Developing the feature inventory of the inherent cases

Abstract

In this squib I propose a modification to Radkevich’s (2010) analysis of the locative cases, such that the privative features ['source'] and ['goal'] replace Radkevich’s binary features ['±motion'] and ['±source']. I argue that these changes improve Radkevich’s analysis in three ways. The first improvement is empirical; they allow her system to account for the data of Kunimaipa, a language spoken in Papua New Guinea, which it presently cannot account for. The second improvement is also empirical; the analysis now predicts the absence of the unattested Ablative-Allative syncretism, which is not explained by alternative analyses. The final improvement is theoretical; a system employing privative features is to be preferred over one with binary features, because it is simpler (Occam’s razor).

Keywords

• inherent case
• locative cases
• distributed morphology