DOCSLIB.ORG

Plurality As a Phi-Feature in Non-Inflectional Plurals

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Plurality As a Phi-Feature in Non-Inflectional Plurals University of Calgary PRISM: University of Calgary's Digital Repository Calgary (Working) Papers in Linguistics Volume 31, 2020 2020-11-19 Plurality as a Phi-Feature in Non-Inflectional Plurals McDonald, Brittany http://hdl.handle.net/1880/112766 journal article https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 Downloaded from PRISM: https://prism.ucalgary.ca M c D o n a l d | 59 Plurality as a Phi-Feature in Non- Inflectional Plurals Brittany McDonald University of Calgary Abstract Some languages, such as Pirahã, express plurality through means other than plural inflectional morphology. Wiltschko (2008) calls these alternative plural marking strategies non-inflectional plurals and develops several diagnostic criteria for determining whether or not a language is an inflectional plural- marking language, illustrated with examples from English (an inflectional plural-marking language) Halkomelem (a non-inflectional plural language). These criteria pertain to obligatoriness, agreement, compounding, and derivational morphology. This paper expands on these criteria, drawing two more from Greenberg’s (1963) Universals, to answer the following research question: Do non-inflectional plurals possess a plural phi-feature? This paper explores this question by looking at certain properties of Khmer and Thai, two languages which appear to have non-inflectional plurals, to look for any evidence of the presence of phi-features in their respective plural-marking strategies. Key words: Syntax, morphology, inflection, derivation, plural, phi-features. M c D o n a l d | 60 1 Introduction Number is a feature which has been widely studied in language and, while it is generally thought to be well-understood, theories change and new discoveries can be made which force us to reconsider what we have learnt. For instance, it was once believed that all languages had grammatical number until the discovery of Pirahã provided evidence to the contrary (Corbett, 2000, p. 50). In this language, there are no plural forms for nominals, not even for pronouns (Corbett, 2000, p. 50). Instead, plural is expressed through conjunction as shown in (1), or the use of the comitative/associative postposition xigí (Corbett, 2000, p. 50). 1) ti gíxai pí-o ahá-p-i-í 1 2 also-OBL go-IMP-PROX-COMPLETE.CERTAINTY (You and I will go) (Corbett, 2000, p. 51, Figure 35) Wiltschko (2008) refers to these alternative means of expressing plurality as non-inflectional plurals. Knowing that there are languages that can express plurality by means other than grammatical number, the grammatical properties of these non-inflectional plurals come into question. This paper will attempt to answer the question in (2). 2) Do non-inflectional plurals possess a plural phi-feature? In this paper, I conclude that it is entirely possible for non-inflectional plural forms to lack phi-features, though this may not be the case for all non-inflectional plural marking languages. This could have certain implications about the language’s entire grammar. The most striking, perhaps, is the effect this would have on a language’s agreement system. As there are other coding strategies besides agreement, such as word order and case-marking, it is plausible to consider that languages are able to express many of the same ideas, such as the idea of plurality, clearly without the use of phi-features or agreement. In terms of markedness and Greenberg’s Universal 34 in (3), there are certain expectations to be had regarding number marking systems in language. Essentially, that singular is the least marked number form, followed by plural, then by dual, etc. 3) No language has trial number unless it has dual. No language has dual unless it has plural. (Greenberg, 1963, p. 94, Universal 34) Japanese has been described as a language with a plural form but no singular which violates (3) (Corbett, 2000, p. 38). It has been argued that since Japanese only optionally marks plural forms there is still a singular/plural distinction when plural is marked, therefore it does not violate Universal 34 (Corbett, 2000, p. 38). There are, however, several languages which behave like Japanese in that they optionally mark for plural, and sometimes have a single form for both singular and plural. Presumably, these languages (Japanese included) would have non-inflectional plural marking of some kind. M c D o n a l d | 61 Section 2 of this paper will briefly introduce the idea of non-inflectional plural marking and some diagnostic criteria from Wiltschko (2008), as well as introduce new criteria for consideration. Section 3 will survey the plural marking systems of three languages; English (a review and continuation of the analysis performed in Witschko (2008)), Khmer, and Thai as well as apply each criterion to these languages to see which patterns emerge. Section 4 will discuss the findings in Section 3. Concluding remarks will follow in Section 5. 2 Non-inflectional plurals Wiltschko (2008) explains the phenomenon of non-inflectional plurals in Halkomelem in great detail. She also provides four main diagnostic criteria for identifying whether a given language has an inflectional or non-inflectional plural marking system. Under this analysis, non-inflectional plurals are considered modifiers adjoined in the structure rather than heads of a NumP (#P) (Wiltschko, 2008, p. 646). Four main criteria are explored and are listed in (4). These criteria are used to differentiate between inflectional and non-inflectional plurals. 4) a. Is plural marking obligatory? b. Does plural marking trigger agreement? c. Can plural marking appear inside compounds? d. Can plural marking appear inside derivational morphology? (Wiltschko, 2008, p. 642) I propose that these criteria do not only distinguish between inflectional and non-inflectional plural but are also relevant to the presence or absence of phi-features, in particular, criterion (4a). It is normally expected that a controller (in this case, a nominal) would invoke some sort of agreement on its target (verb, article/determiner, adjective/modifier) (Corbett, 2000, p. 178). This suggests a correspondence between the grammatical features of a controller and those valued on its target. If the features of a nominal are not phi-features, but rather some sort of semantic or pragmatic features, it follows that these same features cannot apply to the target in the grammar, not triggering agreement. Criteria (4a, c, and d) are also relevant to the presence or absence of phi-features, as the distribution of non-inflectional plurals does not seem to match that of their inflectional counterparts in the languages that have them. This could indicate that while inflectional plurals have one type of distribution dictated by phi-features, non-inflectional plurals have another based on whatever type of features they possess (i.e. semantic, pragmatic). In addition to the criteria in (4) I propose two more in (5). (5a) is motivated by Greenberg’s (1963) Universal 36 shown in (6). 5) a. Does the language have grammatical gender? b. Do pronouns show a number distinction? 6) If a language has the category of gender, it always has the category of number. (Greenberg, 1963, p. 58, Universal 36) M c D o n a l d | 62 While (5a) may not be a defining criterion for a language having plural number, it does reveal a general tendency of language which can be used in support of other criteria. (5b) is relevant because, as Corbett (2000) notes, languages are not always symmetric in how they mark plural in pronouns and other nominals, but if a language does not have a number distinction in its pronouns, it is unlikely that it would mark for plurality on other nominals (p. 27). 3 Analysis Section 3.1 will apply the criteria in (4) and (5) to English, a language known to have inflectional plural, to set a baseline for one type of plural marking in order to make comparisons in the following sections. Section 3.2 will explore the different plural marking devices in Khmer and investigate the criteria proposed in the beginning of this section in relation to Khmer. Section 3.3 will do the same for Thai. 3.1 English 3.1.1 Inflectional Plurals in English Wiltschko (2008) performs the following analysis of English plural marking in order to contrast it with the system found in Halkomelem. I will briefly show her findings in English and then apply the new criteria in (5). These will clearly show that English, an inflectional plural marking language, clearly follows the criteria in a particular pattern which will prove to be different than non-inflectional plural marking languages. 3.1.2 Criteria in English Plural marking in English is obligatory. If a noun phrase has a cardinality greater than one, it generally must be marked with plural -/s/ or one of its allomorphs (Wiltschko, 2008, p. 642). This is seen in basic examples such as (7). For English, the answer to the question in (4a) is yes. 7) a. the three boys b. *the three boy (Wiltschko, 2008, p. 642, figures (2a and b)) Plural marking in English triggers agreement within a DP, as seen in (8)a and b, and also triggers agreement on verbs if the subject is 3rd person singular as seen in (8)c and d. For English, the answer to the question in (4b) is yes. 8) a. This boy can sing b. *These boy can sing (Wiltschko, 2008, p. 643, figures (5c and d)) c. The boy walks. d. *The boy walk. M c D o n a l d | 63 In English, plural marking is not permitted inside compounds. Even when a noun has a plural interpretation, such as in toothbrush since one would normally brush more than one tooth with it, the plural marking must appear on the entire compound and not on an element inside of it.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Minimal Pronouns1
    1 Minimal Pronouns1 Fake Indexicals as Windows into the Properties of Bound Variable Pronouns Angelika Kratzer University of Massachusetts at Amherst June 2006 Abstract The paper challenges the widely accepted belief that the relation between a bound variable pronoun and its antecedent is not necessarily submitted to locality constraints. It argues that the locality constraints for bound variable pronouns that are not explicitly marked as such are often hard to detect because of (a) alternative strategies that produce the illusion of true bound variable interpretations and (b) language specific spell-out noise that obscures the presence of agreement chains. To identify and control for those interfering factors, the paper focuses on ‘fake indexicals’, 1st or 2nd person pronouns with bound variable interpretations. Following up on Kratzer (1998), I argue that (non-logophoric) fake indexicals are born with an incomplete set of features and acquire the remaining features via chains of local agreement relations established in the syntax. If fake indexicals are born with an incomplete set of features, we need a principled account of what those features are. The paper derives such an account from a semantic theory of pronominal features that is in line with contemporary typological work on possible pronominal paradigms. Keywords: agreement, bound variable pronouns, fake indexicals, meaning of pronominal features, pronominal ambiguity, typologogy of pronouns. 1 . I received much appreciated feedback from audiences in Paris (CSSP, September 2005), at UC Santa Cruz (November 2005), the University of Saarbrücken (workshop on DPs and QPs, December 2005), the University of Tokyo (SALT XIII, March 2006), and the University of Tromsø (workshop on decomposition, May 2006).
    [Show full text]
  • ENGENDERING PHI-FEATURES Typology of Morphosyntactic Parameters, МГГУ & Ин
    1 Ora Matushansky, CNRS/Université Paris-8/UiL OTS/Utrecht University email: O.M.Mаtushа[email protected] homepage: http://www.let.uu.nl/~Ora.Matushansky/personal/ ENGENDERING PHI-FEATURES Typology of Morphosyntactic Parameters, МГГУ & Ин. языкознания РАН, October 16-18, 2013 -features are inherent properties of an NP that affect its agreement patterns (and anaphora) The declension class of a noun (a.k.a. its word class), while being inherent, only affects the morphological realization of the noun itself Usually phi-features are assumed to be linked to dedicated loci in the extended NP: Gender & animacy: introduced by the head noun (or by nP/GenP) Number: determined by the presence of number morphology (NumP) Person: exclusively property of pronouns (i.e., of D°) Definiteness: correlated with D° The actual picture is more complicated: gender: mixed agreement requires gender higher in the NP number: pluralia tantum are lexically determined Do we need two mechanisms of engendering phi-features: in the syntax and in the lexicon? 1. INTRODUCTION: THE RUSSIAN Animacy: governs the accusative case syncretism: accusative surfaces as genitive for animate nouns and as nominative for inanimate nouns in the plural of all declension classes and in the singular for nouns ending in a consonant on the surface (type ĭ, a.k.a. the second declension) singular -o- and -ĭ- nouns are inanimate irrespective of their denotation nouns denoting supernatural or human beings, dolls (including marionettes) and animals are animate (even if their denotatum isn't,
    [Show full text]
  • The Syntactic Category of Deadjectival Nouns in German: Evidence from Relative Clause Formation
    The syntactic category of deadjectival nouns in German: Evidence from relative clause formation Stuttgart, 14.06.2016 Eric Fuß, IDS Mannheim [email protected] 1. Introduction • German: Two strategies to derive (abstract) nouns from adjectives: (1) derivational suffixes (e.g. -heit/-keit/-tum/-ität); (2) conversion • Only (2) is fully Productive in Present-day German (cf. gaps like *Gutheit ‘good+HEIT’, *Hochheit ‘high+HEIT’, *Gekauftheit ‘buy++HEIT’ *Besserkeit ‘better+KEIT’ etc.). (2) can apPly to adjectives (including participles) and their comParative/superlative forms: (3) a. gut ‘good’ → das Gute ‘the good (thing)’, besser ‘better’→ das Bessere ‘the better’, best- ‘best’→ das Beste ‘the best’ b. sehend ‘seeing’ → der Sehende ‘the one who sees’, erlebt ‘exPerienced’→ das Erlebte ‘what has been exPerienced ‘, gekauft ‘bought’→ das Gekaufte ‘what has been bought’ • The (neuter) forms in (3) tyPically refer to (instantiations) of proPerties, or to Persons/things that are characterized by a certain proPerty. • The Products of (2) exhibit a set of sPecial proPerties that raise questions concerning their categorial status and internal syntactic structure (cf. Kester 1996a,b, Sleeman 2013, McNally & Swart 2015 on Dutch; Alexiadou 2011, 2015 on SPanish/Greek/English, Alexiadou & Iordăchioaia 2014 on German, Romanian, Greek, and French). Nominal properties • syntactic distribution tyPical of nouns • Presence of determiners/determiner-like elements, cf. (4) • adjectival modification, similar to nouns, cf. (5) (4) a. das/vieles/alles Gute the /much/all good (weak inflection) b. ein/viel/nichts Gutes a/much/nothing good (strong inflection) (5) a. das vermeintliche/einzige/vollständige Neue the alleged/only/comPlete new (one) b. das vermeintliche/einzige/vollständige OPfer the alleged/only/comPlete victim/sacrifice 2 Adjectival properties • alternation between strong and weak inflection, cf.
    [Show full text]
  • Phi-Feature Inflection and Agreement: an Introduction
    Nat Lang Linguist Theory (2011) 29:857–874 DOI 10.1007/s11049-011-9156-y Phi-feature inflection and agreement: An introduction Marcel den Dikken Published online: 20 October 2011 © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011 Abstract The linguistic literature abounds with discussions of phi-feature inflection. The formalist tradition has, in a variety of ways, approached this phenomenon pre- dominantly in terms of an agreement relationship between two terms of a syntactic structure—for instance, the subject and the finite verb (typically showing agreement for person and number), or the object and a past participle (which, e.g. in the Ro- mance languages, may agree for number and gender, but not for person). But not all these agreement relationships affect all phi-features equally, which raises the question of whether there is to be a unified approach to phi-features in general. And two terms that can entertain an agreement relationship for certain phi-features do not seem to engage in such agreement every time they might be expected to so do. On the surface, plural subjects can co-occur with singularly inflected finite verbs, and vice versa; and sometimes a subpart of the subject seems to control the selection of the inflection on the finite verb, in so-called ‘attraction’ cases. These kinds of phenomena give rise to an in-depth exploration of the nature and reality of agreement relationships, including the possibility of an analysis treating phi-featural properties as autonomous vis-à-vis one another, assigned to each term separately, not under agreement. This special issue brings together a collection of papers and commentaries reflecting on these matters in various ways.
    [Show full text]
  • Minimal Verbal and Adjectival Inflection in Dibole * Myles Leitch SIL International, Myles [email protected]
    SOAS Working Papers in Linguistics Vol.15 (2007): 121-134 Minimal Verbal and Adjectival Inflection in Dibole * Myles Leitch SIL International, [email protected] 1. Introduction In Government and Binding Theory (henceforth GB, Chomsky 1981, 1986, etc.), and a good deal of later work in minimalist syntax, there has been considerable interest in functional categories like Tense (T), Agreement (AGR), Number (NUM), Determiner (D), etc. and their relationship to lexical categories V, N, and A, within the overall architecture of the clause. 1 A particular line of this general research has explored parallels between the functional projections in the verbal and nominal domains (the DP hypothesis of Abney (1987) and subsequent work, almost taken as a ‘given’ in recent work in the Minimalist program). Assuming the basic conceptual framework of the Minimalist program of Chomsky (1995, 1999), in this paper I explore the relationships between a number of what might, at first glance, be considered disparate syntactic phenomena. I argue that in Dibole, a Bantu language of zone C, ‘ordinary’ relative clauses and attributive adjectives have parallel syntactic structure, reflecting the parallel semantic interpretation of ‘modification’. 2 What is of interest here is that various morphosyntactic features and feature combinations (WH, EPP, T, AGR, etc.) are expressed by different tonal contours on a single verb/adjective agreement prefix. I argue that this segmental prefix corresponds to a single head of a generic functional projection FP (exploiting one option of Feature Scattering as in e.g. Chomsky 1995, Giorgi and Pianesi 1997). For the relative clause analysis, I adopt the standard ‘adjoined to X’ and ‘empty operator’ analysis of relative clauses (for example Haegeman (1994)), where the relative head is ‘adjoined’ to CP and coindexed to an empty WH operator in the structure (whether in subject, object or adjunct position).
    [Show full text]
  • Application of Resolution Rules on Phi-Features in L2 Compositions: Native Arabic Writers in an L2 English
    St. Cloud State University theRepository at St. Cloud State Culminating Projects in English 10-2016 Application of Resolution Rules on phi-Features in L2 Compositions: Native Arabic Writers in an L2 English Jon Cotner St Cloud State University Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.stcloudstate.edu/engl_etds Recommended Citation Cotner, Jon, "Application of Resolution Rules on phi-Features in L2 Compositions: Native Arabic Writers in an L2 English" (2016). Culminating Projects in English. 75. https://repository.stcloudstate.edu/engl_etds/75 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by theRepository at St. Cloud State. It has been accepted for inclusion in Culminating Projects in English by an authorized administrator of theRepository at St. Cloud State. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Application of Resolution Rules on phi-Features in L2 Compositions: Native Arabic Writers in an L2 English by Jon Cotner A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of St. Cloud State University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in English October, 2016 Thesis Committee: Dr. Ettien Koffi, Chairperson Dr. Edward Sadrai Dr. Emily Schultz 2 ABSTRACT Resolution rules are syntactic parameters that regulate the proper agreement of phi-features (person, number, and gender) between a noun/noun phrase and a verb phrase within a grammatical language system. This study examines L2 English compositions written by native Arabic speakers and investigates whether or not students transfer agreement patterns from their L1 to their L2. Although the compositions were examined primarily for salient resolution rule agreement errors, the scope was widened to also include other agreement issues that were prevalent.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Plural Marking and Agreement in Yucatec Maya at the Syntax
    Plural marking and agreement in Yucatec Maya at the syntax-processing interface Lindsay K. Butlera,*, T. Florian Jaegera, Jürgen Bohnemeyerb aBrain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester bLinguistics, University at Buffalo (SUNY) *Corresponding author: [email protected] Abstract We investigate the relationship between a universal semantic category and language- specific variation in its morphosyntactic representation and real-time processing. We examine this issue through the lens of non-obligatory plural marking on nouns and non- obligatory co-variant plural marking on verbs in Yucatec Maya. In previous work, we have argued that Yucatec presents a previously unobserved case in the typology of plural marking predicted by Wiltschko (2008). We review these arguments and summarize elicitation and quantitative behavioral evidence in support of it. The behavioral results, however, reveal that other factors contribute to speakers’ preferences to morphologically mark or not mark plural phrases in Yucatec. In two sentence production experiments, we find that speakers’ gradient preferences to realize non-obligatory plural marking in Yucatec is subject to the same effects that contribute to agreement errors in languages with obligatory plural marking, such as English. We discuss the implications of these results for linguistic theory, for psycholinguistics and for the grammar of Yucatec and Mayan languges in general. 1 1 Introduction One of the goals of linguistic theory is to examine the range of variation among languages in consideration of proposed universal tendencies. The major goal of examining the interface between syntax and sentence processing is to investigate the pressures of real-time incremental sentence processing that shape the nature of linguistic representations.
    [Show full text]
  • What Type of Pronouns Do Japanese and Korean Have?
    WHAT TYPE OF PRONOUNS DO JAPANESE AND KOREAN HAVE? Brittany McDonald University of Calgary 1. Introduction Many linguists have proposed that above the CP level of syntactic structure there is an abstract layer (sometimes referred to as the interactional layer) that encodes information related to discourse (see Speas and Tenny 2003, Heim et al. 2016, Hill 2013). Ritter and Wiltschko (2018) have hypothesized that this same interactional layer exists for nominals above the DP level and it encodes the attitudes of the speaker and addressee towards the referent of the nominal. Using the interactional layer of nominal structure, Ritter and Wiltschko (2019) define two types of formal pronouns. For the remainder of this paper the term ‘formal’ is used to denote a type of pronoun that signifies social proximity (informal) or distance (formal) and expresses the type of relationship between the speaker and either the addressee or the referent of the nominal. Type I pronouns are bundles of binary phi-features (e.g. [±1st person], [±plural], [±feminine]…etc.) (Ritter and Wiltschko 2019). These are merged in the DP layer of structure and form typical pronominal paradigms which are contrastive for phi-features. Type I pronouns generally express a binary formality distinction; either a pronoun is considered formal or it is not. These pronouns are commonly found in Indo-European languages such as French and German. Type II pronouns encode much more than phi-features (e.g. the speaker and addressee’s relative social status, age, gender…etc.) (Ritter and Wiltschko 2019).1 These are merged in the interactional layer of structure and do not form paradigms which are contrastive for phi-features.
    [Show full text]
  • SYNTAX: an Introduction to Minimalism
    SYNTAX: An Introduction to Minimalism Elly van Gelderen 25 May 2017 version 1 Table of Contents Preface Abbreviations Chapter 1: Generative Grammar 1 Universal Grammar 2 Parameters 3 Minimalism 4 Conclusion Chapter 2: Building blocks 1 Lexical Categories 2 Grammatical Categories 3 Pronouns 4 Conclusion Chapter 3: Structure and Hierarchy 1 Phrases 2 Movement 3 Hierarchical structures and c-command 4 Grammatical Functions 5 Conclusion Chapter 4: The VP: argument structure 1 Verbs and theta-roles 2 Subjects start in the VP 3 The vP and VP 4 Empty elements 2 5 Conclusion Chapter 5: The TP 1 What is in the T? 2 Tense, grammatical aspect, and mood 3 TP adverb(ial)s 4 Movement involving T and the position of the negative 5 Conclusion Chapter 6: The CP 1 The subordinate C 2 Wh-movement 3 Topic and focus 4 CP adverb(ial)s 5 Conclusion Chapter 7: The Determiner Phrase 1 The D, DP, Num, and NumP 2 Adjectives 3 Argument structure in the DP 4 N-movement 5 Conclusion Chapter 8: Features 1 From Universal Grammar to Third Factor 2 Which are the relevant features? 3 Where do features come from? 4 Features and Affix-hop 5 Conclusion 3 Chapter 9: Conclusion 1 A Generative Model and the Clause Structure 2 Finding your own tree 3 Review by chapter and review questions 4 Conclusion References Appendix: Suggested answers to exercises Index 4 Abbreviations (not mentioned are (N)P, V(P), P(P), and A(P)) ACC accusative ant anterior asp aspect, also in ASPP, Aspect Phrase C(P) Complementizer (Phrase) CI Conceptional Intentional (Interface) CL Classifier COCA Corpus
    [Show full text]
  • Verbal Adjectives” As Adjectives Without Phi-Features
    “Verbal Adjectives” as Adjectives without Phi-features Mark C. Baker RUTGERS UNIVERSITY 1. Why do adjectives seem particularly “verbal” in Japanese? Japanese adjectives such as utsukushi ‘beautiful’ have some unusual properties, as compared to Indo-European languages like English. These properties make them seem like they are somewhat verbal, rather than being “pure” adjectives. In recognition of this, researchers like Miyagawa (1987) and Murasugi (1990) place them in a fourth lexical category, the features of which are nondistinct from both verbs and “true adjectives” (often known as nominal adjectives) like kirei ‘beautiful’. This system is summarized in (1). (1) verb = +V, -N noun = +N, -V “true A” = +N, +V utsukushi = +V Perhaps the most important similarity between utsukushi-type adjectives and verbs is that the adjectives must bear a tense marking suffix when they modify a noun in Japanese: (2) utsukushi-*(i) onna, utsukushi-katta onna beautiful-PRES woman beautiful-PAST woman ‘a beautiful woman’ ‘a woman that was beautiful’ In this respect, utsukushi-type adjectives are like verbs: (3) hashi-ru onna run-PRES woman ‘a woman who will run’ Japanese is clearly different from English in this respect, where attributive adjectives never bear tense inflections: (4) a. a beautiful woman b. *a beautifuled woman c. *a beautifuls woman The tensed attributive form of the adjective in Japanese is, however, identical to the predicative from of the adjective. Here the suffix can naturally be considered a fusion of a predicative/copular head with a normal tense marker: (5) Hanako-wa utsukushi-i Hanako-TOP beautiful-PRES ‘Hanako is beautiful.’ Suppose, then, that –i is also a fusion of a copular element and a tense marker in the noun- modifying construction in (2).
    [Show full text]
  • Dependent Plural Pronouns with Skolemized Choice Functions
    Nat Lang Semantics (2014) 22:265–297 DOI 10.1007/s11050-014-9107-3 Dependent plural pronouns with Skolemized choice functions Yasutada Sudo Published online: 6 August 2014 © The Author(s) 2014. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Abstract The present paper discusses two interesting phenomena concerning phi- features on plural pronouns: (i) plural pronouns that denote atomic individuals (‘depen- dent plural pronouns’), and (ii) plural pronouns with more than one binder (‘partial binding’). A novel account of these two phenomena is proposed, according to which all occurrences of phi-features are both semantically and morphologically relevant. For such a ‘uniformly semantic account’ of phi-features, dependent plural pronouns con- stitute a theoretical challenge, while partial binding is more or less straightforwardly accounted for. In order to make sense of the semantic effects of the phi-features on dependent plural pronouns, the following idea is pursued: the phi-features on a depen- dent plural pronoun reflect the range of values that the pronoun takes, rather than the particular value it denotes at a time. This idea is implemented in a compositional semantics by making use of (Skolemized) choice functions. An appealing feature of the present account is that, unlike its predecessors, it accounts for dependent plural pronouns without c-commanding antecedents in essentially the same way as for those with c-commanding antecedents. It is also shown how this account of dependent plural pronouns can straightforwardly be augmented with set indices to account for partial binding. Keywords Phi-feature · Pronoun · Skolemized choice function · Dependent plural · Partial binding 1 Introduction Rullmann (2003, 2004) discusses two interesting phenomena concerning the phi- features on plural pronouns, which I call (i) dependent plural pronouns and (ii) par- Y.
    [Show full text]
  • Gender : a PF Reflection of an Edge Linker Sigurðsson, Halldor Armann
    Gender : a PF reflection of an edge linker Sigurðsson, Halldor Armann 2015 Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Sigurðsson, H. A. (2015). Gender : a PF reflection of an edge linker. LingBuzz, http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz. Total number of authors: 1 General rights Unless other specific re-use rights are stated the following general rights apply: Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal Read more about Creative commons licenses: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. LUND UNIVERSITY PO Box 117 221 00 Lund +46 46-222 00 00 Gender: a PF reflection of an edge linker Halldór Ármann Sigurðsson Lund University Abstract Gender is commonly treated as a central phi-category of syntax, on a par with number and person. This paper argues against this view, claiming that grammatical gender is not part of narrow syntax, instead being part of PF (the externalization component) in gender languages.
    [Show full text]