SIMILATIVE PLURALS AND THE NATURE OF ALTERNATIVES by Ryan Walter Smith Copyright c Ryan Walter Smith 2020 A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF LINGUISTICS In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 2020 2 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA GRADUATE COLLEGE As members of the Dissertation Committee, we certify that we have read the disser- tation prepared by Ryan Walter Smith, titled Similative plurals and the nature of alternatives and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation require- ment for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Date: May 12 2020 Robert Henderson Date: May 12 2020 Heidi Harley Date: May 12 2020 Simin Karimi Date: May 12 2020 Andrew Carnie Date: May 12 2020 Final approval and acceptance of this dissertation is contingent upon the candidate's submission of the final copies of the dissertation to the Graduate College. I hereby certify that I have read this dissertation prepared under my direction and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement. Date: May 12 2020 Dissertation Director: Robert Henderson 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I've heard it said that the acknowledgements section of the dissertation is the hardest part of the entire thing, and I can see why: it's impossible to express in only a few paragraphs just how much this six-year journey has meant to me, and how much I've grown in the process. U of A, and the city of Tucson as a whole, will always hold a special place in my heart. Given the richness of my grad school experience, it will be impossible to thank everyone who has contributed to just how wonderful my time here was. That said, I'll give it my best shot. I owe an enormous debt of thanks to my committee: my advisors Robert Henderson and Heidi Harley, and my committee members Simin Karimi and Andrew Carnie. Robert played an absolutely pivotal role in my becoming a semanticist. I was thrilled when he joined the department in my second year, and it was thanks to his seminar on dependent plurals that I came upon the topic that would grow into this dissertation. It was a real pleasure working through analyses in his office, and he always encouraged me and helped me sharpen my thinking on a problem, even in the early days when I was nervous about showing him my formulas. If I'm even half the semanticist he is, I'd say I turned out pretty well. It goes without saying that Heidi is an intellectual giant, one of the most brilliant people I have ever known. I knew from the summer before I started grad school that she would be my advisor, and that was a great choice. Heidi has always challenged me, pointing out fascinating connections that I hadn't thought of, while also being a great champion of my work. She's also an incredibly kind person, a joy to talk to. I'll miss coming to her office for meetings. Despite not being my advisor, Simin is almost certainly the professor I've worked with most closely in the department, and someone I can call a dear friend. I owe her a huge debt of gratitude for funding me through her NSF grants on the grammars of Iranian languages, through which I gained invaluable experience in fieldwork and an immense knowledge of the Iranian language family. With her help, I also got the chance to travel to Europe and Singapore, and make connections in the field of Iranian linguistics. Besides the professional benefits, she has also always been there for me in my times of great personal need. I cannot thank her enough for all she has done for me. Andrew was the first person I met in the Linguistics department, and he's really the whole reason I came to U of A in the first place. I still remember eating lunch at Sabor with him when I was a mere prospective student. We've had many engaging 4 conversations since then, both in his office and walking to and from class. It was an immense pleasure taking syntax with him, as well as TAing for him for syntax at the undergrad and grad level. The U of A linguistics department is filled with wonderful faculty, and I've had a number of great teachers in the department outside of my committee. Chief among these, I'd like to thank Mike Hammond, who instilled in me a great love for phonology that I'll carry with me into my career as a linguist, and Amy Fountain, who was a model teaching mentor early in grad school. I met some of my best friends in grad school, and while I can't thank everyone, a few folks really deserve direct shout outs. A huge thanks to Kristina Mihajlovic, Jianrong Yu, Amber Lubera, Lucy Hall Hartley, Jian Gang Ngui, and Shin-Ichi Kitada, for being the best squad a guy could ask for. JR and Amber are great collaborators (not to mention great karaoke buddies), and have really been there for me when I was at my lowest. Lucy and I could always bond over books and music (not to mention the occasional gossip session), and Jian Gang (GANG!) has been a great pal, both when talking syntax/semantics and just goofing around. Shin, though with us for only a short time and now back in Japan, definitely solidified himself as part of the crew, and I look forward to hanging out with him sometime in Tokyo! Finally, I can't even begin to do justice to how much Kristina means to me: she is the best friend I've ever had, and so much more. She gets her own paragraph below. I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to Mohsen Mahdavi Mazdeh. Without his Persian lessons early on in grad school, I never would have written this dissertation, or gotten involved in research on Persian or the Iranian languages in the first place. He is also a fantastic linguist, and a great friend. xeyli mamnoon, dooste man!. Similarly, I want to thank Ryoichiro Kobayashi, who collaborated with me on some of the earliest work on -toka and -tachi, as well as some other phenomena in Japanese. Without his judgments and great linguistic sense, much of chapter 4 of this dissertation would not exist. Ryo is also a great linguist, and I'm happy to have him as a collaborator and friend. No dissertation acknowledgements are complete without a shoutout to the cohort: Colleen Patton, Bill Cotter, stanley donahoo (I know how you like your name all lower case!), Skye Anderson, Zechy Wong (see you in Singapore!), Shannon \Gotta Do It!" Grippando, Leah Rice, and especially Joe Dupris. Joe gets an even bigger shoutout for all the great times we had together, including being my roommate in our second year, being my gym buddy for years (it's thanks to you I finally got in shape!), and for all the late nights playing guitar and watching the Simpsons and Invader Zim Thanks as well to my other friends in linguistics (in no particular order): Christina 5 Newhall (and Roo!), Jon Geary (one of the funniest and most competent people I've known, and a great conference co-organizer), Andrew Zupon (Big Z!), Masha Alexeeva, George-Michael Pescaru, Josh Meyer, Dave Medeiros, Patrick Thomas (who has incredible taste in music, I must say!), Luis Irizarry (pretty cool), Rana Nabors, Roya Kabiri (and Hamed!), Christian Ruvalcaba, Muriel Fisher (the best office neighbor!) and Bri Alexander, among many, many others. Thank you all! A special thanks goes to my first linguistics professors at Baylor: Lydia Grebenyova, Jeanette Marsh, Clay Butler, and Melisa Dracos. Dr. Grebenyova in particular set me on the path to becoming a formal linguist. I wouldn't be doing this now if it weren't for her. Likewise, I thank Yuko Prefume for teaching me Japanese, and both her and Yoshiko Fujii Gaines for encouraging me in my interest in Japanese linguistics both at Baylor and beyond. Arigatoo gozaimasu! This dissertation wouldn't exist without the judgments of many native Persian and Japanese speakers. For this I thank Mohsen, Rana, Roya, Simin, Masoud Jasbi, Nazila Shafiei, Vahideh Rasekhi, and audiences at NACIL2 for their feedback on the judgments reported here. Similarly, I thank Ryo, Michael Yoshitaka Erlewine, Kunihiko Yabushita, Yuko Prefume, Yoshiko Fujii Gaines, and audience members at a variety of conferences for their Japanese judgments. The biggest open secret is that we academics would be completely lost without the support of our departments' business staff and coordinators. I want to include a special thanks to Marian Wiseley, Kimberley Young, and Stephanie Amado. Marian in particular has been a huge help throughout my grad school career, and has shown me great kindness despite the times where I definitely bungled up something financial. I'll miss coming to her office to talk with her. Of course, I wouldn't even be here today if it weren't for my family: many thanks to Mom and Dad, for bringing me into this world, raising me, and supporting me every step of the way. Many thanks as well to my grandparents Ted and Maureen Douglas, who also had a big hand in raising me, and have always been there for me throughout my life. Thanks to my sister Megan and brother-in-law Logan, and my cousins Brittlea and Carley Douglas. And of course, thanks to Cookie, Taco, Bunny, Jameson, Day-Z and Dexter, as well as to Lilcee, Fred, Chloe, and Miley, for touching my life, and being so wonderful in your own ways.