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JSAI International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence

JSAI-isAI 2018: New Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence pp 270–281Cite as

Switch Reference and Discourse Anaphora: Lessons from Mbyá

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 11717))

Abstract

Most analyses of Switch Reference treat it as a device that tracks the referents of pivots. Against this background, I show that Switch Reference in Mbyá (Tupí-Guaraní) can track plural discourse reference, so that its analysis must be integrated in a theory of discourse anaphora. Indeed, it appears that Same Subject marking is used when one of the pivots is a quantifier and the other refers to a set associated with the former, or both pivots are quantifiers that share the same domain. Building on these observations, I argue that Same Subject markers themselves are anaphoric to one of their pivots, and require that the other pivot introduce or retrieve a discourse referent that is identical to the value of this anaphor.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    In addition, if the generalization that Canonical SR is attested in subordination structure is correct, [12]’s analysis of Same Subject and Different Subject marking as vP (high) or VP (low) coordination may be valid for Noncanonical but not for Canonical Switch Reference.

  2. 2.

    This example could arguably be analyzed as a case of complement set anaphora, but we will see that clearer cases of reference to the complement set by an overt matrix subject tend to trigger DS marking, which makes it more likely that vy marks anaphora to the maximal set in this example.

  3. 3.

    A previous version of this work, which was based on the judgments of a single speaker, reported that reference to the complement set could trigger SS marking. Subsequent elicitation with four speakers of Mbyá suggests that this phenomenon is marginal at best.

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Acknowledgement

Many thanks to the Mbyá speakers who shared their judgments with me for this study. I am also grateful to Philippe Schlenker and Yasutada Sudo for helpful comments and suggestions. All errors are mine.

Glosses. A: cross-referenced argument, class A (active); B: cross-referenced argument, class B (inactive); CAUS: causative; DES: desiderative; DS: different subject marking; DOM: differential object marking; FUT: future temporal marking; INCL: inclusive; IMPRS: impersonal voice; NEG: negation; OBJ: object marking; OBL: oblique; PAST: past temporal marking; PL: plural; PURP: purpose; PROSP: prospective aspect; SG: singular; SS: same subject marking.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Linguistics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, M5S 3G3, Canada

    Guillaume Thomas

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  1. Guillaume Thomas
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Correspondence to Guillaume Thomas .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Ibaraki, Japan

    Kazuhiro Kojima

  2. University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo, Japan

    Maki Sakamoto

  3. Ochanomizu University, Tokyo, Japan

    Koji Mineshima

  4. National Institute of Informatics, Tokyo, Japan

    Ken Satoh

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Thomas, G. (2019). Switch Reference and Discourse Anaphora: Lessons from Mbyá. In: Kojima, K., Sakamoto, M., Mineshima, K., Satoh, K. (eds) New Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence. JSAI-isAI 2018. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 11717. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31605-1_20

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31605-1_20

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-31604-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-31605-1

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