Henry Davis

On the syntax and semantics of negation in Salish

This paper examines the syntax and semantics of negation across Salish. Three widespread and one geographically restricted pattern are distinguished across the family. Two of the widespread patterns (A and B), as well as the restricted pattern (B′), involve a negative predicate selecting for a clausal complement. In pattern A, the negated clause is nominalized: I analyze this as a case of negative existential quantification over minimal situations. In Patterns B and B′, the negated clause takes conjunctive (i.e., subjunctive) morphology: I analyze these patterns as cases of simple (propositional) negation. The development of monoclausal (Pattern C) negation is then examined in several branches of the family. The paper concludes with some remarks about the typological and theoretical status of the various Salish negation patterns.

Only Connect! Determiners, Case, and Agreement in Tsimshianic

Ever since they were first described and named by Boas in the early twentieth century, the determiner-like elements known as “connectives” in the literature on Tsimshianic languages have posed a puzzle: though the two branches of the family (Maritime and Interior) are otherwise very closely related, their connective systems appear to be quite distinct. In this paper, I produce a comprehensive analysis of connectives in both branches of the family, showing that the principal difference between them—the apparent case sensitivity of connectives in the Maritime branch—actually reflects a minor parametric difference in the pronoun systems of the two branches, mediated by morphological rules that are sensitive to agreement and adjacency, and that apply identically across the family. Boas’s puzzle is thus resolved.

Quantification in Gitksan

This paper provides a comprehensive overview of quantification in Gitksan, an endangered Interior Tsimshianic language spoken in British Columbia, Canada. This is the first published work devoted to the topic of quantification in any Tsimshianic language. The main syntactic and semantic division within the Gitksan system is between quantifiers over entities and quantifiers over events. Quantifiers over entities can be both D-type and A-type, but quantifiers over events are always A-type. While quantifiers over entities may be subdivided into universal and non-universal subcategories, no such clear-cut division holds within the class of event quantifiers. We include discussion of indefinite, existential, negative and interrogative expressions, and we introduce two aspects of Gitksan grammar which are particularly important in understanding the quantificational system: plurality and the count-mass distinction.

Lillooet Bird Names

This article contains an annotated list of all bird names recorded in the Lillooet language, compiled by the authors over the course of many years of fieldwork in Lillooet territory (British Columbia, Canada). Although in most cases we have managed to identify the bird species referred to by the Lillooet terms, in a few cases we have not yet been able to do so. This is due to a number of factors, which include problems with using standard field guides to prompt identification, the use of local English vernacular terms, and the decline of specialized ethno-ornithological knowledge among the remaining fluent Lillooet speakers.

Southern Wakashan: Descriptive and Theoretical Perspectives

This special volume of CJL/RCL is the first collection of papers devoted specifically to the Southern Wakashan languages Makah, Ditidaht (also known as Nitinat), and Nuu-chah-nulth (also known as Nootka). These three closely related languages form a continuum stretching from the northwest tip of Washington State to northwest Vancouver Island in British Columbia. The Southern Wakashan languages are remarkable for the typologically unusual traits they exhibit in virtually all areas of their grammars. These properties were first illuminated by Edward Sapir in his foundational work on Nuu-chah-nulth (1911, 1915, 1921; Sapir and Swadesh 1939), which helped thrust Wakashan to the forefront of early Amerindian scholarship. The papers brought together in this volume reflect a recent resurgence of interest in Southern Wakashan, and highlight the potential of lesser-studied languages to contribute to linguistic theory, as well as the range of insights that theoretically informed perspectives can bring to the grammatical description of these languages.