Excluding exclusively the exclusive: Suppletion patterns in clusivity

Abstract

In this paper, I investigate the suppletion patterns that are found in languages that make a clusivity distinction. I will show that in the triple 1sg-1excl-1incl, ABA patterns do not arise, consonant with other work on suppletion patterns (Bobaljik 2012; Smith et al. 2018). That is, it is not possible for the exclusive pronoun to supplete on its own whilst the singular and inclusive share a common base. All other patterns are attested. I will argue that the lack of ABA patterns supports the view that the inclusive is the most marked category in this set (Noyer 1992; Cysouw 2003; Siewierska 2004, a.o.), and propose that there is a containment relation such that the feature set that makes up the inclusive properly contains the features that form the exclusive, following the reasoning laid out in Bobaljik (2012). I further consider the makeup of person features, and argue that the lack of ABA patterns in clusivity suggest that clusivity features are privative, rather than binary (cf. Harbour 2016).