About

Heidi Harley is a professor in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Arizona. Her research investigates how word and sentence structures are built by universal syntactic mechanisms and how they are interpreted by language-specific morphophonological and conceptual systems. Her areas of focus include verbs, suppletion, argument structure, agreement, and the language Hiaki (Yaqui). Harley has contributed to the understanding of person and number in pronouns, possession and double object constructions, event structure in complex predicates, and the nature of roots in linguistic theory. She has authored several influential publications, including 'English Words: A Linguistic Introduction' and numerous articles in prominent linguistics journals, advancing the field's understanding of syntactic and morphological phenomena.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Philosophy
• Linguistics
• Computer Security
• Political Science
• Psychology
• Biology
• Law
• Epistemology
• Ecology
• Environmental ethics
• Mathematics
• Communication

Selected publications

• Plural reference dominance, markedness and semantic categorization in Hiaki pluralia tantum

  William & Mary School of Arts & Sciences · 2025-01-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  We provide a description and analysis of “pluralia tantum” (PT) nouns in the Southern Uto-Aztecan language Hiaki (Yaqui, Yoeme, YAQ ISO 639-3). We find that these nouns, which require plural morphosyntactic marking regardless of notional number, fall into several semantic categories. We then model the behavior of number marking in Hiaki using a Distributed Morphology framework. We analyze apparent mismatches in the agreement system that prima facie appear problematic for Corbett’s (2019) Agreement Hierarchy. We propose that they result from a distinction between purely morphological ‘Concord’ features on the noun that can be independent from semantically conditioned ‘Index’ features, taking the Concord/Index distinction from Wechsler and Zlatić (2000; 2003). Index features determine choice of suppletive verbal form, while Concord features control nominal number marking, adjectival and determiner number marking, and the form of anaphoric pronominals. The conclusion is that number-conditioned verbal suppletion is distinct from true verbal agreement. We conclude by discussing whether a frequentist account of the emergence of individual PT nouns might apply in the Hiaki case, i.e. whether plural-reference dominance in these semantic categories might have driven grammaticization of the nominal as a PT noun, and argue against this possibility.

  PublisherDOI

• True is more than false: Hiaki "chea"

  HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe) · 2024-06-11

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  International audience

  PublisherOA PDF

• Hiaki

  International Journal of American Linguistics · 2021-03-31

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Hiaki

  William & Mary School of Arts & Sciences · 2021-04-01

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Hiaki (ISO 639-3, yaq; also Yaqui, Yoeme, Jiaki; Tara-Cahitic) is from northern Sonora and southern Arizona. In Sonora it has several thousand speakers; in Ar- izona, only a few score uent speakers remain. Its EGIDS level is“moribund.” KUKA1 Told by Santos Leyva Creator transforms an ugly woman named Kuka into a tree with beautifully scented owers, the white thorn acacia (Vachiella constricta). This story was recorded March 3, 2019, at the University of Arizona in Tucson.

  PublisherDOI

• Some Hiaki ‘Echo Vowels’ Result from a Floating Glottal Feature

  William & Mary School of Arts & Sciences · 2021-01-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Hiaki (ISO639-3 yaq, Tara-Cahitic, Uto-Aztecan) has a poorly understood system of prosodic phonology, in which pitch accent, vowel length, and syllable structure interact. One process which is ubiquitous in the language but has not been extensively studied involves the appearance of ‘echo vowels’ (Dedrick and Casad 1999:28-29). This term is used to describe apparent V1ʔV1 sequences which appear in some lexically and morphologically conditioned contexts. Previous descriptions of echo vowels in Hiaki have appealed to phonotactic and metrical constraints on [ʔ.C] clusters that trigger the insertion of a copied (‘echo’) vowel (Dedrick and Casad 1999: 28-29). However, Hiaki has another robust method of breaking up illegal clusters using an epenthetic [i]. Instead, we propose that the [ʔ] seen in ‘echo’ V1ʔV1 sequences is not a glottal consonant, but a glottal feature that is attached to certain vowels. Depending on its phonological environment, this feature surfaces as either a glottal onset (before a vowel) or a preglottalized vowel (before a consonant-initial syllable).

  PublisherDOI

• Work-Family Balance in Academia

  2020-09-21

  book-chapterSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• 34. Work-Family Balance in Academia

  2020-09-21

  book-chapterSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Relative nominals and event nominals in Hiaki

  Oxford University Press eBooks · 2020 · 18 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Computer Science
  • Linguistics
  • Mathematics

  In ‘Relative nominals and event nominals in Hiaki’, Harley discusses an interesting formal overlap between nominalizations which create relative-clause like structures and nominalizations which create event nominals in Hiaki (Yaqui). The nominalizer which usually derives a subject relative nominal, when applied to an argumentless predicate such as a weather verb or an impersonal passive, also derives an event nominal. Harley argues that this is because the event argument IS the ‘subject’ of an argumentless predicate, the only accessible argument for the nominalizer to reify. In the process of proposing a uniform semantics for the relative nominalizers and the event nominalizer, a detailed analysis of both is provided. The nominalizers are argued to select an AspP complement. In entity-referring relative nominals, null operator movement is involved; in the event-referring event nominals, no operator is needed or possible. The syntax and morphology of the relative nominalizers is worked out in detail, with particular attention to the genitive-marked subjects of object, oblique, and locative relative nominals. <163>

  PublisherDOI

• Consider the agent in the arthropod

  Animal Sentience · 2020 · 28 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • Environmental ethics
  • Psychology

  Whether or not arthropods are sentient, they can have moral standing. Appeals to sentience are not necessary and retard progress in human treatment of other species, including invertebrates. Other increasingly well-documented aspects of invertebrate minds are pertinent to their welfare. Even if arthropods are not sentient, they can be agents whose goals—and therefore interests—can be frustrated. This kind of agency is sufficient for moral status and requires that we consider their welfare.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Hiaki ’echo vowels’ are motivated by phonotactics, but not the way we thought

  2020

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Computer Science
  • Linguistics
  • Computer Science

  Non UBC

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Hiaki Grammar: Documentation and Analysis

  NSF · $260k · 2015–2022

Frequent coauthors

• Bridget Copley

  Structures Formelles du Langage

  20 shared

• Raffaella Folli

  University of Ulster

  19 shared

• Andrew Carnie

  10 shared

• Mercedes Tubino Blanco

  5 shared

• Jason D. Haugen

  Oberlin College

  5 shared

• Rolf Noyer

  California University of Pennsylvania

  4 shared

• Simin Karimi

  Isfahan University of Medical Sciences

  4 shared

• Elizabeth Ritter

  University of Calgary

  3 shared