Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Syntax and Semantics of Noun Phrases in Tarascan

该项目研究质量/计数区别如何确定 Tarascan（隔离，墨西哥）中名词短语的结构和解释。它集中于四个主题：复数标记的分布和解释、分类词的语义、不定冠词的解释以及量词结构和含义的描述。几种语言将大众名词（例如英语“蜂蜜”）与可数名词（例如英语“狗”）区分开来。质量名词不直接与数字结合，而可数名词则可以。跨语言趋势是，指代物质的名词是质量名词，而指代限定对象的名词是可数名词。然而，有些名词的行为类似于大众名词，尽管它们指的是分隔的对象（例如英语“家具”）。因此，可数名词和可数名词之间的语法区别并不完全由语言外因素决定，在某种程度上，它是任意的并且受到语言变化的影响。 Tarascan 在质量计数区别的实证研究中特别具有启发性，因为它区分的不是两类而是三类名词：计数名词，如“wichu”（狗），质量名词，如“tékwa”（蜂蜜），以及第三类，我们称之为“计数质量”名词（Doetjes 1997）。第三类包括“purhú”（南瓜）和“thatsïni”（豆）等项目。它们与大众名词共享一些语法属性，一些与可数名词共享，在其他方面它们构成了自己的一类。质量/计数领域的三重区别要求对 Tarascan 名词短语中某些功能类别的语义进行修订。例如，虽然质量名词拒绝复数形态，而指代多个实体的计数名词则必须使用复数形态，但规范的复数理论无法解释计数质量名词的复数标记的精确贡献。此外，Tarascan 中的分类词和复数标记可以同时出现在名词短语中，这是在众所周知的类型学概括下意想不到的事实。这项研究阐明了分类词在区分计数质量名词的外延方面的作用。 这项研究基于 Co-PI Vázquez-Rojas 在 Chris Collins 博士的监督下现场收集的语义和句法判断。数据将通过墨西哥米却肯州四名顾问的启发和自然发生的对话获得。联合首席研究员巴斯克斯-罗哈斯还将参与培训墨西哥的年轻研究人员，以该国几种土著语言进行类似的调查。

This project investigates how the mass/count distinction determines the structure and interpretation of noun phrases in Tarascan (isolate, Mexico). It focuses on four topics: the distribution and interpretation of plural marking, the semantics of classifiers, the interpretation of the indefinite article, and a description of quantifier structure and meaning. Several languages distinguish mass nouns (e.g. English 'honey') from count nouns (e.g. English 'dog'). Mass nouns do not combine directly with numerals while count nouns do. A cross-linguistic tendency is that nouns that refer to substances are mass nouns, while nouns that refer to delimited objects are count nouns. However, some nouns behave like mass nouns despite the fact that they refer to delimited objects (e.g. English 'furniture'). The grammatical distinction between mass and count nouns is thus not entirely determined by extra-linguistic factors, and to some extent it is arbitrary and subject to linguistic variation. Tarascan is particularly revealing in the empirical investigation of the mass-count distinction since it distinguishes not two but three classes of nouns: count nouns, like 'wichu' (dog), mass nouns like 'tékwa' (honey), and a third class, which we call "count-mass" nouns (Doetjes 1997). This third class includes items like 'purhú' (pumpkin) and 'thatsïni' (bean). They share some grammatical properties with mass nouns, some with count nouns and in other respects they constitute a class of their own. The tripartite distinction in the mass/count domain calls for a revision of the semantics of some functional categories within the Tarascan noun phrase. For instance, while mass nouns reject plural morphology and count nouns referring to more than one entity need it obligatorily, the precise contribution of plural marking with count-mass nouns cannot be accounted for by canonical theories of plurality. Moreover, classifiers and plural marking in Tarascan can co-occur in a noun phrase, a fact unexpected under well-known typological generalizations. This investigation elucidates the role of classifiers in individuating the denotation of count-mass nouns. This research is based on semantic and syntactic judgments collected on site by Co-PI Vázquez-Rojas under the supervision of Dr. Chris Collins. The data will be obtained by elicitation and in natural occurring discourse from four consultants in Michoacán, México. Co-PI Vázquez-Rojas will also be involved in training young researchers in Mexico to undertake similar investigations in several indigenous languages spoken around the country.