Determiners: Universals and variation (Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today)

257 Pages·2009·2.33 MB·English

by  Jila Ghomeshi

Determiners
Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today (LA)
Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today (LA) provides a platform for original monograph
studies into synchronic and diachronic linguistics. Studies in LA confront empirical
and theoretical problems as these are currently discussed in syntax, semantics,
morphology, phonology, and systematic pragmatics with the aim to establish robust
empirical generalizations within a universalistic perspective.
General Editors
Werner Abraham Elly van Gelderen
University of Vienna / Arizona State University
Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
Advisory Editorial Board
Josef Bayer Christer Platzack
University of Konstanz University of Lund
Cedric Boeckx Ian Roberts
ICREA/Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Cambridge University
Guglielmo Cinque Lisa deMena Travis
University of Venice McGill University
Liliane Haegeman Sten Vikner
University of Lille, France University of Aarhus
Hubert Haider C. Jan-Wouter Zwart
University of Salzburg University of Groningen
Terje Lohndal
University of Maryland
Volume 147
Determiners. Universals and variation
Edited by Jila Ghomeshi, Ileana Paul and Martina Wiltschko
Determiners
Universals and variation
Edited by
Jila Ghomeshi
University of Manitoba
Ileana Paul
University of Western Ontario
Martina Wiltschko
University of British Columbia
John Benjamins Publishing Company
Amsterdam / Philadelphia
TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
8
American National Standard for Information Sciences – Permanence of
Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1984.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Determiners : universals and variation / edited by Jila Ghomeshi, Ileana Paul, Martina
Wiltschko.
p. cm. (Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today, issn 0166-0829 ; v. 147)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Grammar, Comparative and general--Determiners. 2. Definiteness (Linguistics) I.
Ghomeshi, Jila. II. Paul, Ileana. III. Wiltschko, Martina.
P299.D48D485 2009
415--dc22 2009028111
isbn 978 90 272 5530 3 (hb; alk. paper)
isbn 978 90 272 8895 0 (eb)
© 2009 – John Benjamins B.V.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any
other means, without written permission from the publisher.
John Benjamins Publishing Co. · P.O. Box 36224 · 1020 me Amsterdam · The Netherlands
John Benjamins North America · P.O. Box 27519 · Philadelphia pa 19118-0519 · usa
Table of contents
Acknowledgments vii
Determiners: Universals and variation 1
Jila Ghomeshi, Ileana Paul & Martina Wiltschko
parti.The features of determiners
1. What’s in a determiner and how did it get there? 25
Martina Wiltschko
2. The proper D connection 67
Jila Ghomeshi & Diane Massam
3. Argumenthood, pronouns, and nominal feature geometry 97
Elizabeth Cowper & Daniel Currie Hall
partii.The function of determiners
4. From local blocking to Cyclic Agree: The role and meaning
of determiners in the history of French 123
Eric Mathieu
5. Kinds of predicates and reference to kinds in Hebrew 159
Keren Tonciulescu
partiii.Definiteness and beyond
6. The semantic core of determiners: Evidence from Skwxwú7mesh 177
Carrie Gillon
7. On the presence versus absence of determiners in Malagasy 215
Ileana Paul
Index 243

Acknowledgments
The articles in this book are based on papers presented at a workshop on deter-
miners held in Winnipeg, Manitoba on November 25, 2006.1 Most authors met
again on November 17th 2007 in Vancouver, British Columbia to further discuss
the empirical and theoretical results reported in the papers. We would like to thank
the University of Manitoba’s Dean of Arts, Linguistics Department, and Institute
for the Humanities for their financial support in sponsoring the original workshop.
We would also like to thank the following individuals who contributed to the pro-
duction of this volume: Natalie Johnson and Katrina Petrik.
Finally we would like to thank the authors and each other, all of whom have
been a pleasure to work with.
1. There were three additional papers presented at the workshop, but the authors decided
not to include them in this volume. We would like to thank Antonia Androutsopoulou and
Manuel Español-Echevarría, Lewis Gebhardt, and Catherine Macdonald for their participation.

Determiners
Universals and variation
Jila Ghomeshi, Ileana Paul & Martina Wiltschko
1. Introduction
The goal of this volume is to investigate the form and function of determiners
from a cross-linguistic point of view. In particular, it puts to test some commonly
held assumptions about universal characteristics of determiners, which have to
a large extent been developed on the basis of Germanic and Romance languages
(e.g., Abney 1987; Longobardi 1994). A typical case in point is the assumption that
determiners serve to turn a predicate into a referential argument (Higginbotham
1985; Stowell 1989, among others) or that they encode definiteness (Lyons 1999).
Assumptions such as these serve as a convenient starting point in the inves-
tigation of lesser studied languages, despite the fact that at least their universal
validity has been challenged in the past: Not all languages require determiners
for argumenthood (Chierchia 1998), and determiners do not universally encode
definiteness (Matthewson 1998). Assuming a universalist framework such as the
Principles and Parameters framework (Chomsky 1981; Chomsky & Lasnik 1993)
and its minimalist incarnations (Chomsky 1995 and subsequent work), it is then
necessary to identify the source of variation.
For the observed variation in requirements for argumenthood, Chierchia
(1998) identifies a semantic parameter as its source: Across languages, so the
story goes, nouns can differ in their denotation and, consequently, a determiner
is required for argumenthood only if the noun is predicative, but not if it is inher-
ently argumental (as in Chinese). For the observed variation in definiteness,
Matthewson (1998) identifies a pragmatic parameter as its source: Definiteness
requires access to the common ground, and in languages which do not allow for
such access, it plays no role.
Both these parameters have since been tweaked, refined, or plainly rejected on
the basis of patterns of variation which do not squarely fall into one or the other
setting. In other words, the range of language variation is much more subtle and
fine-grained than these parameters would make us believe.