Cover not available

Article published In: Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages
Vol. 31:1 (2016) ► pp.113–140

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
authorization required

Critical mass in Michif

 | Arizona State University, USA
 | University of Manitoba, Canada
Published online: 10 May 2016
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/jpcl.31.1.05gil
In this paper, we examine mass and count in Michif, a language often called a mixed language, which has elements from French (and English) and Cree (and Ojibwe). French has an obvious grammatical mass/count distinction (Doetjes 1997); Cree does not. Michif could therefore display a mass/count distinction, like French, or look like it lacks one, like Cree. In fact, the system is mixed (contra Croft 2003: 58): French-derived nominals display an obvious mass/count distinction and the Cree-derived nominals do not. Number, numerals and quantifiers disambiguate within the French-derived part of the grammar but do not in the Cree-derived part. Michif has inherited both the French system and the Cree system, reflected in the behaviour of the nominals.
References (30)
Ahenakew, Freda & H. Christoph Wolfart. 1983. Productive reduplication in Plains Cree. In William Cowan (ed.), Actes du quatorzième congrès des Algonquinistes (Québec, 1982), 369–377. Ottawa: Carleton University.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bakker, Peter. 1997. A language of our own: The genesis of Michif, the mixed Cree-French language of the Canadian Métis (Oxford Studies in Anthropological Linguistics). New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bale, Alan C. & David Barner. 2009. The interpretation of functional heads: Using comparatives to explore the mass/count distinction. Journal of Semantics 261. 217–252. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2012. Semantic triggers, linguistic variation, and the mass-count distinction. In Diane Massam (ed.), Count and mass across languages, 238–260. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bunt, Harry C. 1985. Mass Terms and Model-Theoretic Semantics. Cambridge Studies in Linguistics 42. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cheng, Lisa Lai-Shen & Rint Sybesma. 1999. Bare and not-so-bare nouns and the structure of NP. Linguistic Inquiry 301. 509–542. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chierchia, Gennaro. 1998. Plurality of mass nouns and the notion of ‘semantic parameter’. In Susan Rothstein (ed.), Events and grammar, 53–103. Dordrecht: Kluwer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2010. Mass nouns, vagueness and semantic variation. Synthese 174(1). 99–149. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Croft, William. 2003. Mixed languages and acts of identity: An evolutionary approach. In Yaron Matras & Peter Bakker (eds.), The mixed language debate: Theoretical and empirical advances, 41–72. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Deprez, Viviane. 2005. Morphological number, semantic number and bare nouns. Lingua 1151. 857–883. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Doetjes, Jenny. 1997. Quantifiers and selection: On the distribution of quantifying expressions in French, Dutch and English. Leiden, NL: Leiden University dissertation.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Frantz, Donald G & Norma Jean Russell. 1989. Blackfoot dictionary of stems, roots, and affixes. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gillon, Carrie. 2009. The mass/count distinction and what it tells us about plurality in Innu-aimun. Paper given at the Semantics of Underrepresented Languages of the Americas V , May 15-17, 2009, Harvard and MIT.
. 2015. Innu-aimun plurality. Lingua 1621:128–148. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jackendoff, Ray. 1991. Parts and boundaries. Cognition 411: 9–45. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jespersen, Otto. 1909. The philosophy of grammar. London: Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
MacKenzie, Marguerite. 1980. Toward a dialectology of Cree-Montagnaiss-Naskapi. Toronto, ON: University of Toronto dissertation. [available at [URL]]Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mathieu, Éric. 2012. On the mass/count distinction in Ojibwe. In Diane Massam (ed.), Count and mass across languages, 172–198. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pelletier, Francis Jeffry. 1975. Non-singular reference: Some preliminaries. Philosophia 5. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Poplack, Shana. 1993. Variation theory and language contact. In Dennis Preston (ed.), American dialect research, 251–286. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rhodes, Richard. 1986. Métchif: a second look. Proceedings of the Algonquian Conference 171: 287–96. William Conan, ed. Ottawa: Carleton University.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rhodes, Richard. A. 1990. Lexical hierarchies and Ojibwa noun derivation. In Savas L. Tsohatzidis (ed.), Meanings and prototypes: Studies in linguistic categorization, 151–158. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rosen, Nicole. 2003. Demonstrative position in Michif. Canadian Journal of Linguistics 48(1/2). 39–69. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2006. Language contact and Michif stress assignment. Sprachtypologie und Universalienforschung - Language Typology and Universals (STUF) 59(2). 170–190. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2007. Domains in Michif phonology. Toronto, ON: University of Toronto dissertation. Available at: [URL]Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rosen, Nicole & Janelle Brodner. 2012. Vowel space of Michif. Paper presented at 2012 Meeting of the Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas , January 5-8, 2012, Portland, OR.
Statistics Canada. 2011. Census of Population, Statistics Canada Catalogue no. 98-314-XCB2011048.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Thomason, Sarah. 2003. Social factors and linguistic processes in the emergence of stable mixed languages. In Yaron Matras & Peter Bakker (eds.), The mixed language debate: Theoretical and empirical advances, 21–39. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wilhelm, Andrea. 2008. Bare nouns and number in Dëne Sųłiné. Natural Language Semantics 161. 39–68. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wiltschko, Martina. 2012. Decomposing the mass/count distinction: Evidence from languages that lack it. In Diane Massam (ed.), Count and mass across languages, 146–171. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (2)

Cited by two other publications

Meakins, Felicity & Jesse Stewart
2022. Mixed Languages. In The Cambridge Handbook of Language Contact, ► pp. 310 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2022. Contact, Emergence, and Language Classification. In The Cambridge Handbook of Language Contact, ► pp. 255 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 13 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue