37.1577, FYI: Randolph Quirk Fellowship - Jonathan Bobaljik - 11th to 15th of May

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-37-1577. Mon Apr 27 2026. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 37.1577, FYI: Randolph Quirk Fellowship - Jonathan Bobaljik - 11th to 15th of May

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Date: 27-Apr-2026
From: Matilda Vokes [ling-events at qmul.ac.uk]
Subject: Randolph Quirk Fellowship - Jonathan Bobaljik - 11th to 15th of May


Please join us for the Randolph Quirk Fellowship at Queen Mary
University of London! All events will take place on the Mile End
Campus at QMUL.
Monday the 11th of May - Public Lecture - 15:00
Where: Arts Two Lecture Theatre, QMUL
Title: Universals and Variation in Linguistic Morphology: Some
Kamchatkan Evidence
Sign Up Link:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/randolph-quirk-public-lecture-jonathan-bobaljik-tickets-1987838014011?aff=oddtdtcreator
Abstract: Cross-linguistic variation seems vast and unruly, nowhere
more so than in morphology, but (many) linguists have long seen the
attested variation in grammar as representing variations on a theme —
apparent linguistic universals hide beneath the surface variation and
constrain that variation in predictable ways. This talk examines
morphological universals, with particular focus on a case study from a
peculiar construction (the composed hortative, or first person plural
inclusive imperative - basically expressing meanings like “Let’s go”)
in Itelmen (ISO: itl), an Indigenous Chukotko-Kamchatkan language
spoken in Kamchatka, Russia. These forms have specific properties not
precisely parallel to those in any previously described languages.
Should we worry about the status of apparent linguistic universals if
examination of typologically and genetically diverse languages easily
turns up apparently unique constructions? I suggest not — more
detailed examination of this construction shows that it is in large
part a special case of a particular morphosyntactic construction
attested in a number of unrelated languages, and is perhaps itself a
specific instantiation of a new (tentative) morphological universal
regarding how the “inclusive" (we = me and you) versus “exclusive” (we
= me and someone other than you) first person plural contrast is
expressed in the world’s languages. There seems to be a recurrent
difference across unrelated languages between imperatives and
declaratives in the ways in which languages can express this contrast,
for which Itelmen is one example among others, all conforming to the
implicational universal. In closing, I sketch (in broad terms) what a
direction towards an explanation of the universal might look like, and
how this bears on some broader questions in linguistics and adjacent
disciplines, including the “performative” hypothesis, the idea that
Speech Acts (imperatives, declarative, interrogatives) like “Do this!”
might have hidden parts with a meaning like “I order you to…”, “I tell
you that” etc.
Tuesday the 12th of May - Workshop #1
Time: 13:00
Where: Arts Two 2.17, QMUL
Title: Agreement in the Itelmen Inclusive Imperative revisited:
Contextual allomorphy
beyond Probes and Goals
Wednesday the 13th of May - Workshop #2
Time: 13:00
Where: Laws 207, QMUL
Title: Clusivity Revisited - A Parameter
Friday the 15th of May - Workshop #3
Time: 13:00
Where: Arts Two 2.17 QMUL
Title: Limits on Contextual Allomorphy - No Inverse

Linguistic Field(s): General Linguistics
                     Syntax

Subject Language(s): Itelmen (itl)




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