My research focuses on syntactic structure, its morphological composition, and its contribution to lexical semantics. To date my work has been based on data from a variety of languages including English, Blackfoot, Hebrew, Haitian Creole, and French. In current research, I am exploring tenselessness, and its implications for clause structure in Blackfoot.

Teaching

I regularly teach required graduate and undergraduate courses in syntax, including Linguistics 301, 401, 611 & 711, as well as Linguistics 201, Introduction to Linguistics.

PhD Supervision

2019-pres. Kang Xu (Ph.D., Calgary), Dissertation Supervisor.

Dissertation topic: The syntax of sentence final particles in Mandarin

2019-pres. Duaa AbuAmsha (Ph.D., Calgary), Dissertation Co-supervisor.

Dissertation topic: Tense and Aspect in Palestinian Arabic: Variation, Contact, and Grammaticalization

2019-2022 Lindsay Hracs (Ph.D., Calgary), Dissertation Co-supervisor.

Dissertation title: Modelling exposure andiInput in language acquisition

2015-2017 Joseph Windsor (Ph.D., Calgary), Dissertation Co-supervisor.

Dissertation title: From phonology to syntax – and back again: Hierarchical structure in Irish and Blackfoot.

2009-2013 Keffyalew Gebregziabher (Ph.D. Calgary), Dissertation Supervisor.

Dissertation title: Projecting Possessors: A Morphosyntactic Investigation of Tigrinya Nominal Possession.

2009-2012 Nicholas Welch (Ph.D., Calgary), Dissertation Supervisor.

Dissertation title: The bearable lightness of being: The encoding of coincidence in two-copula languages.

2002-2006 Ilana Mezhevich (Ph.D, Calgary 2006), Dissertation Supervisor.

Dissertation title: Featuring Russian Tense: A feature-theoretic account of the Russian tense system.

1999-2003 Andrea Wilhelm (Ph.D., Calgary 2003), Dissertation Supervisor.

Dissertation title: The grammatization of telicity and durativity in Dëne
Su7`¬iné (Chipewayan) and German.

MA Supervision

2020-pres. Peng Qiu (M.A., Calgary), Thesis Supervisor.
Thesis topic: The syntax of Mandarin plural -men

2019-2021 Brittany McDonald (M.A., Calgary), Thesis Supervisor.

Thesis title: The interactional structure of nominals: An investigation of paranouns

2016-2018 Xufan (Michelle) Lu (M.A., Calgary), Thesis Supervisor.

Thesis title: The category of adjectives in Yueqing.

2014-2016 Ella Glazov (M.A., Ben Gurion), Thesis Supervisor.
Thesis title: Formal feature analysis of Russian Gender.

2009-2010 Kim Meadows (M.A., Calgary), Thesis Supervisor.
Thesis title: On the role of sentience in Blackfoot: Evidence from the accompaniment and associative constructions.

2004-2005 Heather Bliss (M.A., Calgary, 2005), Thesis Supervisor.
Thesis title: Formalizing Point-of-View in Blackfoot.

2002-2003 Rebecca Hanson (M.A., Calgary, 2003), Thesis Supervisor.
Thesis title: Why can’t we all just agree? Animacy and the Person Case Constraint.

2001-2002 Jennifer Abel (M.A., Calgary, 2002), Thesis Supervisor.
Thesis title: That Crazy Idea of Jen’s: The English Double Genitive Focus Construction.

1998-1999 Olga Karpacheva (M.A., Calgary, 1999), Thesis Supervisor.
Thesis title: The Case of Russian Predicate Adjectives.

1997-1998 Valerie Baggaley (M.A., Calgary, 1999), Thesis Supervisor.
Thesis title: The Syntactic Category of Pronouns.

1995-1997 Naomi Sawai (M.A., Calgary, 1997), Thesis Supervisor.
Thesis title: An Event Structure Analysis of Derived Verbs in English.

1995-1996 Fumiko Watai (M.A., Calgary, 1996), Thesis Supervisor.
Thesis title: Two Subject Positions and a Functional Category Predicate.

1992-1993 Rebecca Carpenter (M.A., Toronto, 1992), Thesis Supervisor.
Thesis title: The Semantics of Get.

BA Supervision

2019-20 Quinn Goddard (B.A. hons., Calgary)

Thesis title: You and Me in Blackfoot’s Obviation System.

2016 Xufan (Michelle) Lu (B.A., Calgary)
PURE (Program for Undergraduate Research Experience) Supervisor
Project: Identifying parts of speech in Yueqing

2011-2012 Alice Post (B.A. hons., Calgary)

Thesis title: Bantu Noun Classes: Gender with Class

2010-2011 Kate Schulz (B.A. hons., Calgary)

Thesis title: The Person-Case Constraint in Leista Spanish

2008-2009 Sara Johansson (B.A. hons., Calgary)
Thesis title: A syntactic analysis of Blackfoot -attsi causatives.

Recent Journal articles

Ritter, Elizabeth and Martina Wiltschko. 2019. Nominal speech act structure: Evidence from the structural deficiency of impersonal pronouns. Canadian Journal of Linguistics. DOI:10.1017/cnj.2019.10

Kim, Kyumin, Elizabeth Ritter, Martina Wiltschko, and Hotze Rullman. 2017. 2+2 = 3: Number contrasts in Blackfoot. Glossa 2.1: 96. DOI: http://doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.289

Wiltschko, Martina and Elizabeth Ritter. 2015. Animating the narrow syntax. The Linguistic Review 32.4: 869-908. https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/tlr-2015-0011/html

Ritter, Elizabeth. 2014. Featuring animacy. Nordlyd 41.1: 103-124.
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/2856/75a2a92a822879f3f4258afccb26caf8c203.pdf

Ritter, Elizabeth and Martina Wiltschko. 2014. The composition of INFL: An exploration of tense, tenseless languages, and tenseless constructions. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 32.4: 1331-1386. https://www.jstor.org/stable/43697757

Recent book chapters

Ritter, Elizabeth. 2020. Sentience based Event structure: Evidence from Blackfoot. In Contrast and Representations in Syntax: A Festschrift for Elizabeth Cowper, ed. by Bronwyn Bjorkman and Daniel Currie Hall. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Pp.58-96.

Bliss, Heather, Elizabeth Ritter & Martina Wiltschko. 2019. Inverse systems and person hierarchy effects. The Routledge Handbook of North American Languages, ed. by Daniel Siddiqi, Michael Barrie, Carrie Gillon, Jason Haugen and Eric Mathieu. New York: Taylor & Francis/Routledge. Pp. 193-209.

Ritter, Elizabeth. 2014. Nominalizing Inner Aspect: Evidence from Blackfoot. Cross-linguistic investigations of nominalization patterns, ed. by Ileana Paul. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Pp. 25-50.

Ritter, Elizabeth and Sara Thomas Rosen. 2010. Animacy in Blackfoot: Implications for Event Structure and Clause Structure. In Malka Rappaport-Hovav, Edit Doron and Ivy Sichel, eds. Lexical Semantics, Syntax, and Event Structure. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press. Pp. 124-152.

Ritter, Elizabeth and Martina Wiltschko. 2009. Varieties of INFL: Tense, Location, and Person. In Jeroen van Craenenbroeck, ed. Alternatives to cartography. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Pp. 153-201.

Complete list of publications & presentations

[Last updated March 2022]

Refereed Journal Articles

Ritter, Elizabeth and Martina Wiltschko. 2019. Nominal speech act structure: Evidence from the structural deficiency of impersonal pronouns. Canadian Journal of Linguistics. Doi:10.1017/cnj.2019.10

Kim, Kyumin, Elizabeth Ritter, Martina Wiltschko, and Hotze Rullman. 2017. 2+2 = 3: Number contrasts in Blackfoot. Glossa 2.1: 96. DOI: http://doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.289

Wiltschko, Martina and Elizabeth Ritter. 2015. Animating the narrow syntax. The Linguistic Review 32.4: 869-908.

Ritter, Elizabeth. 2014. Featuring animacy. Nordlyd 41.1: 103-124.

Ritter, Elizabeth and Sara Thomas Rosen. 2005. Agreement without A-positions: A closer look at Algonquian. Linguistic Inquiry 36: 648-660.

Harley, Heidi and Elizabeth Ritter. 2002. Person and number in pronouns: A feature-geometric analysis. Language 78: 482-526.

Ritter, Elizabeth and Sara Thomas Rosen. 2001. The Interpretive Value of Object Splits. Language Sciences 23: 425-451.

Archibald, John, Eithne Guilfoyle and Elizabeth Ritter. 1997. Functional Categories in L2 acquisition: Evidence of presence is not necessarily presence of evidence, a response to Epstein, Flynn and Martohardjono. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 19: 714-715.

Ritter, Elizabeth and Sara Thomas Rosen. 1997. The Function of Have. Lingua 101: 295-321.

Ritter, Elizabeth and Sara Thomas Rosen. 1996. Strong and Weak Predicates: Reducing the Lexical Burden. Linguistic Analysis 26: 29-63. [Reprinted in Studies in Lexical Semantics. Japan: Eihosha. Pp. 75-93.

Ritter, Elizabeth. 1995. On the Syntactic Category of Pronouns and Agreement. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 13: 405-443.

Ritter, Elizabeth. 1993. Where's Gender? Linguistic Inquiry 24: 795-803.

Ritter, Elizabeth and Sara Thomas Rosen. 1993. Deriving Causation. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 11: 519-555.

Ritter, Elizabeth. 1992. Cross-linguistic Evidence for Number Phrase. Canadian Journal of Linguistics 37: 197-218.

Lefebvre, Claire and Elizabeth Ritter. 1989. Note sur le redoublement verbal en créole haïtien. Revue québecoise de linguistique 18: 173-182.

Ritter, Elizabeth. 1988. A head-movement approach to construct state noun phrases,” Linguistics 26: 909-930.

Refereed Book Chapters

Ritter, Elizabeth. 2014. Nominalizing Inner Aspect: Evidence from Blackfoot. Cross-linguistic investigations of nominalization patterns, ed. by Ileana Paul. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Pp. 25-50.

Ritter, Elizabeth and Martina Wiltschko. 2009. Varieties of INFL: Tense, Location, and Person. In Jeroen van Craenenbroeck, ed. Alternatives to cartography. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Pp. 153-201.

Bliss, Heather and Elizabeth Ritter. 2009. A Typological Database of Personal and Demonstrative Pronouns. In Simon Musgrave , Martin Everaert and Alexis Dimitriadis, eds. The use of databases in cross-linguistic research. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Pp.77-116.

Ritter, Elizabeth and Sara Thomas Rosen. 2005. Topic or Aspect: Functional heads, features and the grammaticization of events. In Paula Kempchinsky and Roumyana Slabakova, eds. Aspectual Inquiries. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Pp.21-40.

Harley, Heidi and Elizabeth Ritter. 2002. Structuring the bundle: A Universal Morphosyntactic Feature Geometry. In Horst J. Weise and Heike Simon, eds. Pronouns – Grammar and Representation. Amsterdam / Philadelphia: Elsevier Press. Pp. 23-39.

Ritter, Elizabeth and Sara Thomas Rosen. 2000. Event Structure and Ergativity. In C. Tenny and J. Pustejovsky, eds. Events as Grammatical Object. Stanford: CSLI. Pp. 187-238.

Ritter, Elizabeth and Sara Thomas Rosen. 1998. Delimiting Events in Syntax. In M.Butt and W. Gelber, eds. The Projection of Arguments: Lexical and Compositional Factors. Stanford: CSLI. Pp. 135-164.

Lefebvre, Claire and Elizabeth Ritter. 1993. Two Types of Predicate Doubling Adverbs in Haitian Creole. In F. Byrne and D. Winford, eds. Focus and Grammatical Relations in Creole Languages. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Pp. 65-91.

Ritter, Elizabeth. 1991. Two Functional Categories in Noun Phrases: Evidence from Modern Hebrew. In Susan Rothstein, ed. Syntax and Semantics 26, Perspectives on Phrase Structure: Heads and Licensing. New York: Academic Press. Pp. 37-62.

Invited articles and Book Chapters

Ritter, Elizabeth. 2018. Possible and impossible animacy shifts. Theoretical Linguistics. [This paper is an invited commentary on de Swart & de Hoop’s target article Shifting Animacy.] Theoretical Linguistics 44.1: 71-79.

Proceedings of Refereed Conferences

Ritter, Elizabeth and Martina Wiltschko. 2020. Interacting with vocatives. In Angelica Hernández and M. Emma Butterworth (eds.) Proceedings of the 2020 Annual Conference of the Canadian Linguistic Association. http://cla-acl.ca/

Ritter, Elizabeth and Martina Wiltschko. To appear. The syntax of formality: Universals and variation. Proceedings of the 2019 Annual Conference of the Canadian Linguistic Association.

Ritter, Elizabeth and Martina Wiltschko. 2018. Distinguishing speech act roles from grammatical person features. In Emily Dmyterko (ed.) Proceedings of the 2018 Annual Conference of the Canadian Linguistic Association.

http://cla-acl.ca/wp-content/uploads/actes-2018/Ritter-Wiltschko-2018.pdf

Ritter, Elizabeth and Lavi Wolf. 2017. The information structure of imperatives. In Andrew Monti (ed.) Proceedings of the 2017 Annual Conference of the Canadian Linguistic Association.
http://cla-acl.ca/wp-content/uploads/actes-2017/Ritter_E.Wolf_L.2017CLAProceedingsPaper.pdf

Ritter, Elizabeth and Martina Wiltschko. 2016. Humanness as an alternative to case licensing. In Lindsay Hracs (ed.) Proceedings of the 2016 Annual Conference of the Canadian Linguistic Association.

Bliss, Heather, Elizabeth Ritter and Martina Wiltschko. 2016. Blackfoot Nominalization Patterns. Papers of the 44th Algonquian Conference. Ed. by J. Randolph Valentine. Albany: SUNY Press.

Bliss, Heather and Elizabeth Ritter. 2015. A direct evidential in Siksiká Blackfoot. SULA 8: Proceedings of the Eighth Meeting on the Semantics of Under-represented Languages in the Americas. Ed.by Jérémy Pasquereau, 1-16. Amherst, MA: GLSA.

Bliss, Heather, Elizabeth Ritter and Martina Wiltschko. 2014. A comparison of theme marking in Blackfoot and Nishnaabemwin. Papers of the 42nd Algonquian Conference. Ed. by J. Randolph Valentine, 10-33. Albany: SUNY Press.

Ritter, Elizabeth and Sara Thomas Rosen.2014. Possessors as External Arguments: Evidence from Blackfoot. Papers of the 42nd Algonquian Conference. Ed. by J. Randolph Valentine. Albany: SUNY Press.

Johansson, Sara and Elizabeth Ritter. 2012. Determinants of Split intransitivity in Blackfoot: Evidence from Verbs of Emission. Papers of the 40th Algonquian Conferenc. Ed by Karl S. Hele and by J. Randolph Valentine. Albany: SUNY Press..

Bliss, Heather and Elizabeth Ritter. 2009. Grammaticalizing Information Status in Siksiká Blackfoot: A Tenseless Analysis. Proceedings of WSCLA12. UBC Working Papers in Linguistics. Pp. 178-189.

Ritter, Elizabeth and Martina Wiltschko. 2009. Alternatives to Tense in Blackfoot and Halkomelem. Proceedings of WSCLA12. UBC Working Papers in Linguistics. Pp.114-125.

Ritter, Elizabeth and Martina Wiltschko. 2005. Anchoring Events to Utterances without Tense. Proceedings of WCCFL 24. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project, Cascadilla Press. Pp.343-351.

Bliss, Heather and Elizabeth Ritter. 2001. Developing a database of personal and demonstrative pronoun paradigms: Conceptual and technical challenges. Proceedings of IRCS Workshop on Linguistic Databases.

http://www.ldc.upenn.edu/annotation/database/proceedings.html

Hanson, Rebecca, Harley, Heidi and Elizabeth Ritter. 2000. Underspecification and Universal Defaults for Person and Number Features. Proceedings of 2000 Annual Meeting of the Canadian Linguistics Association. Dept. of Linguistics, University of Ottawa. Pp. 111-122

Ritter, Elizabeth. 1999. Agreement in the Semitic Prefix Conjugation. IATL 6: The Proceedings of the Fourteenth Annual Conference. Ben Gurion University of The Negev. Pp. 91-114

Ritter, Elizabeth. 1997. Agreement in the Arabic Prefix Conjugation: Evidence for a non-linear approach to person, number and gender features. Proceedings of the 1997 Annual Conference of the Canadian Linguistic Association. CWPL, Dept. of Linguistics, University of Calgary. Pp. 191-202.

Ghomeshi, Jila and Elizabeth Ritter. 1996. Binding, Possessives, and the Structure of DP. Proceedings of NELS 26. GLSA, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Pp. 87-100.

Ritter, Elizabeth and Sara Thomas Rosen. 1994. The Independence of External Arguments. Proceedings of WCCFL 12. Stanford: CSLI. Pp. 591-605.

Ritter, Elizabeth and Sara Thomas Rosen. 1993. The Status of Causer Arguments. Proceedings of the 1993 Annual Conference of the Canadian Linguistic Association. Dept. of Linguistics, University of Toronto. Pp. 557-572.

Brousseau, Anne-Marie and Elizabeth Ritter. 1991. A Non-unified Analysis of Agentive Verbs. Proceedings of WCCFL 10. Stanford: CSLI, Pp. 53-64.

Ritter, Elizabeth and Sara Thomas Rosen. 1990. Causative Have. Proceedings of NELS 21. GLSA, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Pp. 323-336

Cheng, Lisa and Elizabeth Ritter. 1988. A Small Clause Analysis of Inalienable Possession in Mandarin and French,. Proceedings of NELS 18. GLSA, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Pp.65-78.

Ritter, Elizabeth. 1986. NSO Noun Phrases in Modern Hebrew. Proceedings of NELS 17. GLSA, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Pp.521-538.

Reviews & Book Notes

Ritter, Elizabeth. 2002. Note on Keren Rice. Morpheme Order and Semantic Scope: Word Formation in the Athapaskan Verb. University of Toronto Quarterly Letters in Canada 71.1: 175-6.

Ritter, Elizabeth. 1998. Tree Creation. Review of Arboreal by Cascadilla Press, Glot International 3.2: 20.

Non-refereed Articles

Ritter, Elizabeth and Sara Thomas Rosen. 1995. The Incompatibility of Lexical Derivation and Post-lexical Arguments. Calgary Working Papers in Linguistics 17, 11-15.

Ritter, Elizabeth. 1991. Déplacement de NP en haïtien : oui ou non ? In Alain Kihm, ed. La créolisation : Théorie et applications. Recherches linguistiques de Vincennes 20.65-85. [translated by Alain Kihm]

Lefebvre, Claire and Elizabeth Ritter. 1991. A note on three types of causal clauses in Haitian Creole. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages. Pp.279-283.

Ritter, Elizabeth and Sara Thomas Rosen. 1990. On Certain Differences Between Have and Make Causatives. Toronto Working Papers in Linguistics 11.2:61-74.

Other Publications

Olshtain, Elite, Anthony Berris, Dafna Ben-Anat and Elizabeth A. Ritter, eds. 1995. Multi-Dictionary: Bilingual Learner’s Dictionary. Tel Aviv:Lauden-Weinbach Publishers.

Ritter, Elizabeth, Lorna Rowsell, Leah Bortolin & Beata Widomska. 1995. A Workbook of Problems for Introduction to Linguistics, Dept. of Linguistics, University of Calgary.

Ritter, Elizabeth. 1991. The Lexicon as a Linguistic Tool. Travaux de recherche sur le créole haïtien No. 5, Groupe de recherche sur le créole haïtien, Université du Québec á Montréal.

Ritter, Elizabeth, ed. 1990. Lexicon of Haitian, Lexicon of Fongbe. Research Report. Groupe de recherche sur le créole haïtien, Université du Québec á Montréal.

Invited Presentations

Ritter, Elizabeth. 2021. Pronouns and paranouns: A new pronominal typology. Colloquium Series. Department of Linguistics, Tel Aviv University, November 25, 2021.

Ritter, Elizabeth. 2019. Sentience based event structure: Evidence from Blackfoot. A Celebration of David Gil’s Linguistics. University of Leipzig, August 20, 2019.

Ritter, Elizabeth. 2019. Translation and the Untranslatable. Keynote address delivered at the Conference on Translation and Translations. School of Languages, Linguistics, Literatures and Cultures, University of Calgary, April 25-26, 2019.

Ritter, Elizabeth. 2018. Personal and impersonal prohibitives in Biblical Hebrew. Paper presented at the Second Workshop on Biblical Hebrew Linguistics and Philology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, June 26-28, 2018.

Ritter, Elizabeth & Martina Wiltschko. 2017. Grounding individuals: Implications for person. Manitoba Workshop on Person. University of Manitoba, September 22-23, 2017.

Ritter, Elizabeth & Lavi Wolf. 2016. The Information Structure of Imperatives. Workshop on Word Order at the Interfaces, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, November 13-15, 2016.

Ritter, Elizabeth & Martina Wiltschko. 2015. On the contribution of animacy to noun classification and referential indexing. Workshop on Gender, noun classification and determination, University of Ottawa, September 18-20, 2015.

Ritter, Elizabeth. 2015. Selection for [m] in Blackfoot: Consequences for Event Structure. Department of Linguistics Research Seminar, University of Geneva, February 24, 2015; Workshop on Contrast in Syntax, Department of Linguistics, University of Toronto, April 24-25, 2015.

Ritter, Elizabeth. 2015. Classifying Blackfoot Verbs. Catalonia-Israel Symposium on Lexical Semantics and Grammatical Structure in Event Conceptualization. Hebrew University of Jerusalem, February 16-18, 2015.

Ritter, Elizabeth & Martina Wiltschko. 2014. Animacy: From cognitive category to grammatical feature. Conference on Morphology and Interpretation. University of São Paulo, São Paolo, Brazil. July 28-29, 2014.

Ritter, Elizabeth. 2014. Grammaticalizing Animacy. Haifa Language Forum, University of Haifa, May 2014.

Ritter, Elizabeth. 2014. Animacy & Lexical Aspect. Colloquium in the Department of Linguistics, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, May 2014.

Ritter, Elizabeth. 2013. Featuring Animacy. Conference on Features in Phonology, Morphology, Syntax and Semantics: What are they?CASTL, University of Tromsø; October 31-November 1, 2013.

Ritter, Elizabeth. 2013. Animacy and Aspect in Blackfoot. Department of Linguistics, University of Toronto, August 2013.

Ritter, Elizabeth. 2013. Personalizing the clausal spine: INFL and Aspect in Blackfoot. Colloquium presentation, Department of Linguistics, Tel Aviv University, Department of Linguistics, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Dept. of Foreign Literatures & Linguistics, Ben Gurion, English Department, Sorbonne Nouvelle-Paris 3, July 2013.

Ritter, Elizabeth. 2012. Argument structure inheritance and the structure of nominalized DPs. Workshop on Nominalization, Western University, London, Ontario, May 2012.

Ritter, Elizabeth and Sara Thomas Rosen. 2010. Possessors as Arguments: Evidence from Blackfoot. Workshop on Nominal Dependents, Banff, AB, May 2010.

Bliss, Heather, Elizabeth Ritter and Martina Wiltschko. 2010.A Comparison of Theme marking in Blackfoot and Nishnaabemwin. Workshop on Structure and Constituency of the Languages of the Americas (WSCLA) 15. University of Ottawa.

Bliss, Heather, Ritter, Elizabeth. 2007b.’He is the past tense of you’: Exploring the relationship between person and tense in Blackfoot. Lansdowne Lecture, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC.

Ritter, Elizabeth. 2007a. Generality, ambiguity and the formalization of person and number features. Dept. of Linguistics, University of Victoria and Dept. of Linguistics, University of British Columbia.

Ritter, Elizabeth and Sara Thomas Rosen. 2007. Not here we won't: An investigation into Information Structure and the Syntax of not-topics. Workshop on Syntax at the Interfaces, University of Calgary and Dept. of Linguistics, University of Victoria.

Ritter, Elizabeth and Sara Thomas Rosen. 2006. Animacy in Blackfoot: Implications for Event Structure and Clause Structure. Workshop on Syntax, Lexicon and Event Structure. Hebrew University, Jerusalem.

Ritter, Elizabeth and Heather Bliss. 2005. A Typology of Personal Pronouns. Groupe de typologie et universaux du langage, Paris.

Ritter, Elizabeth. 2005. Ambiguity, Generality and the Formalization of Person and Number Features. Les geometries de traits: de la phonologie à la syntaxe, Université de Paris 8.

Ritter, Elizabeth. 2004. Getting Personal: 3rd person (and other) pronouns reconsidered Why Phi Workshop. McGill University, Montreal.

Ritter, Elizabeth. 2003. Getting personal: Third person pronouns re-considered. Workshop on the form and function of pronouns. University of British Columbia, Vancouver.

Ritter, Elizabeth. 2003. How universal is the 3rd person? Dept. of Linguistics, University of Toronto.

Ritter, Elizabeth and Sara Thomas Rosen. 2002. Topic or Aspect: Functional heads, features & the grammaticization of events. Workshop on Aspect, University of Iowa, Iowa City. May 24-26, 2002.

Ritter, Elizabeth. 2001. What’s so special about you and me. Calgary Institute for the Humanities, University of Calgary.

Ritter, Elizabeth. 1999. Looking into it (and other pronouns). Department of English, Western Washington University, Bellingham.

Ritter, Elizabeth. 1998. The Interpretive Value of Object Splits. Department of Linguistics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver.

Ritter, Elizabeth and Sara Thomas Rosen. 1997. Event Structure and Ergativity. Conference on Events as Grammatical Objects in Syntax and Semantics. Linguistics Society of America Summer Institute, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.

Ritter, Elizabeth. 1996. Second Thoughts on Haitian DPs. Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Ritter, Elizabeth. 1996. Pronouns from the inside out. Dept. of Linguistics, Tel Aviv University, Dept. of Foreign Literatures and Linguistics, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel, Syntax Project, Dept. of Linguistics, University of Toronto, Dept. of Linguistics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Ritter, Elizabeth. 1996. Towards a principled explanation of morphological irregularity. Dept. of Linguistics, University of Victoria.

Ritter, Elizabeth and Sara Thomas Rosen. 1995. Strong and Weak Predicates: Reducing the Lexical Burden. Linguistics Dept., University of Alberta, Linguistics Dept., Tel Aviv University, Faculty of Arts, Utrecht University, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen.

Ritter, Elizabeth. 1994. From Inflectional Feature to Functional Category: The Evolution of Number Phrase. Linguistics Dept., University of British Columbia, Vancouver.

Ritter, Elizabeth. 1993. Sources of Meaning. Linguistics Dept., University of Calgary.

Ritter, Elizabeth. 1993. The Grammar of Noun Phrases. Linguistics Dept., York University, Toronto.

Ritter, Elizabeth and Sara Thomas Rosen. 1993. Arguments at Different Levels. The Workshop on Thematic Roles in Linguistic Theory and Language Acquisition, The University of Kansas, Lawrence.

Ritter, Elizabeth. 1992. Deriving Causative Verbs. Dept. of Linguistics, Yale University, New Haven.

Ritter, Elizabeth. 1992. Nominal Features and Nominal Categories. Linguistics Dept. Colloquium Series, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Ritter, Elizabeth. 1991. The Realization of Gender in Hebrew and Romance. Dept. of Linguistics, City University of New York.

Ritter, Elizabeth. 1989. On Agreement in Noun Phrases: Evidence from Modern Hebrew. Perspectives on Phrase Structure, Linguistics Society of America Summer Institute, University of Arizona, Tucson.

Ritter, Elizabeth. 1989. Locative, Existential and Possessive Constructions in Haitian and Hebrew. Dept. of Linguistics, McGill University, Montreal.

Ritter, Elizabeth. 1987. A head-movement approach to construct state noun phrases. Workshop on the Syntax and Semantics of NPs, Israel Association for Theoretical Linguistics, Hebrew University, Jerusalem.

Conference Presentations (refereed by abstract)

Ritter, Elizabeth and Martina Wiltschko. 2020. Interacting with vocatives. Canadian Linguistics Association Annual Meeting. Virtual Conference.

Ritter, Elizabeth and Martina Wiltschko. 2019. The syntax of formality: universals and variation. Canadian Linguistics Association Annual Meeting. University of British Columbia.

Bliss, Heather, Noreen Breaker & Elizabeth Ritter. 2019. A’tsotsspommootsiiyo’p Niitsitapi’powahsin: “We help each other together with the Blackfoot language”. 6^th International Conference on Language Documentation and Conservation. University of Hawaii, Manoa.

Ritter, Elizabeth and Martina Wiltschko. 2018. Distinguishing speech act roles from grammatical person features. Canadian Linguistics Association Annual Meeting. University of Regina.

Ritter, Elizabeth and Lavi Wolf. 2017. The Information Structure of imperatives. Canadian Linguistics Association Annual Meeting. Ryerson University.

Ritter, Elizabeth and Martina Wiltschko. 2016. Humanness as an alternative to case licensing. Canadian Linguistics Association Annual Meeting. University of Calgary.

Kim, Kyumin and Elizabeth Ritter. 2015. The categories of number in Blackfoot. The 46th Annual Algonquian Conference, Uncasville, Connecticut.

Wiltschko, Martina and Elizabeth Ritter. 2014. Animating the Narrow Syntax. GLOW 37. Brussels, Belgium.

Bliss, Heather, Elizabeth Ritter and Martina Wiltschko. 2012. B lackfoot nominalization patterns. The 44th Annual Algonquian Conference, University of Chicago, Chicago.

Ritter, Elizabeth and Sara Thomas Rosen. 2011. The argument structure of inalienable possession. Alberta Conference on Language, University of Alberta, Edmonton.

Bliss, Heather, Elizabeth Ritter and Martina Wiltschko. 2010. A comparison of theme marking in Blackfoot and Nishnaabemwin.The 42nd Annual Algonquian Conference, Memorial University of Newfoundland and ACOL University of Calgary.

Ritter, Elizabeth and Sara Thomas Rosen. 2010. Possessors as External Arguments: Evidence from Blackfoot. Workshop on Nominal Dependents, Banff, AB ; The 42nd Algonquian Conference, Memorial University of Newfoundland; LSA Annual Conference, Pittsburgh, PA.

Nakanishi, Kimiko and Elizabeth Ritter. 2009. Plurality in languages without a count-mass distinction. Mass-Count Workshop, University of Toronto, Toronto.

Johansson, Sara and Elizabeth Ritter. 2008. Determinants of Split intransitivity in Blackfoot: Evidence from Verbs of Emission. The 40th Annual Algonquian Conference, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Minneapolis.

Ritter, Elizabeth and Martina Wiltschko. 2008a. How person pervades Blackfoot syntax. and why. The 40th Annual Algonquian Conference, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Minneapolis.

Ritter, Elizabeth and Martina Wiltschko. 2008b. Parametric variation in the substantive content of INFL. Canadian Linguistics Association Annual Meeting. University of British Columbia, Vancouver.

Bliss, Heather and Elizabeth Ritter. 2007. Grammaticalizing Information Status in Siksiká Blackfoot: A Tenseless Analysis. Workshop on Structure and Constituency of the Languages of the Americas (WSCLA) 12. University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, Alberta.

Ritter, Elizabeth and Martina Wiltschko. 2007a. Varieties of INFL: Tense, Location and Person. The Second Brussels Conference on Generative Linguistics: Alternatives to Cartography (BCGL2). KUBrussels, Brussels Belgium.

Ritter, Elizabeth and Martina Wiltschko. 2007b. Alternatives to Tense in Blackfoot and Halkomelem. Workshop on Structure and Constituency of the Languages of the Americas (WSCLA) 12. University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, Alberta.

Ritter, Elizabeth and Martina Wiltschko. 2005. Anchoring Events to Utterances without Tense. West Coast Conference on Formal Lingusitics (WCCFL) 24. Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, B.C.

Ritter, Elizabeth and Martina Wiltschko. 2004b. The lack of tense as a syntactic category:
Evidence from Blackfoot and Halkomelem. 39th International conference on Salish and Neighbouring Languages, North Vancouver.

Ritter, Elizabeth and Martina Wiltschko. 2004a. The lack of tense as a syntactic category:
Evidence from Blackfoot and Halkomelem. Canadian Linguistics Association Annual Meeting. University of Manitoba.

Ritter, Elizabeth and Sara Thomas Rosen. 2003. Agreement without A positions: A closer look at Algonquian. Canadian Linguistics Association Annual Meeting. Dalhousie University, Halifax.

Hanson, Rebecca, Harley, Heidi and Elizabeth Ritter. 2000. Underspecification and Universal Defaults for Person and Number Features. Canadian Linguistics Association Annual Meeting. University of Alberta, Edmonton.

Harley, Heidi and Elizabeth Ritter. 2000. Structuring the bundle: a universal morphosyntactic feature geometry. German Society for Linguistics (DGfS), Marburg, Germany.

Ritter, Elizabeth. 1998. On the Significance of Split Agreement Systems. Israeli Association for Theoretical Linguistics, Ben Gurion University, Beer Sheva, Israel.

Ritter, Elizabeth. 1998. Agreement in the Semitic Prefix Conjugation. The Syntax of Semitic Languages, University of Southern California, Los Angeles.

Ritter, Elizabeth and Heidi Harley. 1998. Meaning in Morphology: A Feature-Geometric Analysis of Person and Number,” GLOW 20, Tilburg, The Netherlands.

Ritter, Elizabeth. 1997. Agreement in the Arabic Prefix Conjugation: Evidence for a non-linear approach to person, number and gender features. Canadian Linguistics Association Annual Meeting. Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, Newfoundland.

Ritter, Elizabeth. 1996. Variation in the Analysis of Third Person Pronouns and Anaphors. Colloque Grammaire et Variation, ACFAS, McGill University, Montreal.

Ritter, Elizabeth and Sara Thomas Rosen. 1995. The Function of have. SLE, Leiden, The Netherlands.

Ritter, Elizabeth and Sara Thomas Rosen. 1994. Weak and Strong Predicates. Linguistic Society of America, Boston.

Ritter, Elizabeth and Sara Thomas Rosen. 1993. The Status of Causer Arguments. Canadian Linguistics Association Annual Meeting, Carleton University, Ottawa.

Ritter, Elizabeth and Sara Thomas Rosen. 1993. The (In)dependence of External Arguments. WCCFL 12, University of California, Santa Cruz.

Ritter, Elizabeth. 1992. Where's Gender? Linguistic Society of America, Philadelphia.

Brousseau, Anne-Marie and Elizabeth Ritter. 1991. A non-unified analysis of agentive verbs. WCCFL 10. Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona.

Ritter, Elizabeth. 1991. Evidence for Number as a Nominal Head. GLOW 13, Leiden, The Netherlands.

Ritter, Elizabeth. 1990. On Pronominal Categories. Workshop on Hebrew Syntax, Université du Québec à Montréal.

Ritter, Elizabeth and Sara Thomas Rosen. 1990. Causative Have. NELS 21. Université du Québec à Montréal, Montreal.

Brousseau, Anne-Marie and Elizabeth Ritter. 1990. When kill is CAUSE to die. Canadian Linguistics Association Annual Meeting, University of Victoria.

Lefebvre, Claire and Elizabeth Ritter. 1990. Two types of Predicate Doubling Adverbs in Haitian Creole. Conference on Focus and Grammatical Relations in Creole Languages, The University of Chicago.

Ritter, Elizabeth and Sara Thomas Rosen. 1990. On Certain Differences Between Have and Make Causatives. Workshop on Lexical-Syntactic Relations, University of Toronto.

Ritter, Elizabeth and John S. Lumsden. 1989. Non-Raising in Haitian Creole. Canadian Linguistics Association Annual Meeting, Université Laval, Quebec City.

Cheng, Lisa and Elizabeth Ritter. 1988. A Small Clause Analysis of Inalienable Possession in Mandarin and French. NELS 18, University of Toronto.

Ritter, Elizabeth. 1987. NSO Noun Phrases in Modern Hebrew. NELS 17, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Conference Posters and Demonstrations

Ritter, Elizabeth and Martina Wiltschko. 2021. Grammar constrains the way I talk to myself.Canadian Linguistics Association Annual Meeting. Virtual Conference.

Bliss, Heather and Elizabeth Ritter. 2014. A direct evidential in Siksiká Blackfoot. SULA 8 (Semantics of Underrepresented Languages of the Americas), University of British Columbia, Vancouver.

Ritter, Elizabeth and Sara Thomas Rosen. 2011. On the argument status of alienable and inalienable possession. Fifty Years of Linguistics at MIT, A Scientific Reunion. MIT, Cambridge, MA.

Sara Johansson and Elizabeth Ritter. 2008. Animacy, agentivity and split intransitivity in Blackfoot. Workshop on Syntax at the Interfaces. Department of Linguistics, University of Calgary.

Ritter, Elizabeth and Martina Wiltschko. 2006. Relating verb stems in Blackfoot: The contribution of argument structure to stem agreement. The 38th Annual Algonquian Conference, University of British Columbia, Vancouver.

Bliss, Heather and Elizabeth Ritter. 2001. Developing a database of personal and demonstrative pronoun paradigms: Conceptual and technical challenges, IRCS Workshop on Linguistic Databases. University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

Degrees

PhD
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1988

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Elizabeth Ritter

Graduate Program in Linguistics

Research Interests

Research Interests:

Currently Teaching

Research