Speaker: Bethany Lochbihler
Title: Transitivity and animacy mismatches in the Ojibwe verbal paradigms
Time: Tuesday, February 22, 11:30am-12:30pm
Location: 32-D461
This paper proposes a unifying account of verb finals in Ojibwe
(Central Algonquian) using Cyclic Agree (Béjar & Rezac 2009) to license
Person features. I give an account of the long-standing puzzle of transitive
inanimate verbs bearing animate intransitive theme-signs, even though these
two types of verbs mismatch in both animacy and transitivity. Further, I
argue for revisions to the mechanics of Béjar & Rezac’s (2009) Cyclic Agree,
and account for the Inverse System found with transitive animate verbs in
Ojibwe, which is extended to the verbal finals on ditransitive verbs.