Papers by Elizabeth Ritter
In this paper we provide cross-linguistic evidence for a functional projection between D & NP, wh... more In this paper we provide cross-linguistic evidence for a functional projection between D & NP, which we call Number Phrase (NumP). In a full noun phrase, the head of this projection is, among other things, the locus of number specification (singular or plural) of a noun phrase. Pronominal noun phrases are distinguished from full noun phrases by the fact that they lack a lexical projection, i.e. they lack a NP. The existence of two distinct functional categories predicts the existence of at least two classes of pronouns, those of the category D, and those of the category Num. In both Modern Hebrew and Haitian, there is evidence that this prediction is borne out.
While there is widespread agreement that both syntax and phonology should be represented by a for... more While there is widespread agreement that both syntax and phonology should be represented by a formal hierarchical system which accounts for many cross-linguistic generalizations, morphology has, in general, not received similar treatment until recently. At least since Greenberg's important typological work in the 1960s, it has been recognized that person, number and gender features are systematically organized crosslinguistically. Most morphological theories, however, do not address this fundamental observation. Ritter and Harley (1998) have proposed that morphological features are organized in a feature geometry, and that this explains both the observed regularities, and the possible variations, in the organization of such features. Our assumption that this geometry is provided by Universal Grammar makes strong predictions about both the possible syncretisms in person paradigms and the acquisition of personal pronouns. In the first part of this paper, we outline the basic proposal and briefly discuss how an acquisition study by Hanson (1999) supports the notion of a morphosyntactic feature * We would like to thank Rebecca Hanson, Andrew Carnie, Horst Simon, Phoevos Pantadigitos, Rolf Noyer, Diana Archangeli and the participants in the Workshop for valuable discussion and suggestions. All remaining errors are, of course, our own.
Language, 2002
The set of person and number features necessary to characterize the pronominal paradigms of the w... more The set of person and number features necessary to characterize the pronominal paradigms of the world's languages is highly constrained, and their interaction is demonstrably systematic. We develop a geometric representation of morphosyntactic features which provides a principled explanation for the observed restrictions on these paradigms. The organization of this geometry represents the grammaticalization of fundamental cognitive categories, such as reference, plurality, and taxonomy. We motivate the geometry through the analysis of pronoun paradigms in a broad range of genetically distinct languages.* * We would like to acknowledge our great debt to the fieldwork done by many linguists that gave us access to the paradigms of a wide range of endangered languages. A number of the languages we cite have fewer than twenty speakers. For extensive comments on earlier versions of this work, thanks especially to Hotze Rullmann, Heike Weise and Horst Simon, Brian Joseph, and two anonymous referees. For other help with the development of these ideas, thanks to
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Papers by Elizabeth Ritter