PLURACTIONALITY AND DISTRIBUTIVITY IN KARITIANA1 • What is the interpretation of distributive numerals in Karitiana? Ana Müller [email protected]; www.fflch.usp.br/dl/anamuller • How does plurality relate to distributivity? University of São Paulo, Brazil Background: I. Introduction The Cumulativity Universal – denotations of all simple predicates Karitiana is a native Brazilian language of the Arikén family, Tupi stock, in natural languages are cumulative (cf. Krifka 1992, Landmann spoken by about 350 people (Storto & Velden 2005). Their reservation is 1996, Kratzer 2003, 2005). located in the northwest of Brazil (Rondônia). A neo-davidsonian event semantics (Kratzer 2003): Focus: Pluractionality and distributivity in Karitiana. • The subject argument is not a lexical argument of the verb. • The object argument is an argument of the verb. • VP denotations are minimal Facts: Claims: Karitiana is a pluractional language (Müller & Sanchez-Mendes 2008). Pluractional affixes are plural operators over cumulative verb denotations. In Karitiana, sentences without any number marking generate singular, collective and cumulative readings as far as number of Distributive numerals are plural operators on VP denotations - they participants and/or events (Müller et al 2006). pluralize VP denotations and impose a homogeneity restriction on them. Karitiana has distributive numerals. II. Theoretical Background Questions: Goal: Introduce the basic theoretical assumptions. • What is the interpretation of pluractional affixes in Karitiana? A neo-davidsonian event semantics (Parsons 1990): 1 We would like to thank Luciana Storto for helping to elicit and analyse the data. We would also like to thank our Karitiana consulants. Fieldwork for this paper was provided by FAPESP. 1 • VPs are assumed to have an event argument (cf. Davidson 1967, (4) [[√lift]] = {< box1, lifting1>, < box2, lifting2>,…, < box1+box3, Parsons 1990, Schein 1993, Lasersohn 1995, among others). lifting3>…, <box1+box2, lifting1+ lifting2>, …, < box1+box2+box3, • The subject argument is not a lexical argument of the verb (Kratzer lifting1+lifting3>, ...} 2003). • The object argument is an argument of the verb (Kratzer 2003). (5) [[√lift’]]([[√box’]]) is true for: • VP denotations are minimal. • “collective” liftings: a group of boxes being lifted together. • cumulative liftings: some boxes being lifted together, some • A predicate like lift (Nadia)(E) means that E is an event in individually, others jointly, etc. which nothing apart from lifting Nadia takes place. • plural liftings: the same boxes(s) being lifted more than once. However, E might have proper subevents in which a • “distributive” liftings : each box being lifted separatedly. lifiting of Nadia takes place. III. Noun Phrases in Karitiana The Cumulativity Universal – denotations of all simple predicates in natural languages are cumulative (cf. Krifka 1992, Landmann • No number-marking on NPs in Karitiana. 1996, Kratzer 2003, 2005). • No functional projections on NPs - no articles, no determiner quantifiers, no possessives or demonstratives. • Cumulativity: A predicate is cumulative if whenever it applies to two individuals it also (6) Contexts: ‘A/the/some man/men ate (a/the/some) snake(s)’2 applies to their sum. Taso naka’yt boroja taso ∅-naka-’y-t boroja Definitions (Kratzer 2003): man 3-DECL-eat-NFUT snake (1) Cumulativity (properties of individuals): ‘Men ate snakes’ λ P<et>∀x∀y [ [P(x) & P(y)] → P(x+y) NP denotations are cumulative in Karitiana. (2) Cumulativity (properties of events): λ P<st>"∀e∀e’ [ [P(e) & P(e’)] → P(e+e’) ] ] λ P<e,st>"∀e∀e’∀x∀y [ [P(x) (e) & P(y) (e’)] → P(x+y)(e+e’) ] ] 2 The data used in this handout was collected by myself. The data is presented as follows: 1st line: orthographic transcription of the Karitiana sentence; 2nd line: morphological rd th Cumulative denotations: segmentation; 3 line: morpheme by morpheme gloss; 4 line: translation. The symbols used are the following: NFUT= non future, AUX = auxiliary, RDPL = reduplication, DECL = rd rd (3) [[√box]] = {box1, box2, box3,…, box1+box2, box1+box3,…, declarative, 3 = 3 person agreement, 3P = 3 person, OBL = oblique, CAUS = causative. We box1+box2+box3, …} chose to sometimes separate translation from context. In ‘context’ we present the situation supplied to the informant. 2 • Universal quantification and demonstratives are expressed by c. Yn naka’yt sypomp pikom relative clauses. d. Yn naka’yt pikom sypomp (7) Sojxaty akatyym naponpon João sojxaty aka-tyym na-pon-pon-Ø João Typologically, Karitiana is closer to the Chinese-type languages (Chierchia boar be-SUB DECL-shoot-RDPL-NFUT João 1998): ‘João shot at all the boars’ • free occurrence of bare nouns as arguments; Literally: João shot at the boars that are. • absence of number inflection on the NP. • Other quantifiers are adverbial – they have the same syntactic Nevertheless, unlike the Chinese-type languages, Karitiana makes no use distribution as other adverbs like mynda (‘slowly’) in the language. of classifiers. (8) a. Kandat jonso nakaot esse Adv S V O IV. Pluractionality in Karitiana Kandat jonso Ø-naka-ot- Ø esse a.lot woman 3P-DECL-get-NFUT water Non-pluractional sentences are neutral for number of ‘Women brought a lot of water’ / ‘Women brought water many times’’ participants and/or events. b.*Jonso kandat Ø-naka-ot- Ø esse *S Adv V O (10) Taso naka’yt boroja taso ∅-naka-’y-t boroja c. Jonso Ø-naka-ot- Ø kandat esse S V Adv O man 3-DECL-eat-NFUT snake ‘Men ate snakes’ d. Jonso Ø-naka-ot- Ø esse kandat S V O Adv Literally: An indefinite number of men ate an indefinite number of snakes an indefinite number of times. • Numerals are adverbials – they have the same distribution of other adverbials in the language. Karitiana is a pluractional language. (9)a. Sypomp yn naka’yt pikom (11) Taso naka’y’ydn boroja sypom-t yn naka-’y-t pikom taso ∅-naka-’y-’y-t boroja two- OBL 1s 3-DECL-eat-NFUT monkey man 3-DECL-eat-RDP-NFUT snake ‘I ate two monkeys’/ ‘I ate monkeys twice’ ‘Men ate snakes’ b. *Yn sypomp naka’yt pikom 3 Pluractional and no pluractional versions of the same sentence (14) [[lift’]] = {<Mary, e1>, <John, e2>,<Mary+Carlos, e3, …, seem to be synonymous. <Mary+John, e1+e2>, …, <Mary+John+Carlos, e1+e2+e3>, …} Lasersohn 1995 on pluractional markers: (15) PL ([[lift']]) = {<Mary+John, e1+ e2>, …, <Mary+John+Carlos, e1+ "These morphemes normaly take the form of some sort of affix on e2+e3>, …} the verb…, and expressing a broad range of notions typically including action by more than one individual, temporally iterated action, and Pluractional affixes operate on cumulative lexical denotations. spatially scattered action (among others)." (p.238) They are not phrasal operators. (12) V-PA(E) ↔ ∀e ∈ E [V(e) & card (E) ≥ n] Predictions: where: 1. Pluractionality should be possible for any sentence denoting two or V: verb; more events. PA: pluractional marker; 2. Sentences denoting singular events should not reduplicate. E: variable over sets of events; 3. Sentences with distributive readings of singular events should not e: variable over atomic events; reduplicate. n: variable over the natural numbers (usually taken to be a contextually provided ‘many’). Evidence for prediction 1: Pluralization is possible for sentences about 2 or more events, and not only for sentences about a significant number of Questions: events. • Why would a language have pluractional affixes when it has cumulativity? (16) • What is the role of pluractional affixes in the language? Sypomp nakaponpon João sojxaty kyn sypom-t ∅-naka-pon-pon-∅ João sojxaty kyn Claim: two-OBL3-DECL-shot-REDUPL-NFUT João boar POS • Reduplication in Karitiana is a plural operation on cumulative verb 'João shot twice at boars' denotations – it excludes atomic events from the denotation of verbs (Ferreira 2005 for nouns and verbs, Müller 2000 for nouns). (17) Õwã nakokonat sypomp opokakosypi (13) a. PL = λ P <s,t>λ E [P(E) & non-atomic (E)] õwã Ø-na-kot-kot-a-t sypom-t opok-ako-sypi b. PL = λ P <e<s,t>>λ X λ E [P(X)(E) & non-atomic (E)] child 3-DECL-break-RDPL-VERB-NFT two-OBLegg E: variable over cumulative events. ‘Children broke eggs twice’ Context: one at a time 4 Evidence for prediction 2: Sentences about singular events do not Tamyry -tamyry nakahit õwã myhint kinda’oty João reduplicate. ta-myry -ta-myry Ø-naka-hit-Ø õwã myhin-t kinda’o-POS João 3AN-alone-3AN-alone 3-DECL-give-NFUT child one-OBL fruit João (18) Inacio namangat myhint Nadia ka’it 'Each child gave one fruit to João’ Inacio ∅-na-mangat-∅ myhin-t Nadia ka’it Literally: ‘Children gave fruits in one to João distributiely.’ Inacio 3-DECL-lift-NFUT one-OBL Nadia today ‘Inacio lifted Nadia once today’ (23) *Tamyry-tamyry nakahithidn õwã myhint kinda’oty João ta-myry -ta-myry Ø-naka-hit-hit-Ø õwã myhin-t kinda’o-POS João (19) 3AN-OBL-3AN-OBL 3P-DCL-give-RDPLNFT child one-OBL fruit João *Inacio namangatmangadn myhint Nadia ka’it 'Each child gave one fruit to João’ Inacio ∅-na-mangat-mangat-∅ myhin-t Nadia ka’it Inacio 3-DECL-lift-REDUPL-NFUT one-OBL Nadia today ‘Inacio lifted Nadia once today’ (only one event) (24) Tamyry-tamyry nakam'at py'ejip õwã (20) Context: A group of kids collectively gave one canoe to João. ta-myry-ta-myry Ø-naka-m-‘a-t py'ejip õwã 3AN-alone-3AN-alone 3-DCL-CAUS-do-NFT pencil child Õwã nakahit myhint goojoty João 'Each child made his homework' õwã ∅-naka-hit-∅ myhin-t gooj<o>ty João (25) child 3-DCL-give-NFT one-OBL canoe<o>POS João ‘Children gave one canoe to João ’ *Tamyry-tamyry nakam'at’at py'ejip õwã ta-myry-ta-myry Ø-naka-m-‘a-t-at py'ejip õwã Literally: ‘Child gave canoe to João in one’ 3AN-alone-3AN- alone 3-DECL-CAUS-do-NFUT pencil child 'Each child made his homework' (21) Context: A group of kids collectively gave one canoe to João.