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

本项目研究如何质量/计数的区别决定的结构和解释的名词短语在塔拉斯坎（隔离，墨西哥）。它侧重于四个主题：复数标记的分布和解释，量词的语义，不定冠词的解释，量词结构和意义的描述。有几种语言区分物质名词（如英语的“honey”）和计数名词（如英语的“dog”）。物质名词不直接与数词联合收割机，而计数名词则直接与数词结合。一个跨语言的趋势是指物质的名词是物质名词，而指定界物体的名词是计数名词。然而，有些名词的行为像质量名词，尽管它们指的是分隔的对象（例如英语中的“classification”）。因此，物质名词和计数名词之间的语法区别并不完全由语言外的因素决定，在某种程度上，它是任意的，并受到语言变化的影响。塔拉斯坎在对质量-计数区别的实证研究中特别有启发性，因为它区分了三类而不是两类名词：计数名词，如“wichu”（狗），质量名词，如“tékwa”（蜂蜜），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）。它们与物质名词有一些语法特征，与计数名词有一些语法特征，在其他方面它们自成一类。质量/计数域的三方区分要求对塔拉斯坎名词短语中某些功能类别的语义进行修正。例如，虽然物质名词拒绝复数形态，而计数名词指的是一个以上的实体必须有复数形态，但计数-物质名词复数标记的精确贡献不能用复数的规范理论来解释。此外，塔拉斯坎语中的量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。本文探讨量词在区分可数名词指称意义中的作用。 本研究是基于语义和句法的判断收集的网站上的合作PI巴斯克斯-罗哈斯博士的监督下，克里斯柯林斯。数据将通过启发和自然发生的话语从梅西科米却肯州的四名顾问处获得。共同PI Vázquez-Rojas还将参与培训墨西哥的年轻研究人员，以在全国各地使用的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.