Workshop on Parts and Quantities
UBC
Nov 16th 2007
Counting, classifiers, and number in Niuean:
Classifiers that don’t classify and Plural markers that are singular*
Diane Massam
University of Toronto
()
I. Number in the Niuean Noun Phrase – The Data
Niuean: Polynesian, VSO, isolating, ergative case, no agreement
(1) The Niuean Substantive Nominal Phrase (Surface Order)
PREPOSITION / CASE / ARTICLE-Pr/Com / QUANTIFIER / NUMBER / CLASSIFIER PLURALS / NOUN / ADJECTIVE / NUMERAL* / DEMONSTRATIVE / POSSESSOR* / RELATIVE CLAUSE /PP MODIFIERS*Numeral and Possessor can also appear in the Quantifier slot (or as a predicate)
(2) Assumed Merge Order: (Kahnemuyipour and Massam 2006)
P K Art Q # CL/PL + [ _ Poss’r[_Dem[ _Num’l[ _ Adj [NP]
(ignoring relative clauses and PP modifiers)
(3) e tau koloa ikiki oti iahaaku
AbsC Pl store small all Dem my
nelima i Niue ne mai e Sione
Compl five Loc Niue Compl from ErgP Sione
“all those five small shops of mine in Niue which I have inherited from Sione.”
(de Sousa 2001.50)
* Funding for this research provided by SSHRCC (SRG to Massam). Many thanks to the UofT classifier bunch – Eugenia Suh, Julia Su, Nattaya Piriyaboon, Lyn Tieu, and to Catherine Macdonald, Jonathon Herd, and Donna Starks.
Number
(4) e tagataSingular
AbsC person
“a/the person” (FN)
(5)e tautagataPlural (2 or more)
AbsC Pl person
“(the) people” (FN)
(6) some lexically plural nouns – reduplication or suppletion
(also found in pluractionality) which can appear with or without tau (see below).
tama/fānau “child/children”, mala/malamala “bit/bits”
(7) Quantifiers: - loga + e “many”, gāhoa + e “few”, falu + a “some”
- possessors + a, numerals + e (when pre-nominal)
- taha (+a) “a/one”
(8)a.maihefalu aaelani
fromLocCsomeLNKisland
“from some other islands” (THK)
b.e falu avala he vagahau Pukapuka
AbsC some LNK piece GenC language Pukapuka
“some bits of the Pukapukan language” (LMR)
(9) tokologa eNiue(toko = classifier prefix on quantifiers over people)
Pers-many LNK Niue
“many Niueans” (LMR)
(10)a.tokolimaetagataloloa
Pers-five LNKpersontall
“five tall people” (de Sousa 2001.33)
b.e tautupua tokolima
AbsC Pl tupua Pers-five
‘the five tupua’ (=ancient legendary creature) (NAH)
(11) a. e ha Sione a leo
AbsC GenPSione LNKvoice
‘Sione’s voice’ (S.92b) (= definite)
b.e leoha Sione
AbsC voice GenPSione
‘Sione’s voice/a voice of Sione’ (FN)
(12) tahamena
one thing
“one thing” (NAH)
(13)pepelu taha elau uli
fold one LNK leaf black
“fold one black strip” (weaving instructions – THK)
(14)ne kitia ai he tahafonu e fifine nā
Pstsee then ErgC a turtle AbsC woman Dem
“(one day) a turtle saw this woman” (NAH)
(15)Ko e taha evaka-toga Sepania Potikali
Pred C a LNK vessel Spanish Portuguese
“(It was) a Spanish Portuguese vessel” (NAH)
(16)Definiteness and Specificity in Niuean
(Massam, Gorrie, & Kellner 2006)
[-PLURAL] / [+PLURAL]NEW or OLD
SPEC OR NON-SPEC / Ø / tau
NEW+SALIENT/FOC SPEC OR NON-SPEC / taha / falu a
BACKGROUNDED / ha
NON-REFERENTIAL / bare nouns
(17)Bare Nouns (=AdjP in Niuean) do not refer, cannot be arguments:
(Mithun 1984, de Hoop 1992, Bittner 1994, Van Geenhoven 1996, 1998, Dayal 1999, 2003, 2007, Carlson 2003, Chung and Ladusaw 2003, Mathieu 2005, to appear, Farkas and de Swart 2004, Öztürk 2004, Ghomeshi 2003…)
• obligatory narrow scope
• number neutrality
• lack of referentiality, becomes modificational part of an institutional activity
• inability to support pronominal discourse anaphora
(18)taute poa ke he tau atuamotu
do offering GoalLocC Pl god-island
“make offerings to the gods” (NAH)
(19)e maka efuefu puga
AbsCrock ashes limestone
“limestone” (NAH)
(20)-A typically Mass noun is mostly unmarked (“Sg”?), but can appear with plural:
a. Tunu e tau vaimafana ti faka-koukou aki a ia.
Boil AbsC Pl water warm then bathe with AbsP her
“They boiled water so that it was warm, and bathed her.” (Sp)
b. Kua fā lauia tamau a Niue ke he tau matagi afa malolo.
Perf habitual stricken firm AbsP Niue GoalP LocP Pl wind hurricane strong
“Niue has suffered frequently from severe hurricane damage.” (Sp)
(21)Classifier Plurals:(Seiter 1980)
atu “row, group”, lafu “family group”, nā “pair”, kau “organized group of people”
(22) e kaukaiha
AbsCgroupthieves
“a group of thieves” (S:100a)
(23) he atu motu
LocC row island
“in the islands” (NAH)
(24)e nā una
AbsC pair combs
“a pair of combs” (NAH)
(25) e lafutaokete haaku
AbsC family-group brother my
“my big brothers”
Combinations (Seiter 1980: quantifiers do not appear with tau)
(26) a. hefalu atau fuata Niue
ErgCsome LNKPl youth Niue
“some Niuean youths” (Coconut stories)
b.ke he loga e taumena
GoalC LocC many LNK PL thing
“about many things” (LMR)
c.ha lautolu a tau malolo
GenP they LNK PL strong
“their strengths” (NAH)
(27)mo e tau atumotu foki he Pasifika.
And C Pl row island also LocC Pacific
“and the islands of the Pacific” (NAH)
(17)tau kaukoli
Pl group dance
“cultural performances”
(18)e falu a atumotu Polinesia
AbsC some LNK row island Polynesia
“some Polynesian islands” (NAH)
(19)ke he tokoua e nā tagata Manu'a koVe'umo Ve'a
about two LNKDualpersonManu'a Pred Ve’uand Ve’a
‘about two Manu’an men, Ve’u and Ve’a. (NAH)
(20)Quantifier (A) - Plural (B) - CL/PL (C)
tauPLURAL B
falu aQUANTIFIER+LNKA
atuCL/PLC
falu a tauQUANTIFIER+LNK PLURALA B
tau atuPLURAL CL/PLB C
falu a atuQUANTIFIER+LNK CL/PLAC
???falu a tau atu ??A B C
Summary so far:
• For referentiality/argumenthood, Number is obligatory, but can appear in one of four places, or in two (at least/at most?) of these places .
• Case+Pr/Com is obligatory – except Absolutive case is optional if there is a Quantifier of any type (plural quantifier, possessor, numeral, taha).
II. The Status of CL/PL
(21) Classifiers
-depends on class of noun it appears with (eg. Senft 2000, Aikhenvald 2000)
-appears obligatorily with numerals (eg. Li 1999, Doetjes 1996, Tang 2001)
-is in complementary distribution with number (eg. Cheng and Sybesma 1998)
(22) Collective Nouns (cf. Massifiers - Cheng and Sybesma 1998, 1999, Borer 2005)
-a group of kids
-a row of islands
-a range of mountains
-a chain of islands
-Can be nouns on their own:
(23)e tau kauhe vaka-toga Sepania
AbsC Pl group GenC vessel Spanish
“the crew of the Spanish ship” (NAH)
(24)he tau lafu
GenC Pl family
“Of families”
-Same syntax as massifiers and other modificational [N [NP]] phrases
(25)e tauvalaufi
AbsC Pl piece yam
“pieces of yam”
(26)e valapuaka
AbsC piece pork
“a piece of pork”
(27)tau maala talo
Pl plantation taro
“taro plantations”
(28)Structure – Pseudo-Noun incorporating noun with NP complement
NP
N NP
Atumotu nai he Pasifika
Rowisland Dem LocC Pacific
“island rows in the Pacific” (NAH)
cf. PNI verbs with NP complements:
VP
V NP
taute poa ke he tau atuamotu
do offering GoalLocC Pl god-island
“make offerings to the gods” (NAH)
Summary so far
• tau is plural (but see below)
• lafu, atu, kau, nā are collective nouns, heading NPs with bare nominal complements
• NPs with lafu, kau, nā, are actually singular NPs (but how can we tell? – no agreement – except for some verbs which require plural arguments, but this could be semantic agreement – Massam, Haji-Abdolhosseini and Oda, 2002)
(29)Ne momohe fakalataha e kau kilikiki he fale akoako
Pst sleep(PL) together AbsC team cricket LocC house pastor
“The cricket team slept together in the pastor's house.”
III. Quantifiers and Linkers
(30) - A linker, a or e appears obligatorily with quantified nouns, except taha “a/one”, with which it appears optionally (falu a, loga e, gāhoa e, Numeral e, Possessor a)
- Generally, the plural marker does not appear with quantified nouns (see below)
“classifiers appear obligatorily with number/quantifiers”
“classifiers appear in complementary distribution with number”
“classifiers appear between numerals/quantifiers and their nouns”
[- Absolutive case marking is optional with quantified nouns (“classifiers appear in non-determiner languages”) (??)]
(31) Borer 2007
DP
D #max
Q2 #
<e2># CLmax
CL3 CL’
<e3DIV Nmax
3CLdog (Chinese)
3PLdog (English, N->DIV)
------
PROPOSAL 3 LNK(=CL) dog (Niuean quantified nominal)
-taudog (Niuean pluralized nominal)
-tauatu motu (Niuean - PL row island)
-NULLdog (Niuean singular)
• Q: What about falu a tau?
Claim: tau is ambiguous between a plural marker and a collective noun
(32) Appears optionally with lexically plural nouns – is not really a pluralizer here
a.e tau fānau
Abs Pl children (tama – “child”)
“the kids”
b.ti lalahi e fānau
then grew AbsC children
“then the kids grew”
(33) Is used lexically in other ways associated with amount eg. tau Proto-Polynesian “count”, tau “cost”, tau “year” (seems to have lexical roots)
(34) Has been considered to be a noun/adjective by grammarians of Niuean:
“denotes nominal plural, preposed to a singular noun to form a
plural noun phrase with minimally two nouns (NP = N N), or 'tau' can
be construed as a plural noun followed by the singular noun in the
form of an adjective (NP = N ADJ)” (McEwen, 1970:314) [= PNI]
Summary so far
• tau is plural marker
• tau can be a collective noun (and hence can co-occur with CL)
• lafu, atu, kau, nāare collective nouns with a [N [NP]] structure
• a, e assign range to DIV, that is, they are classifiers (that do not classify)
• Pl and Cl are in complementary distribution: Cl in quantified contexts, Pl in non- quantified contexts
Borer (2005)
•Nouns are not individuated in the lexicon.
•They become individuated, and can be arguments, when range is assigned to DIV.
Types of Noun Phrases in Niuean - In Niuean, DIV can have range assigned by:
-tau (moved from N? (Piriyawiboon, 2007))
-NULL
-LNK (=CL)
e tau tagata “(the) people”
#max
Q2 #
<e2># CLmax
CL3 CL’
<e3DIV Nmax
tau tagata
tagata “person”
#max
Q2 #
<e2># CLmax
CL3 CL’
<e3DIV Nmax
NULLtagata
falu a tagata “some people”
falu a tau tagata “some people”
#max
Q2 #
<e2># CLmax
CL3 CL’
<e3DIV Nmax
falu a(tau) tagata
kau kaiha “gang of thieves”
#max
Q2 #
<e2># CLmax
CL3 CL’
<e3DIV Nmax
NULL kau kaiha
tau atu motu “island groups”
#max
Q2 #
<e2># CLmax
CL3 CL’
<e3DIV Nmax
tau atu motu
falu a atu motu “some island groups”
#max
Q2 #
<e2># CLmax
CL3 CL’
<e3DIV Nmax
falu a atu motu
IV. Conclusion
• DIV is a required head for a nominal phrase to serve as an argument (and Case+Pr/Com), and its needs can be met in more than one way (Borer 2005).
• Number is more semantic than grammatical in Niuean (lack of any agreement, lexically plural nouns, wide use of collective nouns, ambiguity of tau, pluractionality)
• Use of tau and collective nouns do not indicate a robust number system, and what we have proposed to be a classifier system is deficient (Tang 2004).
• Suggests a system in process of change from Classifier to Number – (ambiguity of tau, deficient classifiers) – any historical validity to this?
Partial References
Aikhenvald Alexandra. 2000. Classifiers. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Borer, Hagit. 2005. In Name Only. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Cheng, Lisa, and Rint Sybesma. 1999. Bare and Not So Bare Nouns and the Structure of NP. Linguistic Inquiry 30:509-42.
----. Classifiers in four Varieties of Chinese. In G. Cinque and R. Kayne, eds., Handbook of Comparative Syntax .Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Chierchia, Gennaro. 1998. Reference to Kinds Across Languages. Natural Language Semantics 6. 339-405.
Da Sousa, Hilario. The Niuean Nominal Phrase. Ms. University of Auckland.
Doetjes, Jenny. 1996. Mass or Count: Syntax or Semantics? The Proceedings of the Meaning on the HIL, 34-52. Leiden: HIUL/Leiden University.
Kahnemuyipour, Arsalan, and Diane Massam. 2006. Patterns of Phrasal Movement: The Niuean DP” (with Arsalan Kahnemuyipour). in Hans-Martin Gaertner, Paul Law and Joachim Sabel, eds. Clause Structure and Adjuncts in Austronesian Languages. Mouton de Gruyter. pp. 125-150.
Li, Audrey. 1999. Plural in a Classifier Language. Journal of East Asian Linguistics. 8:75-99
Massam, Diane. 2001. Pseudo Noun Incorporation in Niuean, Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 19:1:153-197. 2001.
Massam, Diane, Mohammad Haji Abdolhosseini and Kenji Oda. 2002. Number and Events: Verbal Reduplication in Niuean Oceanic Linguistics 41.2:475-492. 2002.McEwen, J.M. Niue Dictionary. Wellington: Dept. of Måori and Island Affairs.
Piriyawiboon, Nattaya. 2007. Classifiers in Thai. Ms. University of Toronto.
Seiter, William. 1980. Studies in Niuean Syntax. New York: Garland.
Senft. Gunter. 2000. What do we really know about nominal classification systems. Systems of Nominal Classification, ed. By Gunter Senft. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Sperlich, Wolfgang. 1997. Tohi Vagahau Niue: Niue Dictionary. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.
Massam, Diane, Colin Gorrie and Alexandra Kellner. 2006. Determiners in Niuean
McEwen,
Tang, Jane. 2004. Two Types of Classifier Languages: A Typological Study of Classification Markers in Paiwan Noun Phrases. Language and Linguistics 5.2. 377-407.
-----. 2005 Nouns or Classifiers: A Non-movement Analysis of Classifiers in Chinese. Language and Linguistics 6.3:431-472.
Data from:
-Niue: a History of the Island, 1982, published jointly by the Institute of Pacific Studies of the University of the South Pacific and The Government of Niue, Alofi, Niue.
-Seiter 1980.
-Sperlich 1997.
-McEwen 1970.
-Tau Koloa Fakamotu ha Niue: Tau Koloa Laufa (Cultural Crafts of Niue: Pandanus Weaving) by Shari Cole and Vitolia Kulatea: Government of Niue and Institute of Pacific Studies, Alofi, Niue, 1996.
-Field Notes
-Languages of Manukau Region interviews (courtesy of Donna Starks, Auckland University)
-Asekona, Berry, Harry Manamana, Esau Noue, and Clive Beaumont. 2005. Ko e Tupumaiaga he Niu - The Origin of the Coconut Tree in Niue. Clive H. and Daisy J.M. Beaumont, Ranui, Auckland.
-Various stories, and various government brochures.
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