(NEGATIVE) CONCORD AND HEAD DIRECTIONALITY IN WESTERN ARMENIAN by Hrayr Khanjian B.A., Linguistics, University of California, Los Angeles (2007) ARCHSEs Submitted to the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy SEP 27 2013 at the LiBRARIES MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY September 2013 © MMXIII, Hrayr Khanjian. All rights reserved. A u thor .......................................... ............... Department of Linguistics and Philosophy September 6, 2013 C ertified b y ..................................... .... ......... ..... ....... Norvin Richards Professor of Linguistics Thesis Supervisor A ccepted by ............ .. ..... .......... ........................ David Pesetsky Chair of the Linguistics Program (NEGATIVE) CONCORD AND HEAD DIRECTIONALITY IN WESTERN ARMENIAN by Hrayr Khanjian Submitted to the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy on September 6, 2013, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Abstract This thesis focuses on concord structures found in Western Armenian. I label a structure as concord if two morphemes found in the same clause bear the same feature, yet only result in one semantic interpretation of that feature. The main focus of the thesis is that of negative concord in Western Armenian. Other concord phenomena are also examined: complementizer and additive concord. I draw a parallel between all of these structures, demonstrating that they can be analyzed using the same system of Agreement of the relevant features. A striking similarity between all these concord structures is the optionality of the morphemes involved. Negative morphemes, complementizer heads, and additive markers are optional in Western Armenian. These concord structures bring about some issues regarding head directionality. Western Armenian is a generally head-final language. Certain domains exhibit both head-initial and head-final possible structures. These are found in the complementizers and the adpositions of the language. The complementizer phrases (CPs) which contain more than one morpheme bearing the same feature, are comprised of one head final and one head initial morpheme. Either can be uttered without the other being realized, and both are possible in the same clause as well. Variation, in this case with regards to head direction, is usually studied across multiple languages or across phrase types within a single language; however, WA is a language where variation is seen within the same type of phrase. Western Armenian gives us insights into systems that usually only show one setting in any given language. In analyzing these novel patterns of variability I argue that unique stress and prosodic properties help me unlock these puzzles. Thesis Supervisor: Norvin Richards Title: Professor of Linguistics 3 4 Acknowledgments I'm at D. I decided to come back to the coffee shop I clocked the most hours at, Diesel. I owe thanks to hundreds of individuals; however, my first thank you goes to the dozens of cafes I frequented in the many cities I was fortunate enough to visit and be in. I apologize in advance for not mentioning everyone of you, who has shaped, guided, encouraged, and helped me get to where I am today. I found linguistics, started as a first year at UCLA. I was a math major who decided to take Ling 1 as one of my many general education courses. Philippe Schlenker was the professor and Tim Arbisi-Kelm was my TA. By the end of the course I realized I was one of a small group of students who enjoyed and was excited about linguistics. I continued with more classes and eventually switched to a ling major by my third year. Thanks to the fantastic department at UCLA. Three professors at UCLA made it possible for me to be a great academic and continue my studies at MIT. Colin Wilson, my professor for at least three of my linguistics courses and an advisor during my senior year. His calm and chill approach was refreshing and helpful to take things as they came. Ed Kennan, professor for one of my class I later TAed for, and with who I met dozens of times over the course of a year, working on a long-time project, which later earned me an award at the end of my senior year, I thank you. (The structure of that sentence should convey the mushy state my brain is in, now, a day away from filling.) Finally, many thank yous to Chad Topaz, who, from my first Spring at UCLA, was my mentor. His positive energy, constant encouragement, brilliance, and down to earthness are some of the reasons I am where I am now. At D. He also introduced me to D. Moving on to MIT and these past years in Boston, I thank you to many of my lin- guist colleagues, professors, and friends: Alya Asarina, Isa Bayirli, Simon Charlow, Jessica Coon, Anaid Donabedian, Michael Erlewine, Danny Fox, Gillian Gallagher, Maria Giavazzi, Martin Hackl, Jeremy Hartman, Irene Heim, Edwin Howard, Patrick Jones, Peter Jurgec, Sameer ud Dowla Khan, Wendall Kimper, Karine Megerdoomian, Jen Michaels, Liudmila Nikolaeva, Rafael Nonato, Pritty Patel, Sasha Podobraev, Nathan Sanders, Tyler Schnoe- belen, Benjamin Storme, Ayaka Sugawara, Kirill Shklovsky, Yasutada Sudo, Guillaume Thomas, Matthew Tucker, Maziar Toosarvandani, Coppe van Urk, and Hedde Zeijlstra. I'm indebted to a few professors who have profoundly shaped my time at MIT. I'm grateful for having the opportunity to work on a few projects with Alan Bale. I had the great fortune to have Adam Albright, Edward Flemming, and Donca Steriade as professors and advisors mostly during the first few years of my time at MIT. Always available, inspiring, ten steps ahead, and motivating. Thank you to Shigeru Miyagawa for the encouraging and stimulating meetings and for asking how I was. Finally thank you to Sabine Iatridou and Norvin Richards. Thank you for the productive, insightful, inspiring meetings with a splash of humor and laughter. Thank you for stressing the importance of finishing squibs, papers, theses, instead of dwelling, stressing and prolonging the process. Thank you Natasha Ivlieva and Sam Al Khatib for the support this past year. I'm glad you were around to chat, grab coffee, and engage in mutual venting. Luc Baronian, I am glad we got to meet up this past year. It was great bouncing off ideas and having another Armenian linguist in the area, better late than never. A special thank you to Bronwyn Bjorkman, Michelle Fullwood, and Suyeon Yun, who have been my officemates. Thank you for the chocolates, candies, OhYes!es, and support. Youngah Do, Fwighting! Thank you for the chats, support, and cafe writing marathons. Slowly, but surely we completed 5 our degrees. You have been a positive light and a great friend. I'm particularly grateful to Claire Halpert. Claire! It IS possible. Thank you thank you thank you. Office mate, amazing friend for the five years we were at MIT. Our personalities and trains of thought mesh so seamlessly. I am very grateful we were in the same year and there for each other. Thank you for being excited about the random Armenian data. Your excitement and drive are contagious. Can't thank you enough for believing in me and for your endless support. Many thanks to the dozens of Armenian consultants I tortured for hours, thank you. Thank you to all the Armenian speakers who provided judgements, patience, laughs, and their voices for my recordings and examples found in this thesis: Hourig Abdulian, Mari- Tamar Abdulian, Michael Adamyan, Sanan Alexandrian, Nerses Aramyan, Vahe Berbe- rian, Karl Armen Boujikanian, Vazrik Chiloyan, Hourig Demirjian, Palig Demirjian, Talar Derderian, Alexandra Eurdolian, Azadouhi Ghazarian, Nahreen Ghazarian, Ani Ishkha- nian, Rita Israbian, Nanor Kabakian Zakarian, Sevan Kabakian, Vicken Kabakian, Audrey Kalajian, Sarin Kaloustian, Garen Karnikian, Nora Kayserian, Carina Khanjian, Juliana Khanjian, Hermine Khanjian, Christine Kivork, Talar Kivork, Sossi Madzounian, Sossi Margossian, Anahid Mikirditsian, Kyle Muegerian, Sareene Proodian, Natasha Sabounjian, Sebu Sabounjian, Raffi Sarkissian, Sonig Topjian, Paleny Topjian, Terenig Topjian, Alice Vartabedian, Seta Vartabedian, Taline Voskeritchian, Nora Voskeritchian, Armen Yereva- nian and everyone else whose conversations I have eavesdropped on when they have used one of the particles in §2.7. Also thank you to my many Armenian teachers who instilled a love of the language in me throughout the years. The dozens of my encouraging friends throughout these years have been my rock. They provided the small pushes, the mini breaks, and the major breaks. Thank you, in no partic- ular order: David, Sean, Paula, Brandon, Brannon, Patrick, Will, Sylvia, Patrick, Alberto, Jared, Eddie, Kiah, Richard, Michael, Chad, Angela, James, Mark, Richard, Javier, Vazrik, Mihran, Cyndi, Richard, Chris, Matt, Amar, Chase, Zach, Sarine, Sebouh, Hannah, Jon, Paul, James, Stephan, Tamar, Charlie, Todd, Richard, Jeff, Jamie, Fred, Drew, Jeremy, Peter, Marc, Jenny, James, Lee, Adam, Scott to name a few. Many thanks also to my relatives here in the New England Area, the Tavitians. Special thanks to Tony, Michael, Pierre, Nick, and Ani for their friendship, time, en- couragement, coffee shop accompaniment, and bar outings especially during the last few months. Thank you for pushing me and distracting me when I needed to step aside. Ryan and Jeremiah, I can't thank you enough. Yup. Amazing, brilliant, out-of-the-box individ- uals. Thank you, thank you for everything. My Western Armenian acquisition would not have been possible, and well, almost any- thing would not have been possible, without my family, especially my parents, Arpi and Ara. (Shad)shad thank you. Roupen, you are incredible, your calls, texts, and visits kept me going. Thanks for putting up with me; it's hard to express the thanks I want to give to my family for the yottaunits of support. 6 Babug-i-s 'grandfather-GEN- 1S. POSS' To Kourken Khanjian 7 8 Contents 1 Overview 15 2 Western Armenian Background 19 2.1 Word Order .