Verbal Classifiers in Innu

• Published in: Anthropological Linguistics
• Main Authors: Drapeau, Lynn, Lambert-Brétière, Renée
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Project MUSE 2011
• Subjects: montagnais
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/anl.2011.0025

This article reports on verbal classifier affixes in Innu (also known as Montagnais), an Algonquian language spoken in northeastern Quebec and Labrador, Canada. Verbal classifiers are normally characterized as a form of semantic agreement whereby an affix on the verb (the classifier) categorizes the shape or substance of the referent of an argument. The analysis of a corpus of natural speech data reveals that in a significant number of cases the classifier actually introduces a new semantic argument and is the sole reference to it in the clause or discourse. Such stand-alone classifiers refer to parts of a whole, identify the theme of an impersonal verb, or express a peripheral argument.