Verbal Classifiers in Innu

Abstract

This article reports on verbal classifier affixes in Innu (also known as Montagnais), an Algonquian language spoken in northeastern Quebec and Labrador, Canada. Verbal classifiers are normally characterized as a form of semantic agreement whereby an affix on the verb (the classifier) categorizes the shape or substance of the referent of an argument. The analysis of a corpus of natural speech data reveals that in a significant number of cases the classifier actually introduces a new semantic argument and is the sole reference to it in the clause or discourse. Such stand-alone classifiers refer to parts of a whole, identify the theme of an impersonal verb, or express a peripheral argument.

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