Adverbial and Argument-Doubling Clauses in Cree - MSpace

In English, the subject cc-comrnands the object, but not vice versa. Thus, while the
English translation of(20a) is acceptable, exarnple (20b) is not. In (20a), the proper name
is embedded inside the NP, so it does not c-command into the VP where the pronoun lies.
The proper name in the subject can be CO-referential with the pronoun object without a
violation of Principal C. In (20b) however, the pronoun subject binds the proper name
contained within the object NP. This results in a Principle C violation, because the
refemng expression, the proper name, is not fiee. It is bound by the pronoun. In Cree,
however, both (20a) and (20b) are grammatical. The pronominal arguments are contained
within the inflected verb form and therefore do not c-command anything outside the
inflected verb. Hence the grammaticality of (20b).
The PAH has undergone some other modifications in recent years. initially, any
language said to be noncontigurational was assumed to have a flat, non-hierarchical
structure. But, as Russell and Reinholtz (1995) show, the absence of argument positions
for NPs does not necessitate an absence of hierarchical structure. Rather, they have shown
that Cree, for exarnple, does have a hierarchically-organized clause structure, organized in
ternis of the functional categories of Focus and Topic. This provides a discoursernotivated
structure in Cree, following the lines of information distribution typical of
Algonquian languages, where new or focussed information tends to occur in a pre-verbal
position, and old or thematic information typically follows the verb (cf Tomlin and
Rhodes 1979). The optional, non-argumental M?s occupy positions in FocP or TopP,
either as the specifier of the FocP for focussed nouns, or in the complement position of the
TopP. The verbal cornplex, which consists of the verb stem, agreement morphology, and