Morphosyntax and Semantics of Quantifiers in Kanakanavu

Abstract

As an exploratory study, the current thesis aims to provide a descriptive account of the morphosyntactic and semantic properties of fundamental Kanakanavu quantifiers. We pay special attention to existential and universal D-/A-quantifiers, primarily based on the syntactic D-/A- distinction by Partee (1995) and the semantic classification by Keenan (2012). Nevertheless, to avoid confusion about the syntactic and semantic properties of the quantifiers, we will also mainly employ two terms to classify quantifiers: quantifiers (semantically) associated with nominals and quantifiers (semantically) associated with situations/events. In discussing universal quantifiers, we will discuss distributivity displayed by them based on the account of Choe (1987), Gil (1995), and Balusu and Jayaseelan (2013) as well. All the quantifiers observed are broadly divided into two types: simplex and composite quantifiers. Simplex quantifiers are realized as single or reduplicated lexical items, whereas composite quantifiers are quantifier roots combined with functional or lexical prefixes. For simplex existential quantifiers associated with nominals, Kanakanavu has a complete system of numeral and cardinal quantifiers, which can serve as either nominal modifiers or predicates. For simple universal quantifiers associated nominals, Kanakanavu has a collective kavangvang ‘all’ and a distributive RED-Numeral ‘every NUM’. Simplex quantifiers associated with situations/events are represented by predicates and negators to express ‘always’, ‘often’, ‘sometimes’, ‘never’, etc. Among all the simplex quantifiers, only non-reduplicated and reduplicated numerals, cardinal quantifiers, and kavangvang ‘all’ have bound roots to form composite quantifiers. Composite quantifiers associated with nominals are mostly verbal, with their quantifier roots selecting different arguments with the change of verb valence. Among composite universal quantifiers, those derived from reduplicated numerals are distributive and display various distributive key readings, whereas those derived from kavangvang ‘all’ are collective. Composite quantifiers associated with situations/events are verbal as well, expressing the concept ‘to do something NUM times’.