Elements of number theory

The dissertation argues for the necessity of a morphosemantic theory of number, that is, a theory of number serviceable both to semantics and morphology. The basis for this position, and the empirical core of the dissertation, is the relationship between semantically based noun classification and agreement in Kiowa, an indigenous, endangered language of Oklahoma. The central claim is that Universal Grammar provides three number features, concerned with unithood, existence of homogeneous subsets, and properties of those subsets. The features are used to analyze a wide variety of data. Semantic topics include the difference between granular and non-granular mass nouns, collective, non-collective and distributive plurals, and cardinality. Syntactic topics include the structure of DP, noun marking, agreement and suppletion. Morphological topics include the inventory of morphological operations, the featural basis of complex syncretisms, the difference between agreement and suppletion, whether features are privative or binary, and the nature of the Kiowa/Tanoan inverse. Keywords: Kiowa-Tanoan, number, morphology, semantics, agreement, suppletion, inverse, noun class, singular, dual, plural, features, binary, privative.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Linguistics and Philosophy

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2003

Author dc:creator

• Harbour, Daniel, 1975-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Morris Halle and Alec Marantz.

• Linguistics and Philosophy.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/17581
• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Identifier URI

http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/17581

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/17581