Séminaire SynSem

Résumé: During this talk, I will discuss two conflicting theories of numerals: Ionin and Matushansky (2006) and Bale, Gagnon and Khanjian (2011). These two theories make incompatible claims about the universal properties of noun phrases containing numerals. I will argue that, if one really wants to understand numerals, one needs to compare not only properties of numerals across languages, but also the properties of other quantity expressions that occur in the same languages (Doetjes, 2021). The paper will end with a discussion about how we can decide on what types of properties are universal and thus what theoretical properties one can take for granted when analyzing linguistic data. References:


Bale, Alan, Michaël Gagnon, and Hrayr Khanjian. 2011. Cross-linguistic representations of numerals and number marking. In Proceedings of SALT 20, eds. Nan Li and David Lutz, 109-127. Washington, DC: Linguistic Society of America.
Doetjes, Jenny. 2021. Number and quantity expressions. In Oxford Handbook of grammatical number, eds. Patricia Cabredo Hofherr and Jenny Doetjes. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ionin, Tania, and Ora Matushansky. 2006. The composition of complex cardinals. Journal of Semantics 23:315-360.