Friesen, Dianne2022-04-272022-04-2720222022-04-27http://hdl.handle.net/1828/13887In this thesis we ask, how are arguments introduced and mapped to grammatical positions in Mi’kmaw? We build on insights from Piggott (1989), Wiltschko (2014), and Harley (2017) and use a corpus of over 150 verb stems in 1500+ clauses. We propose that Mi’kmaw verb stems are classified by whether they are unergative or unaccusative. Three functional categories: little v, Animacy agreement, and Voice introduce the other argument and then map the arguments to grammatical positions through two overlapping processes. We illustrate active, passive, antipassive, and possessor raising constructions. These argument-building and mapping systems work without exception throughout the language. This thesis represents a fresh analysis of Mi’kmaw which accounts for transitivity, valence, and grammatical voice in a way that the traditional Bloomfieldian analysis (Inglis 1986, Fidelholtz 1999, McCulloch 2013) has not. We believe that our findings are only possible because of my close collaboration with Mi’kmaw colleagues, our decision to systematically investigate how the functional categories pattern with a large set of verb stems, and our decision to study the syntax of the verbs in complete clauses.enAvailable to the World Wide WebsyntaxAlgonquian languageMi'kmawgrammatical voiceverb classcausativeThesisDenny, Yvonne, Arlene Stevens, Elizabeth Paul, Barbara Sylliboy, and Dianne Friesen. (2021). A ditransitive analysis of possessor raising in Mi’kmaw: Distinct licensing for possessor and possessum. Papers of the 50th Algonquian Conference, ed. Monica Macaulay and Meg Noodin, 81-96. Madison: University of Wisconsin.Friesen, Dianne. (2021). Learning Indigenous Methodologies. Working Papers of the Linguistics Circle of the University of Victoria, vol. 31, ed. Junyu Wu and Martin Desmarais, 119-131. Victoria: WPLC, Department of Linguistics, University of Victoria.Friesen, Dianne and Yvonne Denny. (2019). Zero morphemes in two categories in Mi’kmaq. Proceedings of the 23rd Workshop on the Structure and Constituency of the Languages of the Americas, ed. Daniel K. E. Reisinger and Roger Yu-Hsiang Lo, 53-61. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Working Papers in Linguistics.Stevens, Arlene, Yvonne Denny, Barbara Sylliboy, and Dianne Friesen. (2021a). Two pluractional constructions in Mi'kmaw. Proceedings of the 2020 annual conference of the Canadian Linguistics Society, London, Ontario. ed. Angelica Hernández and M. Emma Butterworth, 11pp. Toronto: Canadian Linguistic Association.Sylliboy, Barbara, Elizabeth Paul, Serge Paul, Arlene Stevens, and Dianne L. Friesen. (2017). The light verb -eke in Mi’kmaq. Papers of the 48th Annual Algonquian Conference, ed. Monica Macaulay and Margaret Noodin, 255-274. Madison: Michigan State University Press.Sylliboy, Barbara, Arlene Stevens, Yvonne Denny, and Dianne Friesen. (in press). Causative construction in Mi’kmaw. Proceedings of the 52nd Annual Algonquian Conference, ed. Monica MacAulay and Margaret Noodin, 20pp. Madison WI: University of Wisconsin.