Functional Projections and Non-Local Relations in Tongan Nominal Phrases / Macdonald, Catherine Marie
- Bib ID:
- 7124334
- Format:
- Book and Microform
- Author:
- Macdonald, Catherine Marie, author
- Description:
-
- Ann Arbor : ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, 2014
- 301 p.
- ISBN:
- 9781339373218
- Summary:
-
I also show that several of what have been deemed number markers in Tongan are actually markers of nominal aspect. Most Tongan nouns are Set or General Object nouns; aspect markers derive Set from General nouns by adding an aspectual head (inner Asp0) with [SHAPE], and they derive Singulative and Collective sets from these by adding an outer Asp0 which specifies a value for [HOMOGENEITY]. In Tongan, outer aspect is also the locus of [HUMAN] and possibly [DIMINUTIVE]. Number markers pluralize Collective or Singulative Set nominals, and numbers do not count individuals but, rather, Singulative or Collective Sets. The locality of the relation between numerals and aspect is obscured by the robustness and left-headedness of AspP, to which numeral clauses are right-adjoined.
It is merged above D0 and stranded at the right edge of a nominal expression when its complement DP moves into its specifier. The DA selects as its complement a DP containing [SPECIFIC], and this local selection and movement derive the apparent long-distance relation between articles in the left periphery and the DA on the right. I decompose the rich paradigm of Tongan pro-forms into several syntactic categories: Determiners, DPs, Adverbs, and φ0s. Possessive pronominal determiners are syntactically derived via cliticization of φ0 and K0 to D0. Possessive structures also involve predicatefronting of the possessum. Parallels are drawn to clause-level predicate-fronting and "subject" cliticization.
This dissertation explores several phenomena within Tongan nominal expressions -- interactions amongst determiners, demonstratives, and definiteness; the morphosyntax of pronouns and possessive constructions; and the interactions of nominal aspect with numerals, number, and classification. Several motifs emerge, particularly the distributed nature of classification and quantification within nominal expressions, and the underlying locality of superficially long-distance syntactic relations. Although Tongan has pre-nominal articles often called definite and indefinite, I show that these encode specificity and non-specificity. Definiteness is marked via an anaphoric demonstrative clitic, the Definite Accent (DA), in the right periphery. A diachronic connection between the DA and spatial demonstratives has previously been shown, yet they do not instantiate the same syntactic category. The DA is now a marker of anaphoric deixis, interpreted as definiteness.
- Notes:
-
- Advisors: Diane Massam.
- Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 77-07(E), Section: A.
- English
- Subject:
- Linguistics
- Other authors/contributors:
- University of Toronto (Canada). Linguistics, degree granting institution
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