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Torres Bustamante Dissertation © 2013 Teresa Torres Bustamante ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ON THE SYNTAX AND SEMANTICS OF MIRATIVITY: EVIDENCE FROM SPANISH AND ALBANIAN By TERESA TORRES BUSTAMANTE A Dissertation submitted to the Graduate School-New Brunswick Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Program in Linguistics written under the direction of Dr. Mark Baker and approved by New Brunswick, New Jersey October, 2013 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION ! On the Syntax and Semantics of Mirativity: Evidence from Spanish and Albanian By TERESA TORRES BUSTAMANTE Dissertation Director: Mark Baker In this dissertation, I examine mirative constructions in Spanish and Albanian, in which past tense morphology is used to convey speaker's surprise and does not seem to contribute its usual temporal meaning to the asserted proposition. I put forward an analysis that makes the following claims. First, mirative sentences are assertions that include a modal component. This modal component brings up the speaker's beliefs in a way that entails the opposite of what the assertion expresses. Thus, a clash is generated between the speaker's beliefs and the assertion, and this triggers a sense of surprise. Second, the past tense morphology is analyzed as being a real past ! ""! tense, following recent proposals for counterfactual conditionals. In the case of miratives, the past tense keeps its normal semantics, but is interpreted in the CP domain as the time argument of the modal base, rather than in TP. The beliefs that are contrasted with the assertion are therefore past beliefs up to the discovery time (which usually coincides with the speech time), in which the actual state of affairs is encountered by the speaker. Third, a syntactic Agree relationship is established between the interpretable past tense feature in C and the uninterpretable past tense feature in T. This Agree relationship must meet locality requirements, such that there must not be intervenors between C and T. I claim that the participle movement observed in Albanian miratives happens in order to overcome intervention, so that Agree can take place. The dissertation also accounts for the role of aspect in deriving differences in the nature of the surprise, at least in Spanish, and for the aspectual requirement that miratives seem to have cross linguistically. Finally, I show that miratives cannot be analyzed in the same way as apparently similar constructions, in terms of usage, such as exclamations and exclamatives. On the contrary, the analysis presented in this dissertation calls for a closer relationship between miratives and counterfactual conditionals, which I also explore. ! """! Acknowledgements Recent scientific research1 has proven that a key factor in happiness is gratitude. So, even though I am writing these acknowledgements at the last minute, I am definitely enjoying it. First, I want to thank my wonderful dissertation committee. Mark Baker has been an amazing chair and professor throughout my graduate studies. I am fortunate to have been his student and to have had weekly meetings with him, where I learned how to be a linguist. Veneeta Dayal has been more than a professor and an advisor; she has been a true mentor. In her classes and advising, I learned to appreciate how much semantics can tell us about language. Veneeta also supported and encouraged me in many ways during my graduate studies, and made me feel confident about my work. Liliana Sánchez has also been such a help to me since we first met at Rutgers. Back in Peru, I had heard lots of good things about her, and I was happy to confirm that all those things were true. In every meeting she made me understand many issues of my dissertation and provided me with new solutions (not only with respect to Linguistics, but also grad life). Finally, I was also lucky enough to get to work with one of my favorite semanticists, Valentine Hacquard. She joined my committee late, but many of her insights and questions about my project made this dissertation better. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 1 Seligman, M.E.P, Steen, T.A., Park, N., & Peterson, C.P. (2005). Positive psychology progress: Empirical validation of interventions. American Psychologist 60 (10), 410-421. ! "#! I am very grateful to Rrezarta Veseli for her help with the Albanian data, as well as to the Peruvian participants of the intonation pilot experiment I discuss in chapter 4. During this project, I had the pleasure of discussing mirativity with people outside Rutgers, especially, Norbert Corver, Kyle Rawlins, Scott AnderBois, Craige Roberts and Graham Katz. I also appreciate the classes and meetings I had with many professors at Rutgers. Roger Schwarzschild guided me in the beginning of this project and actually pointed out some of the key ideas of this dissertation, such as the importance of looking at counterfactuals. Jane Grinshaw's interest in my topic was decisive, since she insisted I looked carefully at exclamatives and embedding. Some of my best experiences at Rutgers were my exciting meetings with Viviane Déprez discussing Shipibo symmetrical objects. Thanks also to Alan Prince, Kristen Syrett, José Camacho, Bruce Tesar, Akin Akinlabi, Shigeto Kawahara and Ken Safir. I couldn't have made it to Rutgers if it weren't for the support and encouragement, and for the amazing classes, of my Linguistics professors in Peru. Many thanks to Héctor Velásquez, Rodolfo Cerrón-Palomino, Virginia Zavala, and Jorge Pérez. I also appreciate Susana de los Heros' trust and interest in my studies over these years. During these six years, there were moments when I wondered whether it was a good idea to do grad school away from home, but then I thought about all the wonderful people I wouldn’t have had the chance to meet ! #! otherwise. Jimmy Bruno was not only the best roommate ever, but my best friend at Rutgers. We cooked together, hoarded lots of tomato sauce cans together, and laughed and cried together. If it were only for having the pleasure to know Jimmy, I think all these six years were absolutely worthwhile. But lucky as I am, I got to meet other great friends. Carlo Linares, Alexandra Vergara and Catalina were my second family at Rutgers, and it’s great I have them in Peru too. I don’t think I would have survived grad school without all the indie-pop shows and papitas Aaron Braver and I had in NYC, as well as our regular music exchanges. Jeremy Perkins’s sunny spirit and loyal friendship was the perfect complement to my grumpiness. I will miss the conversations and teas I had with Vandana Bajaj, as well as the laughs over lunch with Claudia Arteaga. I will also miss all the great times I had with Matt Barros, Paula (who introduced to me to the perfect world of vegan pastry), Patrick and Zelda Houghton; Vra Dvorak, Todor Koev, Inna Goldberg, Sarah Murray, Carlos Fasola, Oscar Horta, Barbara Mergelsberg, Seunghun Lee, Jiyeong Song, Diti Bhadra, Satarupa Das, the Queen Mistress, Sara O'Neill, Will Bennett, Juan Pablo Comínguez, Beibei Xu, Sarah Hansen, MingMing Liu, Shasha Zhu, Peter Staroverov, Asya Achimova, Luca Iacoponi, Masa Yamada and I-ta Hsieh. I hope to see you guys again, somewhere. Also, I want to thank Michael Lawton and Kate Hedman for providing me with a great home my final semester at Rutgers. I cannot imagine my life without animals, and I was so lucky to have met new friends here as well. Special ! #"! thanks to the late Miss Kitty, Bopsey, and Chuck. And thanks to Max, Primus and Secundus, Weezy and Georgie for sharing with me their cuteness. My Peruvian friends were crucial in my dissertation, unbeknownst to them. They were with me all the time, in Lima and by long-distance in New Jersey. Thanks to my dear friends Claudia, Andrea, Nano, Polly, and Rob. I am so happy to get back to our dialectic meetings and movie-marathons. Galleta (Neto), Isra and Roxy made me feel younger and alive every time I went to Lima. My fellow animal rights activists from UPA deserve a special mention, since they were very understanding of me being away from my duties: Fabiana, Corinne, Heidi, Ursula, Milagros, and Inés. Thanks also to my friends Héctor (¡gracias por todo!) Adela, Mili, Lizeth, Lucía, Milagros R., Roberto Z., Aldo, and Fer. A token of gratitude to Joaquín for the great moments in Peru, Brazil, and long-distance between Highland Park and Campinas. My family has been a great source of support and strength over these years and being away made me aware of how much I needed them, and how much I need them, and I dedicate this thesis to them. Thanks to my parents, Miriam and Ernesto, to my sisters Vanesa and Lucía, to my brother Fabricio, to my nephew Tavito, and to Juanita. Last but not least, thanks to my beloved Carlitos, Lobita and Bronquita, who are not with me to celebrate. Thanks to my adorable non-human people Tony, Cati, Nacho and Gary for putting up with my absence. Ya estoy en casa, michis. ! #""! Contents ! Abstract !$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$!""! Acknowledgements!$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$!"#! List of Abbreviations!$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$!%"#! Chapter 1!!!Introduction!""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""!#!
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