Le but de cet article est d’étudier les caractéristiques syntaxiques du quantifieur universel kakina (‘tous’/‘chacun’) en algonquin, un dialecte ojibwe parlé au sud-ouest du Québec. J’examine la diversité des positions que peut occuper le quantifieur kakina dans la phrase simple ainsi que ses possibilités d’interprétation. Je recherche quels méchanismes syntaxiques ou morphologiques permettent de relier le quantifieur à ses arguments. Les données présentées ici ont été élicitées et reconfirmées auprès d’une locutrice de langue maternelle algonquine, bilingue algonquin-anglais, agée d’une cinquantaine d’années, vivant et enseignant à Kitigan-Zibi (Maniwaki, Québec) et employant sa langue quotidiennement.

The notion of markedness has played an important role in linguistic theorizing for decades. Originating in Prague School phonological theory, it has also found an important place in morphology, syntax, and semantics (Andersen 1989). In general terms, markedness theory claims that when alternative forms are available, such as alternative construction types or paraphrases, one member of the set, the unmarked member, is more prototypical, is more frequent, has a wider distribution, etc. Within the psycholinguistic literature, it has been argued that the unmarked member of a set will typically be both cognitively and structurally less complex, and hence easier to process than its marked counterpart, a factor which also suggests that, all things being equal, the unmarked member should be acquired earlier than the marked member (e.g., Slobin 1973).

In recent work in feature geometry, the internal structure of the Place node has been the subject of attention. In the earliest work, the place features [anterior], [coronal], [high], [low], [back], and [round] proposed by Chomsky and Halle (1968) were arrayed under the Place node (Clements 1985). In later work it was argued that such an arrangement did not capture the classes required for operations involving place of articulation, and it was proposed that unary articulator features Labial, Coronal, and Dorsal be used, with [anterior], [high], [low], [back], and [round] being dependents of these major articulators (Sagey 1986; McCarthy 1988). This structure, which I will call the “flat structure”, is diagrammed in (1).

Perhaps the most remarkable trait of human language is the way it adapts spontaneously to the particular experience the speaker wants to express. Thanks to our mother tongue, the linguistic means are available to render more or less faithfully whatever we intend to communicate regardless of the particular nature or quality of the message. This is remarkable first of all because, in itself, raw experience is strictly private and incommunicable, a fact Northrop Frye (1971:124) depicts quite vividly in the following passage:

The concepts of X-bar theory are fundamental to the framework of generative grammar. The last version of the theory (Chomsky 1992) defines the projected positions as either narrowly or broadly L(exically)-related to the head X, where “L-relation” means inclusion in the checking domain of X. Narrowly L-related positions, nonadjoined (e.g., Spec), obey structure preserving rules; they have the basic properties of A-positions. Broadly L-related positions, adjoined and optional, have the properties of A’-positions.

Most research on Algonquian languages, of which Cree is a typical example, is based on collections of narrative texts (Wolfart 1973; Dahlstrom 1986; James 1986). Although there is nothing intrinsically wrong with this approach, the use of one particular type of database in such an extensive amount of research lends itself to a genre-biased description of the language. In oral cultures, many narrative texts are typically preplanned (Chafe 1985) and therefore will have, according to researchers in discourse analysis, many of the features of preplanned texts such as complete and longer sentences, higher clause density and a larger proportion of subordinate clauses (Brown and Yule 1985:151–117; Biber 1988:47). In addition, other language-specific features may occur.