Papers by Patricia Cabredo Hofherr
La Grammaire est une fête / Grammar is a moveable feast. Mélanges offerts à / A Webschrift for Anne Zribi-Hertz, 2023
La Grammaire est une fête / Grammar is a moveable feast. Mélanges offerts à / A Webschrift for Anne Zribi-Hertz, 2023
Word Structure 53:3, 252-282., 2022
(Free access)
The present study examines the agreement system of Jóola Fóoñi (Atlantic, Niger-Con... more (Free access)
The present study examines the agreement system of Jóola Fóoñi (Atlantic, Niger-Congo). In Niger-Congo languages, noun forms divide into subsets according to their agreement patterns. The morphological paradigm of the agreement targets is generally analysed as a reflex of agreement triggered by nominal controllers. For Jóola Fóoñi this view is not correct since (i) the range of subsets of noun forms and the range of values on the agreement targets do not match and (ii) inflection for a subset of class values is associated with its own semantic and syntactic properties, independent of agreement configurations with nouns. In Jóola Fóoñi the classification of noun forms based on their agreement properties and the cells of the inflectional paradigm of adnominal and pronominal agreement targets are related but independent components of the grammar. Of the 15 class-values that structure the inflectional paradigm of adnominals and pronouns involved in the expression of agreement with heads or antecedents, only 13 class-values function as agreement values with nominal controllers; the other 2 class-values only appear on agreement targets. The inflectional paradigm characterising agreeing adnominals and pronouns is heterogeneous in several respects. (i) Of the 15 class-values in the inflectional paradigm, only 12 allow non-contextual uses without a nominal controller, each associated with a particular meaning. (ii) Non-contextual uses of the 5 class-values expressing time, manner and different conceptualizations of space display adverbial syntax, while the other class-values show pronominal syntax. (iii) Of the 5 class-values associated with adverbial syntax, the 3 locative classes differ from the classes associated with time and manner with respect to relativisation. We propose that the forms inflected for class that express place, time or manner in their non-contextual use have become adverbs, and the locative relativisers have been reanalysed as locative relative pronouns.
Festschrift for Léa Nash, 2022
Serial verb constructions involving a second verb GIVE can introduce recipients or beneficiaries,... more Serial verb constructions involving a second verb GIVE can introduce recipients or beneficiaries, similar to datives in case-marking languages. The present paper examines the syntax and semantics of Haitian Creole ba(y) ‘give’ introducing a DP complement in a doubly comparative perspective, comparing Haitian ba(y) with its cognate ba in Martinican Creole and with core and non-core datives in French. In Haitian ba(y) ‘give’ + DP shows hybrid syntactic behaviour patterning simultaneously with prepositions and verbs for a range of syntactic tests. Semantically, the Haitian second verb ba(y) ‘give’ + DP is limited to animate recipients, unlike its cognate ba in Martinican Creole. Haitian has two semantically different ba(y) ‘give’ + DP constructions, one specifying the recipient of transfer verbs, the other adding a coercing beneficiary. While recipient-ba(y) resembles core datives insofar as it is linked to the argument structure of the main verb, command-ba(y) does not pattern with non-core datives in French.
In Ackema, Bendjaballah, Bonet, and Fábregas (eds) The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Morphology., 2021
This chapter presents an overview of the morphology found in passive constructions cross-linguist... more This chapter presents an overview of the morphology found in passive constructions cross-linguistically. Passive constructions vary with respect to a range of properties linked to object promotion and subject demotion. In particular, passives differ in the patterns of morphological, syntactic and semantic restrictions they display.
The morphology of passives includes verbal marking, auxiliaries, participial forms as well as marking on agent phrases.
The discussion of the morphological marking of passive constructions
pays particular attention to the grammatical restrictions observed with
different passive constructions.
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Romance Linguistics, 2021
Verbal plurality is commonly defined as a morphological means of marking event plurality on verbs... more Verbal plurality is commonly defined as a morphological means of marking event plurality on verbs. However, the definition of verbal plurality in terms of discrete event plurality hides a number of complexities. Firstly, many verbal markers that may mark discrete event multiplicities do not intrinsically mark discrete events, as they also allow durative, intensive, and attenuative readings. This suggests that discrete event multiplicity may emerge from quantity expressions that do not themselves impose discreteness. Secondly, markers of discrete event multiplicities fall into different classes. Additive markers in particular have to be treated as a separate type of event plurality, as they include presupposed and asserted events in the event plurality.
Genericity, 2012
It has been observed in the literature that singular indefinites block multiplication effects in ... more It has been observed in the literature that singular indefinites block multiplication effects in bare habitual sentences. The present study examines bare habitual sentences in three languages that allow bare singular count nouns in argument position namely Brazilian Portuguese, Modern Hebrew, and Somali. On the basis of these data, I will make the following claims. First, the habitual uses of present and past should not be analyzed as relying on an abstract frequency adverb: sentences with overt frequency adverbs allow multiplication of singular indefinite objects but bare habitual sentences do not. Secondly, the data from Modern Hebrew and Somali provide evidence against an analysis that takes the lack of multiplication effects with indefinite singular objects to be due to obligatory Quantifier Raising (QR) in bare habituals giving wide scope of indefinite singulars (as proposed e.g. in Rimell 2004). Both Modern Hebrew and Somali have no indefinite article and singular indefinites have the form of bare singulars. Furthermore, just like English or French, Modern Hebrew and Somali do not allow multiplication of indefinite singulars in bare habituals. However, bare singulars in Modern Hebrew and Somali have obligatory narrow scope with respect to negation and quantified subjects, showing that they do not undergo QR. It is therefore implausible to attribute the lack of multiplication effects for singular indefinites to QR. Thirdly, the discussion of the scope data of bare singulars in Modern Hebrew shows that obligatory narrow scope with respect to negation and quantified subjects is not the same phenomenon as obligatory narrow scope with respect to intensional predicates (opaque readings). Bare singulars in Modern Hebrew have narrow scope with respect to negation and quantified subjects, but they allow transparent readings with intensional predicates. Fourthly, the comparison of Brazilian Portuguese and Modern Hebrew/Somali shows that not all bare singulars behave the same in bare habituals. While in Modern Hebrew and Somali multiplication of bare singulars in bare habituals is blocked, Brazilian Portuguese does show multiplication effects with bare singulars. I propose that the contrast between Modern Hebrew and Somali on the one hand and Brazilian Portuguese on the other hand is due to the fact that Modern Hebrew and Somali bare singulars are singular, and therefore not distributable, while the Brazilan Portuguese bare singulars are number-neutral—including singular and plural individuals in their denotation—which in turn allows distribution over bare singular objects. I will argue that the habitual operator is comparable in several respects to pluractional marking on the verb and in the VP as studied in Yu (2003), van Geenhoven (2004), and Laca (2006). Like these pluractional markers, habitual operators are non-quantificational. Following van Geenhoven (2004, 2005) I take this to be the reason why they are scopeless. I argue that the event plurality in habituals is comparable to the effect of degree adverbials such as beaucoup, ‘a lot’; the only particularity of the habitual is that it ranges over time intervals exclusively, while some degree adverbials can pick several different scales. Since overt scopeless habitual operators such as used to and the Spanish habitual periphrasis soler can be placed above the VP syntactically without semantic multiplication effects on singular indefinite objects, I conclude that given the evidence so far the abstract habitual marker could be either the equivalent of a verbal marker on the Vo or an abstract degree adverbial taking syntactic scope over the VP.
Proceedings of Semantics of Under-Represented Languages in the Americas 11, 2021
Lingue e Linguaggio 19:35-59, 2020
The present study examines verbal morphology in Seri. Seri verbs have dedicated verb stems markin... more The present study examines verbal morphology in Seri. Seri verbs have dedicated verb stems marking multiple events for singular and plural subjects respectively. However, the morphology marking the stem-forms is not transparent: neither subject number nor multiple events are associated with consistent exponents. As the exponents on the verb stems do not provide any clues to the structure of the paradigm, the features structuring the paradigm have to be inferred from syntactic and semantic properties. Syntactic cooccurrence restrictions with singular and plural subjects clearly distinguish singular and plural subject stems. Within singular and plural subject stems, the further distinction between the neutral and the multiple event form (multform) is based on semantic differences between the stems: mult-forms are only felicitous in contexts with multiple events. As multiple event marking on verbs is not a homogeneous class, it does not trivially follow that singular subject and plural subject mult-forms express the same type of event multiplicity. To establish the paradigm structure of Seri verbs we therefore need to examine whether the mult-forms express the same semantic feature value across singular and plural subject stems. We first show that plural subject multforms pass the same diagnostics that show that singular subject mult-forms mark event plurality. As a second step we compare the meaning of singular and plural subject mult-forms. In the initial elicitations younger speakers uniformly interpreted the singular and plural subject mult-forms as iterative with events distributed in time; in contrast, older speakers interpreted singular subject mult-forms as iterative but allowed simultaneous events distributed over a participant plurality for plural subject mult-forms. Elicitation with different materials showed that the initial difference in truth-conditional judgements re- flects a difference in the preferred contexts assumed by the older and younger speakers, not a difference between the semantic range of singular subject and plural subject mult-marking as such. We therefore conclude that the semantic evidence supports an analysis of singular subject mult-forms and plural subject mult-forms as expressing a single type of event plurality marking.
Sign Language and Linguistics 21(2): 335–349., 2018
https://benjamins.com/getpdf?webfile=a263292394 (open access)
Sign Language and Linguistics 21(2):183–203., 2018
Proceedings of Semantics of Under-Represented Languages in the Americas 10, 2019
Langues créoles : description, analyse, didactisation et automatisation. Hommage à Yves Dejean et Pierre Vernet, 2020
Oxford Handbook of Grammatical Number, 2020
This chapter summarises the variation observed across nominal number systems cross-linguistically... more This chapter summarises the variation observed across nominal number systems cross-linguistically. The morphological realization of number varies with respect to the range of number values marked and the range of nouns that take number marking in a given language. However, the study of nominal number morphology is further complicated by the intricate interactions of morphology with syntax and semantics. On the syntactic side, nominal number morphology interacts with definiteness marking and syntactic role. On the semantic side, certain types of nominal number marking impose semantically specific readings on the nominals contrasting with other types of nominal number marking that allow inclusive plural readings in certain semantic contexts. The study of number-undifferentiated reference has to examine the semantic effects arising from morphological, syntactic and semantic sources separately.
Oxford Handbook of Grammatical Number, 2020
This chapter gives a general overview of verbal plurality phenomena cross-linguistically, with ve... more This chapter gives a general overview of verbal plurality phenomena cross-linguistically, with verbal plurality understood as a descriptive label for instances of verbal morphology marking multiple events. Verbal plurality markers form a heterogeneous class cross-linguistically and many verbal plurality markers have readings that go beyond event plurality such as duratives and intensives. Part of this variation can be related to the fact that multiplicity readings arise from different sources such as plurality markers, collective markers, additive expressions and degree expressions. Another factor of variation is contributed by the different event-identification conditions imposed by the verbal plurality marker. In particular, the event pluralities introduced by verbal plurality markers are often limited in their interaction with other elements in the clause and in many languages the availability of distributive dependencies between the event plurality and plural arguments depends on the syntactic type of the plurality denoting expression
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Morphology, 2020
Agreement is defined as the systematic covariance of one element with another. The most uncontrov... more Agreement is defined as the systematic covariance of one element with another. The most uncontroversial agreement configuration is that between a controller—an element intrinsically specified for a value of an agreement feature—and the target of agreement—the element reflecting a displaced feature value of the controller. The distribution of morphological agreement markers is however much wider than controller–target configurations: targets can express agreement values for features that are not visible on the controller and even show agreement morphology in the absence of a lexical controller. A second source of variation is due to the fact that in certain contexts there is a choice between syntactic agreement (with formal features of the controller) and semantic agreement (with semantic features of the referent of the controller). The choice between syntactic and semantic agreement is correlated in part with cross-linguistically observed regularities that have been formulated as the agreement hierarchy and the animacy hierarchy.
Language, 2017
This article proposes that at least two agent-backgrounding operations with different syntactic a... more This article proposes that at least two agent-backgrounding operations with different syntactic and semantic properties have to be distinguished in Catalan Sign Language (LSC):
In Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 21 (Edinburgh)
P. Cabredo Hofherr (2017) Impersonal passives. In: Martin Everaert & Henk Van Riemsdijk (eds.), {... more P. Cabredo Hofherr (2017) Impersonal passives. In: Martin Everaert & Henk Van Riemsdijk (eds.), {The Blackwell Companion to Syntax}. Oxford: Blackwell. (prefinal draft, comments welcome)
Une structure de mise en arrière-plan de l'agent en langue des signes catalane (LSC) : Passif ou ... more Une structure de mise en arrière-plan de l'agent en langue des signes catalane (LSC) : Passif ou sujet R-impersonnel?
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Papers by Patricia Cabredo Hofherr
In: Cabredo Hofherr, Glaude & Soare (eds) . La Grammaire est une fête / Grammar is a moveable feast. Mélanges offerts à / A Webschrift for Anne Zribi-Hertz, 85–92. Zenodo. Open access. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8055461
The present study examines the agreement system of Jóola Fóoñi (Atlantic, Niger-Congo). In Niger-Congo languages, noun forms divide into subsets according to their agreement patterns. The morphological paradigm of the agreement targets is generally analysed as a reflex of agreement triggered by nominal controllers. For Jóola Fóoñi this view is not correct since (i) the range of subsets of noun forms and the range of values on the agreement targets do not match and (ii) inflection for a subset of class values is associated with its own semantic and syntactic properties, independent of agreement configurations with nouns. In Jóola Fóoñi the classification of noun forms based on their agreement properties and the cells of the inflectional paradigm of adnominal and pronominal agreement targets are related but independent components of the grammar. Of the 15 class-values that structure the inflectional paradigm of adnominals and pronouns involved in the expression of agreement with heads or antecedents, only 13 class-values function as agreement values with nominal controllers; the other 2 class-values only appear on agreement targets. The inflectional paradigm characterising agreeing adnominals and pronouns is heterogeneous in several respects. (i) Of the 15 class-values in the inflectional paradigm, only 12 allow non-contextual uses without a nominal controller, each associated with a particular meaning. (ii) Non-contextual uses of the 5 class-values expressing time, manner and different conceptualizations of space display adverbial syntax, while the other class-values show pronominal syntax. (iii) Of the 5 class-values associated with adverbial syntax, the 3 locative classes differ from the classes associated with time and manner with respect to relativisation. We propose that the forms inflected for class that express place, time or manner in their non-contextual use have become adverbs, and the locative relativisers have been reanalysed as locative relative pronouns.
The morphology of passives includes verbal marking, auxiliaries, participial forms as well as marking on agent phrases.
The discussion of the morphological marking of passive constructions
pays particular attention to the grammatical restrictions observed with
different passive constructions.
In: Cabredo Hofherr, Glaude & Soare (eds) . La Grammaire est une fête / Grammar is a moveable feast. Mélanges offerts à / A Webschrift for Anne Zribi-Hertz, 85–92. Zenodo. Open access. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8055461
The present study examines the agreement system of Jóola Fóoñi (Atlantic, Niger-Congo). In Niger-Congo languages, noun forms divide into subsets according to their agreement patterns. The morphological paradigm of the agreement targets is generally analysed as a reflex of agreement triggered by nominal controllers. For Jóola Fóoñi this view is not correct since (i) the range of subsets of noun forms and the range of values on the agreement targets do not match and (ii) inflection for a subset of class values is associated with its own semantic and syntactic properties, independent of agreement configurations with nouns. In Jóola Fóoñi the classification of noun forms based on their agreement properties and the cells of the inflectional paradigm of adnominal and pronominal agreement targets are related but independent components of the grammar. Of the 15 class-values that structure the inflectional paradigm of adnominals and pronouns involved in the expression of agreement with heads or antecedents, only 13 class-values function as agreement values with nominal controllers; the other 2 class-values only appear on agreement targets. The inflectional paradigm characterising agreeing adnominals and pronouns is heterogeneous in several respects. (i) Of the 15 class-values in the inflectional paradigm, only 12 allow non-contextual uses without a nominal controller, each associated with a particular meaning. (ii) Non-contextual uses of the 5 class-values expressing time, manner and different conceptualizations of space display adverbial syntax, while the other class-values show pronominal syntax. (iii) Of the 5 class-values associated with adverbial syntax, the 3 locative classes differ from the classes associated with time and manner with respect to relativisation. We propose that the forms inflected for class that express place, time or manner in their non-contextual use have become adverbs, and the locative relativisers have been reanalysed as locative relative pronouns.
The morphology of passives includes verbal marking, auxiliaries, participial forms as well as marking on agent phrases.
The discussion of the morphological marking of passive constructions
pays particular attention to the grammatical restrictions observed with
different passive constructions.