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The Syntax of the DP Mihaela Tanase-Dogaru Fall semester 2013 Pseudo-partitive constructions in English and Romanian 0. Questions 1. are there any classifiers in plural languages, i.e. in languages with plural morphology? 2. if so, how can we characterize their status, i.e. functional, lexical or semi-lexical and their role? 3. do classifiers project universally, i.e. is there enough evidence to support a classifier projection in all languages? If it is the case that all languages have a classifier projection, then what I will have to determine is the relation between the Classifier Phrase and the Number Phrase.

1. What Classifiers Classify In the recent literature it has been often pointed out that according to the way they express grammatical number, languages fall into two categories: classifier languages, i.e. languages with a classifier morpheme ranging over the noun (areal feature of languages in Asia and Southeast Asia). Because classifiers are obligatory with numerals in every language in which they occur, they are traditionally analyzed as individuating, i.e. identifying countable entities. languages with plural morphology the absence of plural marking correlates with the absence of number inflection: (1) a. Qianmian turan tiao chulai yi zhi laohu Front suddenly jump out one CL tiger suddenly a tiger jumped out in front of us b. Ta mai le yi zhuang fangzi he buy.perf.asp one CL house - in traditional analysis, classifiers were considered a subclass of measure phrases, which provide units of mensuration. According to Li (2000), the term classifier is due to the fact that the measure word

2 was felt to perform both the function of revealing some characteristics of the entity designated by the noun and that of categorizing nouns into classes. Chen (2003) also notes that nouns in a language like Chinese have their own special sortal classifiers, which indicate in a suggestive manner, the shape, texture, function etc. of the entities designated by the nouns they are used with. For instance the special classifier for pen in Chinese is zhi, literally branch suggesting the shape of the pen; the special classifier for table is zhang, literally stretched, spread suggesting the function of the table. - in languages with plural morphology, such measure phrases are required by mass nouns in order to be countable, i.e. in order to be rendered countable, mass nouns need to be individuated (2): (2) a. two grains of sand / three drops of whisky / a loaf of bread b. dou boabe de orez / trei pahare de lapte / un cub de zahr two grains of rice / three glasses of milk / a cube of sugar question: are these measure words/ partitive expressions/ amount quantifiers the same as classifiers in Chinese? - recall that the major difference is that classifiers in Chinese are required both for what is generally called mass nouns (like rice, water, etc) and for count nouns (pen, book, etc) while in languages like English they are required only for mass nouns. Another difference: in languages with plural morphology, mass nouns can receive plural suffixes in order to become countable as an alternative to classifier inflection, while in Chinese they cannot. (3) two sugars / three teas / many salts dou zaharuri / trei ceaiuri / multe sruri at least a category of nouns in Romanian and English can be seen as performing the job of classifiers, i.e. N 1 in quantitative pseudo-partitives. 1.1. Classifying Classifiers - classifiers can be divided into two classes (cf. Cheng and Sybesma, 1999 and references there): a. classifiers that create a unit of measure

(4) a. san ping jiu three bottle liquor three bottles of liquor b. san ba mi three handful rice three handfuls of rice c. san wan tang three bowl soup three bowls of soup b. classifiers that name the unit in which the entity denoted by the noun naturally occurs (5) a. san ge ren three CL people three persons b. san zhi bi three CL pen three pens c. san ben shu three CL book three books - the first type of classifiers = massifiers; second = count-classifiers. - distinctions between massifiers and classifiers: a. massifiers allow the appearance of a modification marker de, which may intervene in the [massifier + N] sequence, while count-classifiers do not (6). b. massifiers allow the modification of the massifier head with a limited number of adjectives (da / big, xiao / small), while count-classifiers do not (7): (6) a. san bang (de) rou three CL pounds DE meat

4 b. liang xiang (de) shu two CL box DE book (7) a. yi da zhang zhi one big CL-sheet paper b. *yi da zhi gou one big CL dog the count- mass distinction is lexically encoded on Chinese nouns; the noun has a mass denotation and is inserted in the structure where the massifier or count-classifier takes over the job of encoding divisibility. - what about classifiers in English and Romanian? Do they behave like Chinese massifiers? - both English and Romanian massifiers allow markers of nominal boundary of and de respectively (8a) and allow modification by adjectives (8b): (8) a. three pounds of meat a. trei kilograme de carne three kilos of meat b. a big sheet of paper b. o foaie mare de hrtie a sheet big of paper a big sheet of paper - both features seem to point to the fact that massifiers involve a distinct projection, headed by a semilexical item, which can be modified. 2. Classifiers and Pseudo-Partitives 2.1. Partitive vs. Pseudo-Partitive Constructions English classification (cf. Selkirk, 1977): partitives: a group of the students / a bottle of the wine pseudo-partitives:

5 quantitative: a group of students / a bottle of wine qualitative (binominal): an idiot of a doctor

In Romanian, the part- of relation is expressed by means of the prepositions dintre (from among), din (from) and de (of). According to tefnescu (1997), the important linguistic fact is that these different prepositions c- select NPs with different syntactic properties. Dintre c -selects definite plural NPs, while de c-selects mass nouns or bare plurals. In the same framework, the differences in cselection account for the syntactic properties of partitive phrases. Expressions conveying the part- of relation in Romaniancan be classified as: partitive expressions: dintre partitives: o parte dintre studeni / a part from-among students unul dintre studenii lui / one from-among students-the his din partitives: o parte din vin / a part from wine o sticl din vinul acela / a bottle from wine-the that pseudo-partitive expressions: o bucat de pine / a piece of bread - the main semantic difference between partitive and pseudo-partitive expressions in Romanian is the fact that, with partitive constructions, N2 denotes a definite or delimited domain, while with pseudopartitive constructions, N2 refers to an indefinite or unrestricted domain (see also Gramatica Academiei 2005). - the main difference between the two types of partitives proper in Romanian relates to the fact that dintre partitives always select a definite plural DP, while din partitives select both definite plural DPs (o parte din studeni / a part of students) and mass nouns (o parte din ap / a part of water). - the oldest partitive preposition in Romanian is de. Partitive de is attested in old Romanian before partitive din is formed out of de (of) and n (in): (9) a. una de smbete (cf. Dicionarul limbii romne 1913, quoted in Gramatica Academiei 2005)

6 one of Saturdays b. carele de noi which-the of us which of us c. numai o parte de nemi supui n- au fost (cf. N. Costin in Dicionarul enciclopedic ilustrat, 19261931, quoted in Hristea 1984) only a part of Germans obedient not-have been only a part of the Germans were not obedient - gradually, partitive din replaced partitive de : (10) Aici vede omul adesea dealuri, din care unele sunt cu pduri (cf. D. Golescu in Dicionarul Here sees man-the often hills, from which some-the are with forests Here you can often see hills, some of which are full of forests - in modern Romanian, there is a competition between partitive din and partitive dintre which is formed out of the combination of two prepositions: de (of) and ntre (among). There are some Romanian grammarians who argue in favor of the view that partitive din loses ground in favor of dintre (see Hristea 1984), since din is believed to be the older of the two. - this competition can be explained by the fact that dintre and din both select definite plural DPs However, din differs from dintre because it can also select mass nouns: (11) O parte din / dintre studeni sunt furioi. A part from / from-among students are furious. a part of the students are furious b. O parte din / *dintre vin s- a vrsat. A part from / from-among wine se- has spilled a part of the wine has been spilled. - what sets pseudo-partitives in Romanian apart from partitive constructions is the fact that they take an NP-complement, i.e. N2 denotes an indefinite or unrestricted domain:

limbii romne literare contemporane 1955-1957, quoted in Hristea 1984)

(12)

o parte dintre studenii mei au plecat a part from-among students-the my have left a part of my students have left b. o parte din studenii mei au plecat a part from students-the my have left a part of my students have left c. o parte de studeni (*i mei au plecat) a part of students-*the my have left a part of my students have left

- in some languages (Fino-Ugric), the partitive is a case encoding the part-of relation. In Latin, the partitive is a value of the genitive case as in parum frumenti / very little wheat . The inflectional partitive has been gradually replaced by prepositional means of indicating the part-of relation. One can speak about a surviving partitive value in French as in boire du lait / drink part. milk , where du is a partitive article. In Romanian, the plural indefinite article can have a partitive value as in mnnc nite pine / eat 1st.ps.sg. some bread (see Dicionar de tiine ale limbii, 1997). - there is a close connection between the genitive case and the partitive case / value. In Romanian there are several types of genitives: AL-genitives, bare genitives and DE-genitives. If the genitive DP is a bare NP, the assigner is the preposition de as in pierderea de viei omeneti / loss-the of lives human (cf. Cornilescu 2003). Recall that de is the same preposition used in Romanian pseudo-partitive constructions. Therefore, in older stages of Romanian, the preposition de was involved in expressing both the genitive and the partitive (see above examples). Gradually, the two specialized partitive prepositions have emerged and de has become a functional preposition marking the boundary between the lexical and the semi- lexical or functional domains of the nominal group. - it is also interesting to notice that in Slavic languages, numerals above five assign genitive case to the nominals they quantify (cf. Franks 2005), as in pjat main pod exalo k vokzalu / five cars.gen drove-up.n to station. In Romanian, numerals above twenty select a de -complement as in douzeci de studeni / twenty of students, which can be related to the Slavic genitive. In UG, the pseudo-partitive and the partitive are two semantic values of the Genitive Case.

8 2.2. Classifiers and Mass Nouns - In English and Romanian, classifiers are required with mass nouns; they individuate a certain portion of the stuff designated by the mass noun. Alternative designations for classifiers in languages with plural morphology are terms like measure phrases, amount quantifiers, partitive expressions or quantifying nouns (cf. Longman Grammar 1999). - classifiers are functional nouns to various degrees, as we are going to prove for Romanian and English in this section. In (13) there are some preliminary examples of Romanian classifiers used with mass nouns and in (14) classifiers used with abstract nouns: (13) o pictur de snge a drop of blood un strop de vin a drop of wine o nghiitur de whisky a mouthful of whisky (14) un act de onoare an act of honor o dovad de curaj a proof of courage un semn de via a proof of life (lit. a sign of life) - according to the criterion of degrees of semi- lexicality of the noun functioning as N 1 in a pseudopartitive construction, Vos (1999) distinguishes six subtypes of such classifiers, taking into account their agreement patterns and their inherent descriptive co ntent: (15) a. een aantal voorbeelden quantifier noun a number examples b. drie liter melk measure noun three liter(s) milk c. een snee brood part noun a slice bread d. die krat bier container noun that case beer e. een kudde olifanten collective noun a herd elephants f. vijf soorten zoogdieren kind noun

9 five types mammals - it is not clear whether this classification (or any other, for that matter) is exhaustive and it is often difficult to decide to which particular class a certain N 1 belongs. As stated in the previous section, Cheng and Sybesma (1999) divide classifiers in Chinese into two categories: classifiers that create a unit of measure, or massifiers (mass classifiers) and classifiers that name the unit in which the entity denoted by the noun naturally occurs, or count-classifiers. Since they create units of measure, massifiers do not occur only with mass nouns; they can also occur with nouns that have an inherent partitioning as part of their semantics (a group of people, a pound of beans). - another classification of N 1 in pseudo-partitives is provided by Stavrou (2003) for Greek: (16) a. ekatosti, duzina cardinal noun a hundred, dozen b. zevgari, arithmos quantifier-like noun pair, number c. kuti, bukali container nouns box, bottle d. plithos collective / group nouns crowd e. buketo, matsaki consistive / material nouns bunch, small prig f. kilo measure / unit noun g. komati, feta partitive noun piece, slice - some noun classes, such as a, b, and f, are clearly closed classes, as they cannot freely register new members, while the rest of the classes allow creative use as in tria tsigara dromos = three cigarettes way (meaning a distance that takes the smoking of three cigarettes to be covered). - Romanian classifiers, i.e. N 1 in pseudo-partitive constructions fall into several classes, according to their degree of semi- lexicality:

10 a) UNIT NOUNS: un act de justiie an act of justice un gest de omenie a gesture of kindness o prob de onestitate a proof of honesty un gest de afeciune a sign of affection o adiere de speran a breeze of hope o pild de onestitate a of honesty o not de optimism a note of optimism un puseu de febr an access of fever un acces de gelozie a flight of jealousy o frntur de vorb a piece of talk o spoial de cultur a little culture (lit. a patina of culture) o urm de mil a trace of mercy o frm de noroc a speck of luck un izvor de bucurie a spring of joy b) CONTAINER NOUNS un pahar de vorb a glass of talk un pumn de nisip a handful of sand (lit. a fist of sand) un pahar de ulei a glass of oil o ceac de ceai a cup of tea un car de oale a cart of pots o damigean de viinat a keg of cherry brandy un butoi de uic a barrel of tzuika o lad de bere a crate of beer o canistr de benzin a canister of gas o sticl de vin a bottle of wine o can de lapte a mug of milk un oi de coniac a (long-necked) glass of cognac o mn de mlai a handful of maize (lit. a hand of maize)

11 c) MEASURE NOUNS un dram de speran a grain of hope un dram de onoare a grain of honor un dram de noroc a grain of luck un lingou de aur a bar of gold o bucat de lemn a piece of wood o mbuctur de mncare a gulp of food o duc de uic a taste of tzuika o gur de ap a sip of water (lit. a mouth of water) o palm de pmnt a plot of land (lit. a palm of land) o legtur de ceap a bundle of onions un cocean de porumb a cob of corn un snop de gru a bundle of wheat o cla ie de pr a head of hair (lit. a stack of hair) o funie de usturoi a bunch of garlic (lit. a rope of garlic) un vrf de sare / piper a sprinkle of salt / pepper (lit. a tip of salt) un calup de brnz a block of cheese un drob de sare a rock of salt o vadr de vin a barrel of wine o dubl de porumb a sack of corn (lit. a double of corn) un deget de whisky a shot of whisky (lit. a finger of whisky) o halb de bere a pint of beer un litru de vin a litre of wine un metru de material a meter of fabric un kilogram de unt a kilo of butter o ton de aluminiu a ton of aluminium d) SHAPE NOUNS o raz de speran a ray of hope o und de speran a ray of hope (lit. a wave of hope)

12 un val de entuziasm a wave of enthusiasm un bob de fasole - a grain of beans un bob de rou a grain of dew un bob de nut a grain of chick-pea o frunz de ceap an onion (lit. a leaf of onion) un fir de ceap an onion (lit. a stick of onion) o frunz de salat a lettuce (lit. a leaf of lettuce) o raz de lumin a ray of light o gean de lumin a ray of light (lit. an eyelash of light) un vltuc de cea a cloud of smoke e) CARDINAL NOUNS O duzin de animale a dozen of animals O sut de cri a hundred of books O mie de probleme a thousand of books Un milion de minuni a million of wonders f) QUANTIFIER NOUNS O pereche de mnui a pair of gloves O pereche de pantaloni a pair of trousers Un numr de studeni number of students O grmad de cri a pile of books

g) KIND NOUNS Dou tipuri de celenterate two kinds of coelenterates Un fel de brnz a type of cheese O categorie de substantive a category of nouns O specie de cactus a species of cactus O clas de obiecte a class of objects