30.4485, Confs: Morphology, Semantics, Syntax, Typology/Germany
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LINGUIST List: Vol-30-4485. Tue Nov 26 2019. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.
Subject: 30.4485, Confs: Morphology, Semantics, Syntax, Typology/Germany
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Date: Tue, 26 Nov 2019 15:42:17
From: NaP2019 organizers [numberandplurality at gwdg.de]
Subject: Number and Plurality: Cross-linguistic Variation in the Nominal Domain (part of LinG2)
Number and Plurality: Cross-linguistic Variation in the Nominal Domain (part of LinG2)
Short Title: NaP2019
Date: 11-Dec-2019 - 12-Dec-2019
Location: Göttingen, Niedersachsen, Germany
Contact: NaP2019 organizers
Contact Email: numberandplurality at gwdg.de
Meeting URL: http://www.uni-goettingen.de/de/611408.html
Linguistic Field(s): Morphology; Semantics; Syntax; Typology
Meeting Description:
Cross-linguistic variation concerning the presence of number marking, the
count-mass distinction and the expression of plurality has been an inspiring
source for hypotheses about the structure and meaning of nominals. One
important challenge for current research is to figure out if different
number-marking strategies systematically correspond to differences in the
semantics of nominals or if the variation in number marking is orthogonal to
semantic variation.
Some approaches take different number-marking strategies to indicate
cross-linguistic semantic variation: Lucy (1992) speculated that Yucatec Mayan
speakers “treat nouns semantically as masses” in order to explain the
optionality of plural morphology and the need for numeral classifiers. If so,
the quantificational properties of nominals systematically depend on the
available aspectual properties of the nominals (cf. Krifka 1989, Rijkhoff
1991, Champollion 2015), such that variation between (classifier vs.
non-classifier languages) and within (mass/count) languages is traced back to
a common source. Partially building on these ideas, Chierchia (1998)
integrated cross-linguistic variation in number marking into a general
framework of the possible denotations of bare nominals, relating the
presence/absence of number marking to the presence/absence of determiners and
classifiers in a language.
The hypothesis that the denotations of nominals differ across languages raises
the question how such differences relate to the cross-linguistic variation in
number marking. One relevant insight from typological research is that a
substantial part of this variation is to be found in the lexicon. Thus, number
marking is sensitive to animacy in some languages, to humanness in some other
languages, and to human rationality in yet others, i.e. to language-specific
lexical semantic properties (Smith-Stark 1972, Corbett 2004). A further source
of morphosyntactic variation comes from the role of the plural morphemes in
nominal structures (head/modifier, cf. Wiltschko 2008).
Cross-linguistic variation concerning semantic plurality and the count-mass
distinction also raises the broader question if these grammatical phenomena
relate closely to conceptual distinctions that matter for non-linguistic
cognition, or if this correlation is indirect and permits systematic
mismatches between grammatical and conceptual countability (cf. e.g. Rothstein
2017).
The aim of this workshop is to bring together research, theoretical or
experimental, on morphological, syntactic and semantic aspects of number
marking and the expression of plurality that shed light on the observed
cross-linguistic variation. Possible questions include but are not limited to:
- Which number-marking strategies do natural languages employ?
- Which other semantic properties of nominals correlate with semantic
plurality and the count/mass distinction across languages?
- Is semantic plurality associated with cross-linguistic constraints on the
meanings of nominals? If so, what explains these constraints?
- What are the consequences of particular nominal denotations for
countability, the possibility of plural marking, the use of classifiers and
determiners, and the predicational and argumental potential of nouns?
- What is the division of labor between syntax and semantics in accounting for
the constraints on plural marking?
- To what extent can nominal expressions without morphosyntactic plural
marking (e.g. conjunctions or singular quantifiers) behave like plurals
semantically?
- What cross-linguistic evidence can be found for the claim that languages
with bare nominals employ covert determiners?
- To what extent do semantic plurality and the count-mass distinction
correspond to conceptual distinctions relevant for non-linguistic cognition?
Program:
Wednesday, 11 December 2019
09:00:
Registration and introduction
09:45:
Gennaro Chierchia: Universal Mass/Count structures and their consequences for
number marking
11:10:
Pritha Chandra and Preeti Kumari: Plural Licensing and Meso-variation
11:50:
M. Rita Manzini: Morphosyntactic identity of count plural and mass N(P)s
14:00:
Scott Grimm and Peter Guekguezian: Plurality and Determinancy in Western
Armenian
14:40:
Tacettin Turgay: Morphosyntax of Number in Turkish
15:50:
Peter R. Sutton and Hana Filip: Singular/Plural contrasts: The case of
Informational Object Nouns
16:30:
Lightning talks
17:00:
Poster session
- Pavel Caha and Marcin Wągiel: Abstract counting and object counting across
languages
- Jan Davatz and Elisabeth Stark: Francoprovençal (B): Galloromance varieties
without mass vs. plural distinction?
- Brigitta R. Schvarcz and Borbála Nemes: Why do we need a general classifier
in a mass/count language?
- Lola Türker: Uzbek and the Nominal Mapping Parameter: what counts as a bare
noun in Uzbek?
- Heike Wiese: A cross-linguistic mass default for object-denoting nouns?
Findings from a multilingual Berlin market
- Kata Wohlmuth and Brigitta R. Schvarcz: Classifiers are for count nouns:
evidence from Hungarian
19:30: Dinner
Thursday, 12 December 2019
09:30:
Amy Rose Deal: title t.b.a.
10:30:
Helena Guerra Vicente and Daiane Ramires: The expression of number in Kaiowá
(Tupí-Guaraní): alternatives and implicatures
11:40:
Roumyana Pancheva: The Bulgarian 'count' form is semantically singular
12:20:
Brigitta R. Schvarcz: Hungarian Nominalized Numerals are Plural Individuals
14:30:
Peter R. Sutton and Carol-Rose Little: The Finnish partitive in counting and
measuring constructions
15:10:
Marcin Wągiel: Countability and spatial integrity in partitives
16:10:
Takanobu Nakamura: Distributivity within Nominal Domain and Kind Partition
Readings
The workshop “Number and plurality: cross-linguistic variation in the nominal
domain” will take place at the University of Göttingen, Germany, on December
11-12, 2019. For more detailed information, please visit the workshop's web
site: http://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/611408.html.
This workshop is part of LinG2, the Annual Meeting of the Linguistics in
Göttingen network: http://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/447150.html. LinG2 will
also contain a workshop on “New Ways of Analyzing Ancient Greek, 1” to take
place on December 13-14, 2019.
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