Cross-Modular Parallels in the Study of Phon and Phi

As the variety of papers in this volume makes apparent, φ-features are relevant to many different domains of the grammar: syntax, semantics, morphology, pragmatics. Conspicuously absent from this list is phonology. In the current paper, I wish to discuss the underlying unity of processes affecting φ-features in different domains of the grammar, and I will argue that operations performed on φ-features in the syntax, in the morphology, and even in the pragmatics strongly parallel operations performed on articulatory features in the phonology. Below, I will consider two main case studies. The first (section 2) concerns the Person Case Constraint, which bans various clitic/agreement combinations. Although widely attested crosslinguistically, the constraint is subject to variation; for instance, some languages permit the clitic combination you + to me, whereas others ban it. I propose that the full scope of variation can be captured in the same way that variation between systems of vowel harmony is captured in phonology. This leads to the claim that Agree is parameterized to be sensitive to all feature-values, or to marked ones, or to contrastive ones. The second (section 3) concerns the ways in which the realization of φ-features can deviate from what is straightforwardly expected. Close inspection reveals that the morphology can simplify complex φ-bundles by, for instance, deleting some features or by splitting the entire bundle. Interestingly, not only do these same operations affect articulatory features in the phonology, but they act under the same circumstances, namely, when feature bundles, or combinations of feature bundles, are excessively marked. Finally, some pragmatically surprising uses of the first person inclusive are discussed in section 4. These uses involve symbolic effacement either of speaker or of hearer and show that feature deletion can have interpretative correlates.