 29 16:30:35 UTC 2012

LINGUIST List: Vol-23-3619. Wed Aug 29 2012. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 23.3619, Diss: Eskimo/ Linguistic Theories/ Morphology/Semantics/ Syntax/Inuktitut, Eastern Canadian: Compton: 'The Syntax and Semantics of Modification in Inuktitut...'

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Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2012 12:29:13
From: Richard Compton [richard.compton at utoronto.ca]
Subject: The Syntax and Semantics of Modification in Inuktitut: Adjectives and adverbs in a polysynthetic language

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Institution: University of Toronto 
Program: Department of Linguistics 
Dissertation Status: Completed 
Degree Date: 2012 

Author: Richard Compton

Dissertation Title: The Syntax and Semantics of Modification in Inuktitut:
Adjectives and adverbs in a polysynthetic language 

Linguistic Field(s): Linguistic Theories
                     Morphology
                     Semantics
                     Syntax

Subject Language(s): Inuktitut, Eastern Canadian (ike)

Language Family(ies): Eskimo

Dissertation Director(s):
Alana Johns
Diane Massam
Rose-Marie Déchaine
Michela Ippolito
María Cristina Cuervo

Dissertation Abstract:

This thesis explores the properties of adjectives and adverbs in Inuit 
(Eskimo-Aleut), with focus on the Inuktitut dialect group. While the 
literature on Eskimoan languages has claimed that they lack these 
categories, I present syntactic evidence for two classes of adjectives, 
one verb-like and another strictly attributive, as well as a class of 
adverbs. These categories are then employed to diagnose more 
general properties of the language including headedness, word-
formation, adjunct licensing, and semantic composition.

In the first half of Chapter 2 I demonstrate that verb-like adjectives can 
be differentiated from verbs insofar as only the former are compatible 
with a particular copular construction involving modals. Similarly, verb-
like adjectives can combine with a negative marker that is incompatible 
with genuine verbs. This contrast is further corroborated by an 
inflectional distinction between verb-like adjectives and verbs in the 
Siglitun dialect. A second class of strictly-attributive adjectives is 
argued for on the basis of stacking, variable order, optionality, and 
compositionality. The second half of the chapter examines semantic 
restrictions on membership in the strictly-attributive class whereby only 
adjectives with subsective and privative denotations are attested. 
These restrictions are explained by the proposal that Inuit lacks a rule 
of Predicate Modification, with the result that only adjectives with 
semantic types capable of composing with nouns via Functional 
Application can compose directly with nominals. Furthermore, to 
explain why this restriction does not extend to verb-like adjectives it is 
proposed that when these modify nominals, they are adjoined DP 
appositives and compose via Potts's (2005) rule of Conventional 
Implicature Application.

In Chapter 3 I argue for a class of adverbs, presenting evidence 
including degree modification, variable ordering, speaker-oriented 
meanings, and the ability to modify additional categories. Finally, data 
from adverb ordering is used to compare syntactically oriented and 
semantically oriented approaches to adjunct licensing and verbal-
complex formation. I present arguments in favour of a right-headed 
analysis of Inuit in which the relative position of adverbs inside 
polysynthetic verbal-complexes is primarily determined by semantics, 
supporting Ernst (2002), contra cartographic approaches such as 
Cinque (1999). 

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