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Le 13 février 2026 de 14:30 à 17:00false false
Lieu: Grand labo C228
14:30 - 15:45 Natalia Bogomolova
Title: “Person Clitics in Tabasaran: Binding vs. Agreement in the Clausal Periphery”
Abstract:
This talk examines the syntactic mechanism behind person clitic doubling in Tabasaran (Nakh-Daghestanian, East Caucasian). Tabasaran displays person marking, in which finite verbs reflect person features of 1st and 2nd person arguments. Person marking is obligatory for 1st/2nd person subjects but optional for non-subjects. Building on evidence from indirect speech contexts, I argue that person markers in Tabasaran are clitics and behave as logophoric items—they track the original speaker or addressee of a reported speech act, not the current speaker or addressee. This behavior cannot be captured by standard movement approaches to clitic doubling or by agreement approaches. Instead, I propose that clitics are base-generated in a dedicated Logophoric Phrase (LogP) above TP. I will show that the clitic–pronominal argument relation is governed by a binding mechanism, very similar to anaphoric binding between clausal co-arguments. Specifically, clitics in Tabasaran function as overt binders of their pronominal associates. This analysis has broader implications for the architecture of the left periphery and for understanding binding and agreement as distinct but co-existing mechanisms in natural language.
16:00 - 17:15 Dimitri Ganenkov
Title: Breaking Obligatory Control: Сausative infinitival complements in Aqusha Dargwa
Abstract:
In Aqusha Dargwa (Nakh-Daghestanian, Russia), when a causative infinitive is embedded under a desiderative predicate like 'hope', two unexpected effects arise: the causative morpheme fails to be interpreted, and obligatory control breaks down. A sentence literally meaning 'Salimat hoped to make Said sell the house' doesn't in fact have this interpretation; only the reading 'Salimat hoped that Said would sell the house' is available. This pattern is systematic across desiderative predicates, yet modal and implicative predicates preserve control. Unaccusative causatives add a further twist, displaying an ambiguity between controlled and arbitrary-causer readings not found with transitives or unergatives. I argue both effects reflect a type mismatch: the ergative causer is type-⟨s⟩, leaving the λ-abstractor with no bindable variable.
These talks are part of the CauLaGeNet talk series organised by LLING (CNRS & U. Nantes) and SFL (CNRS & Paris 8).
14:30 - 15:45 Natalia Bogomolova
Title: “Person Clitics in Tabasaran: Binding vs. Agreement in the Clausal Periphery”
Abstract:
This talk examines the syntactic mechanism behind person clitic doubling in Tabasaran (Nakh-Daghestanian, East Caucasian). Tabasaran displays person marking, in which finite verbs reflect person features of 1st and 2nd person arguments. Person marking is obligatory for 1st/2nd person subjects but optional for non-subjects. Building on evidence from indirect speech contexts, I argue that person markers in Tabasaran are clitics and behave as logophoric items—they track the original speaker or addressee of a reported speech act, not the current speaker or addressee. This behavior cannot be captured by standard movement approaches to clitic doubling or by agreement approaches. Instead, I propose that clitics are base-generated in a dedicated Logophoric Phrase (LogP) above TP. I will show that the clitic–pronominal argument relation is governed by a binding mechanism, very similar to anaphoric binding between clausal co-arguments. Specifically, clitics in Tabasaran function as overt binders of their pronominal associates. This analysis has broader implications for the architecture of the left periphery and for understanding binding and agreement as distinct but co-existing mechanisms in natural language.
16:00 - 17:15 Dimitri Ganenkov
Title: Breaking Obligatory Control: Сausative infinitival complements in Aqusha Dargwa
Abstract:
In Aqusha Dargwa (Nakh-Daghestanian, Russia), when a causative infinitive is embedded under a desiderative predicate like 'hope', two unexpected effects arise: the causative morpheme fails to be interpreted, and obligatory control breaks down. A sentence literally meaning 'Salimat hoped to make Said sell the house' doesn't in fact have this interpretation; only the reading 'Salimat hoped that Said would sell the house' is available. This pattern is systematic across desiderative predicates, yet modal and implicative predicates preserve control. Unaccusative causatives add a further twist, displaying an ambiguity between controlled and arbitrary-causer readings not found with transitives or unergatives. I argue both effects reflect a type mismatch: the ergative causer is type-⟨s⟩, leaving the λ-abstractor with no bindable variable.
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These talks are part of the CauLaGeNet talk series organised by LLING (CNRS & U. Nantes) and SFL (CNRS & Paris 8).
Mis à jour le 05 février 2026.