Existential Quantification in Tiwa
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Existential quantification in Tiwa: disjunction and indefinites by Virginia Ellen Dawson A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Amy Rose Deal, Chair Professor Line Mikkelsen Professor Peter Jenks Professor Seth Yalcin Summer 2020 Existential quantification in Tiwa: disjunction and indefinites Copyright 2020 by Virginia Ellen Dawson 1 Abstract Existential quantification in Tiwa: disjunction and indefinites by Virginia Ellen Dawson Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics University of California, Berkeley Professor Amy Rose Deal, Chair This dissertation examines the semantics and pragmatics of disjunction and indefinites in Tiwa, an understudied Tibeto-Burman language of northeast India. The core focus of the dis- sertation concerns cross-linguistic variation and its implications for semantic theory. Broadly, I address the extent to which languages encode similar meanings through the same semantic means; what mechanisms are best suited to model those meanings; and how the theory can best model what cross-linguistic variation we do find. Concretely, I provide novel cross- linguistic evidence from phrasal comparatives that disjunction is alternative-denoting, and argue that languages can employ different semantic mechanisms in deriving exceptional wide scope. Tiwa's large system of indefinites and disjunction particles, which are in part morphologi- cally related, provide an ideal subject for exploring the logical connection between disjunction and indefinites (which amount to existential quantification over explicit and non-explicit do- mains respectively). While cross-linguistic studies of indefinites have seen an increase in recent years, disjunction has not received the same level of attention. In this dissertation, I provide a detailed description of the semantic and pragmatic behavior of Tiwa's various dis- junction particles and their related indefinites, which, among other things, explicitly encode scope. Additionally, the dissertation contains a broader sketch of Tiwa grammar as a whole, which provides documentation and formal description of many aspects of the language. This empirical contribution is the result of original fieldwork in Assam, India, over the course of four years. i To my Tiwa teachers: Bibiana Maslai, Juliana Maslai, and Mary Maslai ii Contents Contents ii List of Tables v List of Abbreviations vi 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Indefinites and disjunction . 1 1.2 Structure of the dissertation . 6 1.3 Background on Tiwa and the data . 6 2 Tiwa grammar sketch 10 2.1 Phonology . 10 2.1.1 Phonemes and phonotactics . 10 2.1.2 Major phonological processes . 12 2.1.3 Orthography . 13 2.2 Morphology . 14 2.2.1 Verb inflection . 14 2.2.1.1 Tense, aspect and negation . 16 2.2.1.2 Agreement . 25 2.2.2 Case . 27 2.2.3 Pronouns and demonstratives . 33 2.2.4 Number marking . 35 2.2.5 Information structure . 38 2.3 Nominals . 44 2.3.1 The DP . 44 2.3.2 Numerals and classifiers . 48 2.3.3 Adjectives and relative clauses . 52 2.3.4 Definiteness . 54 2.4 The clause . 57 2.4.1 The clausal spine . 57 2.4.2 Auxiliary verbs . 58 iii 2.4.3 Complement clauses . 63 2.4.4 Scrambling and extraposition . 66 2.4.5 Discontinuous DPs . 69 2.4.6 Conditionals . 71 2.4.7 Comparatives . 75 2.4.8 Questions . 78 2.4.9 Imperatives . 82 2.5 Coordination . 84 2.5.1 Conjunction . 85 2.5.2 Disjunction . 87 2.6 Quantification . 91 2.6.1 Quantifiers . 92 2.6.2 Indefinites . 93 2.6.2.1 Bare nouns and the numeral `one' . 94 2.6.2.2 Indeterminate-based indefinites . 96 2.6.2.3 Free choice indeterminates and NPIs . 101 2.7 Summary . 104 3 Disjunction as alternatives 105 3.1 Two approaches to disjunction . 105 3.2 Disjunction as the Boolean join . 106 3.3 The alternative view . 108 3.4 The ongoing debate . 111 3.5 Disjunctions of names . 115 3.6 ba disjunction in Tiwa . 116 3.6.1 Obligatory narrow scope . 118 3.7 Testing the prediction: ba disjunction in unreduced phrasal comparatives . 121 3.7.1 Phrasal comparatives in Tiwa . 122 3.7.2 Quantifiers in phrasal comparatives . 125 3.7.3 Disjunctions of names in phrasal comparatives . 129 3.8 ba disjunctions as alternative-denoting . 131 3.8.1 The basic analysis . 132 3.8.2 Handling the alternatives . 134 3.8.3 Obligatory narrow scope . 136 3.9 Conclusion . 140 4 Paths to exceptional wide scope 141 4.1 Deriving wide scope . 141 4.2 kh´ı phrases in Tiwa . 144 4.2.1 Indefinites . 144 4.2.2 Disjunction . 146 4.3 Widest scope in the minimal finite clause . 148 iv 4.3.1 Widest scope in minimal finite clause . 148 4.3.2 Evidence against scope-taking by standard movement . 150 4.3.3 Evidence against domain restriction and topicality as sources of wide scope . 154 4.4 A choice functional approach . 155 4.4.1 kh´ı as a choice function variable . 156 4.4.2 Existential closure . 159 4.4.3 Summary . 162 4.5 Binding into indefinites and disjunction . 163 4.5.1 Bound pronouns in kh´ı phrases . 164 4.5.2 Covariation and static sets . 166 4.6 Outscoping the binding operator . 168 4.6.1 Downward-entailing environments in English . 169 4.6.2 kh´ı phrases outscope binding operators . 171 4.7 The pragmatics of choice functions . 175 4.7.1 A certain ................................. 175 4.7.2 The pragmatics of kh´ı . 177 4.7.3 Choice functions, existential closure and ignorance . 183 4.8 Obligatory wide scope: the cross-linguistic outlook . 186 4.9 Conclusion . 191 5 Conclusion 192 5.1 Summary of findings and broader implications . 192 5.2 The interaction of ba and kh´ı . 194 5.3 Open questions and future directions . 196 Bibliography 198 v List of Tables 2.1 Phonemic consonant inventory . 11 2.2 Phonemic vowel inventory . 11 2.3 Consonant graphemes . 13 2.4 Vowel graphemes . 13 2.5 Finite verb inflection . 15 2.6 Case suffixes . 27 2.7 Temporal expressions with dative . 30 2.8 Pronouns . 33 2.9 Pronominal case forms . 33 2.10 Proximal demonstratives . 35 2.11 Core information structure morphology . 39 2.12 Count classifiers . 49 2.13 Common auxiliary verbs . 59 2.14 Wh-words . 80 2.15 Quantifiers . 92 2.16 khi and pha indefinites . 97 2.17 Free choice indeterminates . ..