How to be positive about negative features

CAHA, Pavel. How to be positive about negative features. In [+/- features]: Where to go from here?, J.W. Goethe university, Frankfurt am Main. 2018.

Basic information

• Original name: How to be positive about negative features
• Authors: CAHA, Pavel (203 Czech Republic, guarantor, belonging to the institution).
• Edition: [+/- features]: Where to go from here?, J.W. Goethe university, Frankfurt am Main, 2018.

Other information

• Original language: English
• Type of outcome: Requested lectures
• Field of Study: 60203 Linguistics
• Country of publisher: Germany
• Confidentiality degree: is not subject to a state or trade secret
• RIV identification code: RIV/00216224:14210/18:00100812
• Organization unit: Faculty of Arts
• Keywords in English: features privative/binary; syncretism; linear contiguity
• Tags: rivok

Abstract

In the talk, I revisit an old issue of whether morphosyntactic features are privative (present or absent) or binary (plus/minus). I start by showing that privative features allow for a more restrictive model of morphosyntax than binary features, focussing on the linear constraint on syncretism known as *ABA. At the same time, a growing number of models based on privative features uses a privative feature roughly equivalent to "negation" in order to negate privative features, leading to a system which---while privative---comes rather close to a binary system. The goal is to bring up several empirical cases where the negation of privative features has been used in this manner and see whether such models retain or lose the advantages of privative systems.

Links

• GA17-10144S, research and development project: Name: Lineární kontiguita v jazyce

Investor: Czech Science Foundation