Carrie Gillon and Nicole Rosen
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198795339
- eISBN:
- 9780191836596
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198795339.001.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Language Families, Syntax and Morphology
Michif is an endangered language spoken by approximately a few hundred Métis people, mostly located in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, Canada. Michif is usually categorized as a mixed language (Bakker ...
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Michif is an endangered language spoken by approximately a few hundred Métis people, mostly located in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, Canada. Michif is usually categorized as a mixed language (Bakker 1997; Thomason 2003), due to the inability to trace it back to a single language family, with the majority of verbal elements coming from Plains Cree (Algonquian) and the majority of nominal elements coming from French (Indo-European). This book investigates Bakker’s (1997) often cited claim that the morphology of each source language is not reduced, with the language combining full French noun phrase grammar and Plains Cree verbal grammar. The book focuses on the syntax and semantics of the French-source noun phrase. While Michif has features that are obviously due to heavy contact with French (two mass/count systems, two plural markers, two gender systems), the Michif noun phrase mainly behaves like an Algonquian noun phrase. Even some of the French morphosyntax that it borrowed is used to Algonquianize non-Algonquian borrowings: the French-derived articles are only required on non-Algonquian nouns, and are used to make non-Algonquian borrowings visible to the Algonquian syntax. Michif is thus shown to be best characterized as an Algonquian language, with heavy French borrowing. With such a quintessentially ‘mixed’ language shown to essentially not mix grammars, the usefulness of this category for analysing synchronic patterns is questioned, much in the same way that scholars such as DeGraff (2000, 2003, 2005) and Mufwene (1986, 2001, 2008, 2015) question the usefulness of the creole language classification.Less
Michif is an endangered language spoken by approximately a few hundred Métis people, mostly located in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, Canada. Michif is usually categorized as a mixed language (Bakker 1997; Thomason 2003), due to the inability to trace it back to a single language family, with the majority of verbal elements coming from Plains Cree (Algonquian) and the majority of nominal elements coming from French (Indo-European). This book investigates Bakker’s (1997) often cited claim that the morphology of each source language is not reduced, with the language combining full French noun phrase grammar and Plains Cree verbal grammar. The book focuses on the syntax and semantics of the French-source noun phrase. While Michif has features that are obviously due to heavy contact with French (two mass/count systems, two plural markers, two gender systems), the Michif noun phrase mainly behaves like an Algonquian noun phrase. Even some of the French morphosyntax that it borrowed is used to Algonquianize non-Algonquian borrowings: the French-derived articles are only required on non-Algonquian nouns, and are used to make non-Algonquian borrowings visible to the Algonquian syntax. Michif is thus shown to be best characterized as an Algonquian language, with heavy French borrowing. With such a quintessentially ‘mixed’ language shown to essentially not mix grammars, the usefulness of this category for analysing synchronic patterns is questioned, much in the same way that scholars such as DeGraff (2000, 2003, 2005) and Mufwene (1986, 2001, 2008, 2015) question the usefulness of the creole language classification.
Carrie Gillon and Nicole Rosen
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198795339
- eISBN:
- 9780191836596
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198795339.003.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Language Families, Syntax and Morphology
This chapter provides some background on the history of Michif, the language spoken by at least a few hundred Métis people. The Métis were originally located in the Red River Valley, and are today ...
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This chapter provides some background on the history of Michif, the language spoken by at least a few hundred Métis people. The Métis were originally located in the Red River Valley, and are today mostly located in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, Canada. As Michif is usually characterized as a ‘mixed language’, arising from contact of Plains Cree and French, this chapter discusses ‘contact languages’ more generally, including creoles, pidgins, and mixed languages, as well as the claim that Michif is a ‘mixed language’ itself. This chapter also provides background on the elements within the Michif Determiner Phrase (DP), such as the origin of certain syntactic categories, and presents the basic facts that are investigated in more detail in the rest of the book. Other facts relevant to the issues discussed in the book are also briefly discussed.Less
This chapter provides some background on the history of Michif, the language spoken by at least a few hundred Métis people. The Métis were originally located in the Red River Valley, and are today mostly located in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, Canada. As Michif is usually characterized as a ‘mixed language’, arising from contact of Plains Cree and French, this chapter discusses ‘contact languages’ more generally, including creoles, pidgins, and mixed languages, as well as the claim that Michif is a ‘mixed language’ itself. This chapter also provides background on the elements within the Michif Determiner Phrase (DP), such as the origin of certain syntactic categories, and presents the basic facts that are investigated in more detail in the rest of the book. Other facts relevant to the issues discussed in the book are also briefly discussed.
Carrie Gillon and Nicole Rosen
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198795339
- eISBN:
- 9780191836596
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198795339.003.0002
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Language Families, Syntax and Morphology
This chapter investigates the mass/count distinction in Michif. In many languages, mass and count nouns are distinguished via the (in)ability to occur with plural marking, the (in)ability to occur ...
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This chapter investigates the mass/count distinction in Michif. In many languages, mass and count nouns are distinguished via the (in)ability to occur with plural marking, the (in)ability to occur with numerals without a measure phrase, and the (in)ability to occur with certain quantifiers (Jespersen 1909; Chierchia 1998). However, these diagnostics do not apply to all languages. For example, in Inuttut (Labrador Inuktitut), none of those diagnostics distinguishes between mass and count nouns, but there are other diagnostics that do (Gillon 2012). This chapter shows that Michif displays a split: in one part of the grammar, the three diagnostics distinguish between mass and count nouns, and in another part, the diagnostics do not. This shows that Michif disambiguates between French-derived vocabulary and Algonquian-derived vocabulary, which complicates the notion that the Michif DP is French (Bakker 1997).Less
This chapter investigates the mass/count distinction in Michif. In many languages, mass and count nouns are distinguished via the (in)ability to occur with plural marking, the (in)ability to occur with numerals without a measure phrase, and the (in)ability to occur with certain quantifiers (Jespersen 1909; Chierchia 1998). However, these diagnostics do not apply to all languages. For example, in Inuttut (Labrador Inuktitut), none of those diagnostics distinguishes between mass and count nouns, but there are other diagnostics that do (Gillon 2012). This chapter shows that Michif displays a split: in one part of the grammar, the three diagnostics distinguish between mass and count nouns, and in another part, the diagnostics do not. This shows that Michif disambiguates between French-derived vocabulary and Algonquian-derived vocabulary, which complicates the notion that the Michif DP is French (Bakker 1997).
Carrie Gillon and Nicole Rosen
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198795339
- eISBN:
- 9780191836596
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198795339.003.0003
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Language Families, Syntax and Morphology
Michif has two different morphological exponents of plurality: the French-derived article lii and the Cree-derived suffix -a/-ak. This chapter investigates the syntax and the semantics of both plural ...
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Michif has two different morphological exponents of plurality: the French-derived article lii and the Cree-derived suffix -a/-ak. This chapter investigates the syntax and the semantics of both plural markers, and shows that the two plurals cannot occupy the same position (as they can co-occur) and that lii occupies Num while -a/-ak occupies Div. The plural article lii is a ‘counting plural’ (following Mathieu 2013, 2014) and the plural suffix -a/-ak is a ‘dividing plural’ (following Borer 2005; Borer and Ouwayda 2010). The suffix -a/-ak can only occur on Algonquian-derived nouns, not French nouns, and it always creates count nouns. This analysis entails that multiple positions for ‘true’ plurality must be available to languages (contra Borer and Ouwayda 2010). This analysis also has implications for the semantics of Algonquian-derived nouns vs French-derived nouns, the development of Michif and—potentially—the semantics of plurality in Plains Cree.Less
Michif has two different morphological exponents of plurality: the French-derived article lii and the Cree-derived suffix -a/-ak. This chapter investigates the syntax and the semantics of both plural markers, and shows that the two plurals cannot occupy the same position (as they can co-occur) and that lii occupies Num while -a/-ak occupies Div. The plural article lii is a ‘counting plural’ (following Mathieu 2013, 2014) and the plural suffix -a/-ak is a ‘dividing plural’ (following Borer 2005; Borer and Ouwayda 2010). The suffix -a/-ak can only occur on Algonquian-derived nouns, not French nouns, and it always creates count nouns. This analysis entails that multiple positions for ‘true’ plurality must be available to languages (contra Borer and Ouwayda 2010). This analysis also has implications for the semantics of Algonquian-derived nouns vs French-derived nouns, the development of Michif and—potentially—the semantics of plurality in Plains Cree.
Carrie Gillon and Nicole Rosen
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198795339
- eISBN:
- 9780191836596
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198795339.003.0004
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Language Families, Syntax and Morphology
On the surface, and according to the literature, Michif makes use of two different gender systems: the French sex-based system contrasting masculine and feminine gender, and the Algonquian ...
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On the surface, and according to the literature, Michif makes use of two different gender systems: the French sex-based system contrasting masculine and feminine gender, and the Algonquian animacy-based system contrasting animate with inanimate gender (see Bakker 1997; Papen 2002; Strader 2015). This chapter explores the morphosyntax and semantics of the two gender systems, focusing on their productivity. This chapter shows that while the Algonquian-type animacy-based distinctions remain productive and active throughout the Michif grammar, the Romance sex-based distinctions are now relevant mostly semantically, and are only minimally grammatically active. The chapter argues that this asymmetry in patterning suggests that there is also an asymmetry in the contribution of each language to the Michif grammar, with Plains Cree being the stronger influence.Less
On the surface, and according to the literature, Michif makes use of two different gender systems: the French sex-based system contrasting masculine and feminine gender, and the Algonquian animacy-based system contrasting animate with inanimate gender (see Bakker 1997; Papen 2002; Strader 2015). This chapter explores the morphosyntax and semantics of the two gender systems, focusing on their productivity. This chapter shows that while the Algonquian-type animacy-based distinctions remain productive and active throughout the Michif grammar, the Romance sex-based distinctions are now relevant mostly semantically, and are only minimally grammatically active. The chapter argues that this asymmetry in patterning suggests that there is also an asymmetry in the contribution of each language to the Michif grammar, with Plains Cree being the stronger influence.
Carrie Gillon and Nicole Rosen
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198795339
- eISBN:
- 9780191836596
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198795339.003.0005
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Language Families, Syntax and Morphology
This chapter focuses on the article system in Michif. Articles are particularly problematic for the French DP/Plains Cree VP split posited for Michif (Bakker 1997). Despite being French-derived, the ...
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This chapter focuses on the article system in Michif. Articles are particularly problematic for the French DP/Plains Cree VP split posited for Michif (Bakker 1997). Despite being French-derived, the Michif articles do not behave like their French counterparts. Michif definite articles occupy a lower position within the DP than French definite articles do, and Michif lacks definiteness, despite having borrowed both the definite and indefinite articles. Even more problematically, the singular definite articles are used to Algonquianize non-Algonquian vocabulary—both within the DP and the VP. Thus, a piece of French morphosyntax has been appropriated to create structures that can be interpreted within Algonquian syntax, providing more evidence that ultimately the Michif DP is Algonquian, rather than French.Less
This chapter focuses on the article system in Michif. Articles are particularly problematic for the French DP/Plains Cree VP split posited for Michif (Bakker 1997). Despite being French-derived, the Michif articles do not behave like their French counterparts. Michif definite articles occupy a lower position within the DP than French definite articles do, and Michif lacks definiteness, despite having borrowed both the definite and indefinite articles. Even more problematically, the singular definite articles are used to Algonquianize non-Algonquian vocabulary—both within the DP and the VP. Thus, a piece of French morphosyntax has been appropriated to create structures that can be interpreted within Algonquian syntax, providing more evidence that ultimately the Michif DP is Algonquian, rather than French.
Carrie Gillon and Nicole Rosen
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198795339
- eISBN:
- 9780191836596
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198795339.003.0006
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Language Families, Syntax and Morphology
This chapter investigates the syntax and semantics of demonstratives within the Michif DP. Michif demonstratives can occupy three different positions: prenominal, postnominal, and discontinuous. ...
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This chapter investigates the syntax and semantics of demonstratives within the Michif DP. Michif demonstratives can occupy three different positions: prenominal, postnominal, and discontinuous. Michif demonstratives behave like Algonquian demonstratives: French only allows prenominal demonstratives, whereas Algonquian languages allow demonstratives to occupy prenominal, postnominal, and discontinuous positions. This is further evidence that the Michif DP is mostly Algonquian, rather than mostly French (contra Bakker 1997; Bakker and Papen 1997). However, there is one way in which the Michif DP is like some Romance languages (and Algonquian languages): some Romance languages allow postnominal demonstratives. In Michif, some Algonquian languages, and some Romance languages, postnominal demonstratives are associated with focus, whereas prenominal demonstratives generally receive a more neutral interpretation.Less
This chapter investigates the syntax and semantics of demonstratives within the Michif DP. Michif demonstratives can occupy three different positions: prenominal, postnominal, and discontinuous. Michif demonstratives behave like Algonquian demonstratives: French only allows prenominal demonstratives, whereas Algonquian languages allow demonstratives to occupy prenominal, postnominal, and discontinuous positions. This is further evidence that the Michif DP is mostly Algonquian, rather than mostly French (contra Bakker 1997; Bakker and Papen 1997). However, there is one way in which the Michif DP is like some Romance languages (and Algonquian languages): some Romance languages allow postnominal demonstratives. In Michif, some Algonquian languages, and some Romance languages, postnominal demonstratives are associated with focus, whereas prenominal demonstratives generally receive a more neutral interpretation.
Carrie Gillon and Nicole Rosen
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198795339
- eISBN:
- 9780191836596
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198795339.003.0007
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Language Families, Syntax and Morphology
This chapter highlights the fact Michif can be described straightforwardly within a generative framework. While it has some features that are the result of contact of two very different systems (two ...
More
This chapter highlights the fact Michif can be described straightforwardly within a generative framework. While it has some features that are the result of contact of two very different systems (two mass/count systems, two plurals, two gender systems), the language behaves nevertheless like other Algonquian languages. Michif has slotted much of the French vocabulary into Plains Cree grammar, with surprisingly few extra French features. Structurally, then, there is no need to posit an entirely new category of ‘mixed’ languages. This chapter also compares discussion on creoles by scholars such as DeGraff (2000, 2003, 2005) and Mufwene (1986, 2001, 2008, 2015) to our discussion of Michif. The terms ‘mixed language’ and ‘creole’ may tell us about the historical genesis of a language, but neither term describes the linguistic behaviour of the languages, and both make ‘exceptionalist’ predictions that are unnecessary and unwarranted.Less
This chapter highlights the fact Michif can be described straightforwardly within a generative framework. While it has some features that are the result of contact of two very different systems (two mass/count systems, two plurals, two gender systems), the language behaves nevertheless like other Algonquian languages. Michif has slotted much of the French vocabulary into Plains Cree grammar, with surprisingly few extra French features. Structurally, then, there is no need to posit an entirely new category of ‘mixed’ languages. This chapter also compares discussion on creoles by scholars such as DeGraff (2000, 2003, 2005) and Mufwene (1986, 2001, 2008, 2015) to our discussion of Michif. The terms ‘mixed language’ and ‘creole’ may tell us about the historical genesis of a language, but neither term describes the linguistic behaviour of the languages, and both make ‘exceptionalist’ predictions that are unnecessary and unwarranted.
Peter Mitchell
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- November 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198703839
- eISBN:
- 9780191916762
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198703839.003.0010
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Historical Archaeology
The Central and Northern Plains are home to many of the peoples popularly considered quintessential Native Americans. First brought to the widespread attention of Europeans and Euro-Americans as ...
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The Central and Northern Plains are home to many of the peoples popularly considered quintessential Native Americans. First brought to the widespread attention of Europeans and Euro-Americans as the ‘noble savages’ of nineteenth-century romantic paintings and travel accounts, they were later stereotyped in dime novels and Hollywood movies as an inconvenient—and ultimately removed—barrier to white expansion and settlement. Only relatively recently has that image given way to the more rounded, if still over-romanticized, one seen in films like Dances with Wolves. However, the extrapolation of Plains equestrian groups as a generalization for all Native Americans is not the reason to focus on them here. rather, it is because of the great wealth of evidence—ethnographic, historical, and archaeological—that relates to the impacts on them of the horse. Those impacts affected village-based farming communities along the Missouri river and its tributaries as well as the mobile societies of the open grasslands. Using evidence from both, I look at how having horses affected the ways in which people hunted bison, moved themselves and their goods, and structured their use of the landscape, as well as at how changing patterns of warfare and trade influenced the broader organization of society. These topics also relate to several broader issues. One is the relationship between the horse and two other agents of change: the spread of firearms and the involvement of Native peoples in trading furs and bison robes to Europeans. Another concerns the different responses to the horse by those who used it to enhance a mobile hunting way of life and those who sought to integrate it within an economy and social system in which horticulture and permanent settlements were paramount. A third relates to the ecological constraints on people’s ability to keep horses on the Plains: what were they? What was done to mitigate them? And how did they affect the region’s history between the initial acquisition of horses in the early 1700s and the loss of independence that followed the Battle of the Little Big Horn in 1876 and culminated with the Wounded Knee Massacre of 1890?
Less
The Central and Northern Plains are home to many of the peoples popularly considered quintessential Native Americans. First brought to the widespread attention of Europeans and Euro-Americans as the ‘noble savages’ of nineteenth-century romantic paintings and travel accounts, they were later stereotyped in dime novels and Hollywood movies as an inconvenient—and ultimately removed—barrier to white expansion and settlement. Only relatively recently has that image given way to the more rounded, if still over-romanticized, one seen in films like Dances with Wolves. However, the extrapolation of Plains equestrian groups as a generalization for all Native Americans is not the reason to focus on them here. rather, it is because of the great wealth of evidence—ethnographic, historical, and archaeological—that relates to the impacts on them of the horse. Those impacts affected village-based farming communities along the Missouri river and its tributaries as well as the mobile societies of the open grasslands. Using evidence from both, I look at how having horses affected the ways in which people hunted bison, moved themselves and their goods, and structured their use of the landscape, as well as at how changing patterns of warfare and trade influenced the broader organization of society. These topics also relate to several broader issues. One is the relationship between the horse and two other agents of change: the spread of firearms and the involvement of Native peoples in trading furs and bison robes to Europeans. Another concerns the different responses to the horse by those who used it to enhance a mobile hunting way of life and those who sought to integrate it within an economy and social system in which horticulture and permanent settlements were paramount. A third relates to the ecological constraints on people’s ability to keep horses on the Plains: what were they? What was done to mitigate them? And how did they affect the region’s history between the initial acquisition of horses in the early 1700s and the loss of independence that followed the Battle of the Little Big Horn in 1876 and culminated with the Wounded Knee Massacre of 1890?