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

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Other information

Language

English

Type of outcome

Vyžádané přednášky

Field of Study

60203 Linguistics

Country of publisher

Germany

Confidentiality degree

není předmětem státního či obchodního tajemství

RIV identification code

RIV/00216224:14210/18:00100812

Organization unit

Faculty of Arts

Keywords in English

features privative/binary; syncretism; linear contiguity

Tags

rivok

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Abstract

V originále

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.

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Links

GA17-10144S, research and development project

Name: Lineární kontiguita v jazyce Investor: Czech Science Foundation