On the Semantics of the Greenlandic Antipassive and Related Constructions

I Several people have made important contributions to this study. For the data I thank my informants: Karen Recinella in Copenhagen; Hans Kristiansen, Enoch Skade, and Knud Knudsen in Ukkusissat; and Robert Petersen of Ilisimatusarfik in Nuuk. Their thoughtfulness, patience, and sense of humor made my semantic inquiries both interesting and pleasant. At the University of Texas at Austin I thank first of all Irene Heim, for teaching me semantics and for innumerable discussions about the WGE data in this article and related phenomena in other languages. The impact of those discussions on my thinking has been enormous. I have also received helpful comments, advice, or moral support from R. T. Harms, Hans Kamp, Ana Santisteban, C. S. Smith, A. C. Woodbury, and two anonymous reviewers for IJAL. 2 The WGE examples are in modern standard orthography except that I ignore the allophonic distinction between i and e, and u and o, using just i and u throughout. The following abbreviations are used: E = ergative case, A = absolutive case, INS = instrumental case, ap = antipassive suffix.