Time: 2:00 - 3:00pm Venue: Mile End campus, Scape 2.01
Semantic features do not exist (and what a generative Theory of Features should look like)
Phoevos Panagiotidis
University of Cyprus
We first investigate the desiderata of a (yet to come) Theory of Features and posit some theoretical and methodological prerequisites for it. We will then go on to make suggestions on how such a Theory should be compiled and also propose some fundamental tenets on which it should be founded. These tenets will be centred around the ideas a) that purely semantic features should not exist and b) that (possible) formal features are signs abstractly encoding a limited number of archaic (pre-Homo sapiens) concepts. Some further suggestions on the correct formalism for features, on how to assemble a reliable repertory of features, and on how features assemble into (functional) heads are also offered.