Against a generalized quantifier analysis of certain quantity expressions in Ch’ol
Carol Rose Little
January 2023
 

This paper discusses a quantity word alternation in Ch'ol, a Mayan language of southern Mexico. Drawing on fieldwork and additional texts, I show that numerals, pejtyel 'all,' and oñ 'many/much' may appear with additional possessive morphology. I present evidence against a generalized quantifier analysis of these expressions and provide an analysis where the possessed quantity expressions are adjuncts co-indexed with a null pronoun. I also consider the alternation between oñ 'many/much' and its possessed form meaning 'most.' While the morphosyntactic distribution is similar, there are certain semantic reasons to not treat the 'many'/'most' alternation in the same way as 'all' and the numerals. I suggest that the form corresponding to 'most' has arisen via analogy with the other forms. I conclude with some observations on other quantity words in the language and cross-linguistic implications in the study of quantificational phrases.
Format: [ pdf ]
Reference: lingbuzz/007073
(please use that when you cite this article)
Published in: In John R. Starr, Juhyae Kim, and Burak Oney (Eds) Proceedings of SALT 32.
keywords: quantification, mayan, numerals, maximality, modifiers, quantifiers, ch’ol, semantics
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