Research

Current Projects

Publications on Gitksan by current and former lab members (contact us for access if needed)

Aonuki, Yurika. 2020. Unifying the ‘still’ and ‘just’ readings of ḵ’ay in Gitksan. In Proceedings of the 37th West Coast Conference in Formal Linguistics (WCCFL).  Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press. 68–78.

Aonuki, Yurika. 2021. Relative Pronominal Tense: Evidence from Gitksan, Japanese, and English. University of British Columbia MA thesis.

Aonuki, Yurika. 2022. Morphological tenselessness and SOT: Evidence for a covert relative pronominal tense in Gitksan. In Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 26. University
of Cologne. 55–73.

Aonuki, Yurika. 2024. Differential measure phrases with implicit comparatives in Gitksan. In Proceedings of Semantics and Linguistic Theory (SALT) 34. Linguistic Society of America. 132–153.

Aonuki, Yurika. 2024. Covert relative non-future tense in Gitksan. In Proceedings of West Coast Conference in Formal Linguistics (WCCFL) 39. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press. 441–449.

Aonuki, Yurika. 2024. Degree constructions in Gitksan. In M. Ryan Bochnak, Eva Csipak, Lisa Matthewson, Marcin Morzycki, & Daniel K. E. Reisinger (eds.), The title of this volume is shorter than its contributions are allowed to be: Papers in honour of Hotze Rullmann. Vancouver, BC: UBCOPL, 1–18.

Bicevskis, Katie, Henry Davis and Lisa Matthewson. 2017. Quantification in Gitksan. In D. Paperno and E. Keenan (eds.), Handbook of Quantifiers in Natural Language, Volume II. Springer International: Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy 97, 281-382.

Brown, Colin. 2016. Extraction restrictions in Gitksan. McGill University MA thesis.

Brown, Colin. 2016. Syntactic Ergativity in Gitksan. In Proceedings of the Workshop on Structure and Constituency in the Languages of the Americas 21. UBC Working Papers in Linguistics.

Brown, Colin. 2025. Clause-typing and Clitic Linearization in Gitksan. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Salish and Neighbouring Languages 60. UBC Working
Papers in Linguistics.

Brown, Jason. 2008. Theoretical Aspects of Gitksan Phonology. PhD dissertation, University of British Columbia.

Brown, Jason. 2008. An unexpected gap in Gitksan consonant cluster phonotactics. In Papers for the International Conference on Salish and Neighboring Languages XLIII 23. UBC Working Papers in Linguistics. 14–21.

Brown, Jason. 2010. Gitksan phonotactics. Lincom Europa.

Brown, Jason. 2015. Heavy syllables in Gitksan. In Papers for the 50th International Conference on Salish and Neighbouring Languages 40. UBC Working Papers in Linguistics. 3–13.

Brown, Jason and Henry Davis 2010. WH moves in Gitksan. But where? And how?. Papers for the 45th International Conference on Salish and Neighboring Languages, Eugene, UBC Working Papers in Linguistics.

Brown, Jason, Henry Davis, Michael Schwan and Barbara Sennott. 2016. Gitksan (Illustrations of the IPA). Journal of the International Phonetic Association 46(3): 367–378. Cambridge University Press.

Bruce Oliver, Clarissa Forbes, Changbing Yang, Farhan Samir, Edith Coates, Garrett Nicolai & Miikka Silfverberg. 2022. An Inflectional Database for Gitksan. In Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation. 6597–6606.

Chen, Sihwei, Vera Hohaus, Rebecca Laturnus, Meagan Louie,
Lisa Matthewson, Hotze Rullmann, Ori Simchen, Claire K. Turner and Jozina Vander Klok. 2017. Past possibility cross-linguistically: Evidence from 12 languages. In Ana Arregui, Maria-Luisa Rivero and Andres Salanova (eds.), Modality Across Syntactic Categories. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 236-287.

Chow, Una & Molly Babel. 2024. Gitksan fricatives: auditory-acoustic trajectories differentiate [s]-[ɬ]-[χ]-[h]. In Proceedings of the 19th Conference on Laboratory Phonology. 433–434. Seoul, Korea: HIPCS, Hanyang University.

Davis, Henry. 2018. Only Connect: A Unified Analysis of the Tsimshianic Connective System. In International Journal of American Linguistics 84(4): 471-511. The University of Chicago Press.

Davis, Henry and Jason Brown. 2010. Precedence vs. C-command: the curious case of binding in Gitksan. Papers for the 45th International Conference on Salish and Neighboring Languages, UBC Working Papers in Linguistics.

Davis, Henry and Jason Brown. 2011. On A’-Dependencies in Gitksan. Papers for the 46th International Conference on Salish and Neighbouring Languages, Vancouver, B.C.: UBC Working Papers in Linguistics 30: 43-80.

Davis, Henry and Clarissa Forbes. 2015. Connect Four! The morphosyntax of argument marking in Tsimshianic. In Proceedings of the 50th International Conference on Salish and Neighbouring Languages. Vancouver, B.C.: UBC Working Papers in Linguistics 40: 155-185.

Davis, Henry, Carrie Gillon and Lisa Matthewson. 2014. How to Investigate Linguistic Diversity: Lessons from the Pacific Northwest. Language 90(4): e180-e226.

Davis, Henry, Carrie Gillon and Lisa Matthewson. 2015. Diversity Driven But Cognitively Constrained: Boas Meets Chomsky (Response to Commentators). Language 91(3): e127-e143.

Davis, Henry and Sander Nederveen. 2021. Hli, Focus and Relativization in Gitksan. In Papers for the 56th International Conference on Salish and Neighbouring Languages. UBC Working Papers in Linguistics. 1–32.

Forbes, Clarissa. 2012. Gitxsan adjectives: evidence from nominal modification. In Proceedings of the 47th International Conference on Salish and Neighbouring Languages. UBCWPL 32. 49-68.

Forbes, Clarissa. 2013. Associative plurality in the Gitksan nominal domain. In Proceedings of the 2013 Canadian Linguistic Association, University of Victoria.

Forbes, Clarissa. 2014. On apparent nominal coordination in Gitksan. In Proceedings of the 2014 Canadian Linguistic Association, Brock University.

Forbes, Clarissa. 2015. Gitksan root stress: Modeling the path to lexical accent. In Proceedings of WSCLA 19, UBCWPL 39. 79-93.

Forbes, Clarissa. 2017. Extraction morphosyntax and wh-agreement in Gitksan: The case for accusativity. In Proceedings of the 2017 Canadian Linguistic Association, Ryerson University.

Forbes, Clarissa. 2017. Persistent ergativity and split absolutive agreement in Gitksan. In Lamont, A. and K. Tetzloff, Proceedings of the 47th Annual Meeting of the North East Linguistic Society 2, GLSA. 11-24.

Forbes, Clarissa. 2018. On binding in Gitksan. In Matthewson, L., E. Guntly and M. Rochemont (eds.), Wa7 xweysás i nqwal’utteníha i ucwalmícwa: He loves the people’s languages. Essays in honour of Henry Davis. Vancouver, BC: UBCOPL 6. 111-126.

Forbes, Clarissa. 2018. Persistent ergativity: Agreement and splits in Tsimshianic. University of Toronto Doctoral dissertation.

Forbes, Clarissa. 2019. Number, names, and animacy: Noun classes and plural interactions in Gitksan. In Mathieu et al. (eds.) Gender and noun classification, Oxford University Press. 203–233.

Forbes, Clarissa. 2019. The structure of transitivity in Gitksan. In Papers for the 54th
International Conference on Salish and Neighbouring Languages. UBC Working
Papers in Linguistics. 63–85.

Forbes, Clarissa. 2021. Nominal types in Gitksan split-absolutive agreement. In Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 39. 1087–1128. Springer.

Forbes, Clarissa. to appear. Consequences of long-distance extraction morphology in Gitksan. In Proceedings of WSCLA 22, UBCWPL.

Forbes, Clarissa, Henry Davis, Michael D. Schwan, and the UBC Gitksan Research Laboratory. 2017. Three Gitksan Texts. In Papers for the International Conference on Salish and Neighbouring Languages 52, Vancouver, B.C.: UBC Working Papers in Linguistics 43: 47-89.

Littell, Patrick, Lisa Matthewson and Tyler Peterson. 2010. On the Semantics of
Conjectural Questions. In Evidence from Evidentiality, ed. Tyler Peterson and Uli
Sauerland, Vancouver: UBCWPL.

Matthewson, Lisa. 2013. Gitksan Modals. International Journal of American Linguistics 79:349-39.

Matthewson, Lisa and Neda Todorović. in press. Temporal properties of attitude complements: The Serbian – Gitksan connection. Proceedings of the Tenth Conference on the Semantics of Under-Represented Languages in the Americas. Amherst, MA: GLSA

Peterson, Tyler. 2006a. Issues in Investigating the Distribution of the Independent Pronouns in Gitksan. Ms., UBC.

Peterson, Tyler 2006b. Issues of Morphological Ergativity in the Tsimshian
Languages: Determiners, Agreement and the Reconstruction of Case. In
Case, Valency and Transitivity (Studies in Language Companion Series 77).
L. Kulikov, A. Malchukov, and P. de Swart (eds), Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 65-90.

Peterson, Tyler 2008. Pragmatic Blocking in Gitksan Evidential Expressions. In Proceedings of the 38th Meeting of the North East Linguistic Society, A. Schardl, M. Walkow, M. Abdurrahman (eds), Amherst, MA: GLSA Publications.

Peterson, Tyler 2010. Epistemic Modality and Evidentiality in Gitksan at the Semantics-Pragmatics Interface. PhD dissertation, UBC.

Peterson, Tyler 2012. Some Remarks on the Morphosemantics of Multiple Causative Sequences. In Papers from the 32nd Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, Berkeley: BLS.

Rullmann, Hotze and Lisa Matthewson. 2018. A Theory of Modal-Temporal Interactions. Language 94(2):281-331

Presentations (selection only)

Brown, Colin and Clarissa Forbes. 2018. Three (hidden) obliques in Gitksan. Presented at the annual meeting of the Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas. Salt Lake City, UT. Jan 4-7.

Davis, Henry 2011. WH-Relatives in Interior Tsimshianic. University of Victoria Workshop on Relative Clauses, University of Victoria.

Davis, Henry and Colin Brown. 2014. Focus and Negative Ellipsis in Gitksan. 49th International Conference on Salish and Neighboring Languages (ICSNL).  Coeur D’Alene Reservation, Idaho.

Davis, Henry. 2016. Case and Agreement in Coast Tsimshian. Slides, Workshop on Structure and Constituency in the Languages of the Americas (WSCLA) 21, Université  de Québec à Montréal.

Forbes, Clarissa 2012a. Gitksan relative clauses: a diagnostic for adjectives. Paper presented at the University of Toronto Welcome Workshop.

Forbes, Clarissa. 2012b. Gitxsan adjectives: Evidence from nominal modification. Presented at the 47th International Conference on Salish and Neighbouring Languages. Cranbrook, BC.

Forbes, Clarissa. 2013. Number in the Gitksan nominal domain: Plural [plural] projections. Presented at the annual meeting of the Canadian Linguistic Association. University of Victoria, BC.

Forbes, Clarissa. 2014. On the absence of nominal coordination in Gitksan. Presented at the annual meeting of the Canadian Linguistic Association. Brock University, ON. May 24-25.

Forbes, Clarissa. 2014. Gitksan root stress: Modeling the path to lexical accent. Presented at the 19th Workshop on Structure and Constituency in the Languages of the Americas. Memorial University, NF. April 25-27.

Forbes, Clarissa. 2015. Number, names, and animacy: Nominal classes and plural interactions in Gitksan. Invited presentation at Gender, Class, and Determination: A Conference on the Nominal Spine. University of Ottawa, Sep 18-20.

Davis, Henry and Clarissa Forbes. 2015. Connect Four! The morphosyntax of argument marking in Tsimshianic. Presented at the 50th International Conference on Salish and Neighbouring Languages. University of British Columbia, Aug 5-7.

Forbes, Clarissa. 2015. Acquiring accentual (un)predictability in morphological domains: Root stress in Gitksan. Presented at the International Conference on Historical Linguistics, special workshop: Diachronic morphophonology: lexical accent systems. University of Naples, Italy, July 31.

Forbes, Clarissa. 2015. Gitksan person paradigms. Presented at the Contrast in Syntax Workshop in honour of Elizabeth Cowper. University of Toronto, ON. April 24-25.

Forbes, Clarissa. 2016. Agreement and aggressive ergativity in Gitksan. Presented at the 47th North East Linguistics Society. University of Massachusetts: Amherst, Oct 14-16.

Forbes, Clarissa. 2016. Determinacy and [DETERMINATE]: Nominal projections and features in Gitxsanimx. Poster presentation at Dimensions of D workshop. University of Rochester, Sep 17-18.

Forbes, Clarissa. 2017. Extraction morphosyntax and wh-agreement in Gitksan: The case for accusativity. Presented at the annual meeting of the Canadian Linguistic Association. Ryerson University, May 27-29.

Forbes, Clarissa. 2017. Consequences of long-distance extraction morphology in Gitksan. Invited presentation at the Workshop on Structure and Constituency in Languages of the Americas 22. University of British Columbia, Apr 21-23.

Forbes, Clarissa. 2017. Persistent ergativity in cross-Tsimshianic agreement. Invited presentation at the University of Victoria linguistics colloquium. Mar 16.

Forbes, Clarissa. 2018. Transitivity and accusativity in Gitksan wh-agreement. Presented at the annual meeting of the Linguistic Society of America. Salt Lake City, UT. Jan 4-7.

Peterson, Tyler 2012a. The Role of the Ordering Source in Gitksan Modals. In proceedings of Semantics of Under-Represented Languages in the Americas 6, Amherst: GLSA.

Peterson, Tyler 2012b. The Role of Documenting Semantics and Pragmatics in Understudied Languages. Talk presented in the Cambridge Endangered Languages and Cultures series, Cambridge University.