Propping up predicates: Adjectival predication in Tłı̨chǫ Yatıì

In Tłı̨chǫ Yatıì (Dene, aka Athapaskan), copulas appear obligatorily with adjectives predicated of animate subjects, but are barred from appearing with adjectives predicated of inanimates. I propose that this asymmetry arises from a requirement to realize grammatical agreement for person, and that...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Glossa: a journal of general linguistics
Main Author: Welch, Nicholas
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Ubiquity Press 2016
Subjects:
Syntax
morphology
Tłı̨chǫ
Dogrib
copula
adjective
agreement
Dene
person
animacy
Northwest Territories
Canada
Online Access:https://www.glossa-journal.org/jms/article/view/gjgl.7
https://doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.7
Description
Summary:In Tłı̨chǫ Yatıì (Dene, aka Athapaskan), copulas appear obligatorily with adjectives predicated of animate subjects, but are barred from appearing with adjectives predicated of inanimates. I propose that this asymmetry arises from a requirement to realize grammatical agreement for person, and that animate nouns alone bear a person feature. Unlike verbs, adjectives in this language cannot inflect; hence copulas are inserted in adjectival predicates as a rescue strategy to avoid ungrammaticality.

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