Gender, like classifiers, marks

uniform atomicity: evidence

from Serbo-Croatian
Boban Arsenijevi, University of Potsdam and University of Ni
CLS52, April 21-23 2016

Organization of the talk

Present several awkward properties of Serbo-Croatian (SC) neuter
nouns.
Present a view of count vs. mass vs. collective semantics based on
two levels of vagueness: the atomic level (lexical semantics of the
noun) and the level of the unit of counting (classifier).
Present an analysis of gender in which gender is similar to classifiers
in languages like Chinese, and neuter is the absence of gender.
Show how these two combine to explain the mysterious facts
presented in the beginning of the talk.
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Mystery 1
Only collective forms productively derived from N nouns trigger plural
agreement on the verb.
(1) a. bur-e;
Bur-ad
je/su
nova.
barrel-NSg
barrel-Coll be.Sg/Pl
new.FSg/NPl
The barrels are new.
b. snop-;
Snop-je
je/*su
teko/*teki
beam-MSg
beam-Coll ne.Sg/Pl heavy.NSg/MPl
The beams are heavy.
Note that collectives from M and F nouns are N, those from N are F.
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Mystery 2
Neuter nouns derived from other genders cannot have plural forms.
(3) prozor-
window-MSg
window

prozor--e
window-Dim-NSg
little window

*prozor--(et-)a
window-Dim-Ext-NPl

prozor--ad
prozor--i-i
window-Dim-CollFSg window-Dim-Dim-MPl
little windows (Coll) little windows (Pl)

Mystery 2, still
Diminutives from neuter bases do not have this restriction.
(4) dn-o
bottom-MSg
bottom

dan-c-e
bottom-Dim-NSg
little bottom

dan-c-a
bottom-Dim-NPl
little bottoms

?dan-c-ad
?dan--i-i
bottom-Dim-CollFSg bottom-Dim-Dim-MPl
little bottoms (Coll) little bottoms

Mystery 3
Neuter is not compatible with person, or with deixis.
(5) a. CHILD: *ital-o
sam
knjigu
read-NSg Aux1Sg
book.Acc
I was reading a book
b. Mi *(??spadal-a) smo
radoznal-a.
we joker-NPl
are.1Pl curious-NomNPl
We jokers are curious.
c. (pointing at three kids) #Ona
su neumorna.
they3NPl are tireless.NomNPl
They are tireless.
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Mystery 4
Neuter agreement is bad with assemblies of individuated atoms.
(6) a. Knjiga
i
sveska
su
stajali/stajale pored vaze.
book.FSg and notebook.FSg AuxPl stood.M/FPl by
vase
A book and a notebook were standing by the vase.
b. Selo
i
polje
su
leali/*leala u irokoj dolini.
village.NSg and field.NSg auxPl lay.M/NPl
in broad valley
A village and a field lay in a broad valley.
c. *Trinaest pisama
su
isporuena.
(OK for F and M)
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letter.NGenPl are delivered.NPl
Eleven letters have been delivered. (M/FPl allows both)
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Count, mass, collective: the view argued for

Count semantics corresponds to a simple count classifier semantic
restriction, part of the lexical semantics of the noun.
Mass nouns are deffective in this respect: no classifier restriction
(they bear homogeneous semantics, as in e.g. Higginbotham 1994).
Collective nouns (furniture type) involve a paucal classifier semantic
restriction, matching 2+ atoms (Nevins, this CLS), which is messy in
the sense of Landman (2011) and subsumes atomicity.
Lexical classifier-restrictions may be overridden by overt (grain of salt,
head of cattle, bag of marbles) or contextually imposed classifiers
(three waters , four sands = containers, types).
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Syntactic structure: the view argued for

Following Arsenijevi (2006), I assume a partitive head above NP, with
a partitive feature which can be valued by a classifier feature.
The valuation results in a restriction of partition to (sums of) units
specified by the lexical semantic classifier component.
Absence of a value results in a mass partition.
PartP
PartP

[PART:CL]

NP

marble[CL]

[PART]

NP
air[]
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Syntactic structure: the view argued for

Following Arsenijevi (2006), I assume a partitive head above NP, with
a partitive feature which can be valued by a classifier feature.
The valuation results in a restriction of partition to (sums of) units
specified by the lexical semantic classifier component.
Absence of a value results in a mass partition.
PartP
PartP
gender

[PART:CL]

NP

marble[CL]

[PART]

NP
air[]
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Grammatical realization of the classifier

Classifier component needs a syntactic realization to come to effect.
Languages like Chinese use special light nominal items, classifiers, to
grammatically realize the unit of counting (CL-value in [PART:CL]).
(7) san
zhi / qun / zhong
xiong
(Krifka 1995)
three Cl.obj Cl.herd Cl.species bear
3 bears (objects) / 3 herds of bears / 3 bears (species)

Other languages employ an abstract, grammaticalized expression of

the lexically supplied classifier component, namely gender.
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Plurals, gender, neuter

Plurals, count quantification etc. require a neat classifier (Landman
2011), overt (grain of salt, Chinese CLs), or expressed by gender.
Neuter is the absence of gender (Kramer 2015) neuter fails to
generate plurals, among other consequences of genderlessness .
Collectives as surrogate plurals: traditional NPl is in fact a collective
form (implies that there is no NPl morphosyntactically, it is FSg) .

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Collective and plural in SC

Plural subsumes the meaning of the collective, while being simpler in
not involving conflict between morphosyntax and semantics.
The dual has been lost in SC, and the paucal is limited to numeral
expressions.
Count bases which can derive plurals (M, F) block the collective forms
within the paradigm, only idiosyncratically derive (pseudo-)collectives
(establishing an own paradigm, Simonovi & Arsenijevi 2015).
Only when plurals cannot be derived, collectives are allowed.
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Support for the analysis

The NPl paradigm is identical to the paucal paradigm, and its ending
-a matches the collective suffix in nouns of the dec-a child-Coll type.
(8) a. tri list-a
b. dec-a
3
leaf-Pauc
child-Coll
All these three categories occur only within the declension class 1.
Borrowed count nouns fitting the shape of a neuter noun go to the
unfitting masculine gender (yielding hiatus).
(9) mal-i
radio-
vs. *mal-o
radi-o
little-NomMSg radio-NomMSg vs. little-NomNSg radio-NomNSg
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More support
Over 90% of N nouns are mass-denoting, productive N nominalizing
suffixes are all either mass or diminutive, no classifier nouns are N.
Only N nouns productively derive collective nouns.
Collective suffixes attaching to neuter bases, -a and -ad, only attach to
count bases and derive only collective nouns, while -je, attaching to
M/F, also attaches to non-count bases and derives mass nouns.
(10) pri-mor-je
pucan-je
istino-ljub-je
by-sea-Coll
shoot-Coll
truth-love-Coll
coastal area
shooting
truthfulness
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Icelandic classifiers
In Icelandic, M and F classifiers can be elided under a modifier
expressing its gender (Maling and Whelpton, ongoing research).
(11) a. Get g fengi anna/annan kaffi?
can I
have another.N/M coffee.N
(presupposed: cup.M; N sort, M cup)
b. Lttu mig f annan/*anna bjr.
let
me get another.M/N
beer.M
(presupposed: glass.N; M both readings, *N)
c. Lttu mig f anna
vin.
let
me get another.N wine.N
(presupposed: glass.N; M only sort reading)
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Mystery 1
Only collective forms productively derived from N nouns, which are all F, trigger
plural agreement on the verb.
(1) a. bur-e;
Bur-ad
je/su
nova.
barrel-NSg
barrel-Coll
be.Sg/Pl new. FSg/NPl
The barrels are new.
b. snop-;
Snop-je
je/*su
teko/*teki
beam-MSg
beam-Coll
ne.Sg/Pl
heavy.NSg/MPl
The beams are heavy.

F expresses the classifier restriction in (1a) (paucal, subsuming count),

required by the Pl; N fails to do it in (1b), hence incompatible with Pl.

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Mystery 2
Neuter nouns derived from other genders cannot have plural forms.

(3) prozor-
window-MSg
window
prozor--ad
window-Dim-CollFSg
little windows (Coll)

prozor--e
*prozor--(et-)a
window-Dim-NSg
window-Dim-Ext-NPl
little window
prozor--i-i
window-Dim-Dim-MPl
little windows (Pl)

Deminutive suffixes are transparent for the gender of the base, which
blocks the within-paradigm collective form, allows a derived one.
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Mystery 3
Neuter is not compatible with person, or with deixis.
(5) a. CHILD: *ital-o
sam
knjigu
read-NSg Aux1Sg
book.Acc
I was reading a book
b. Mi *(??spadal-a) smo
radoznal-a.
we joker-NPl
are.1Pl curious-NomNPl
We jokers are curious.
c. (pointing at three kids) #Ona
su neumorna.
they3NPl are tireless.NomNPl
Deixis requires an expressed classifier.
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Mystery 4
Neuter agreement is bad with assemblies of individuated atoms.
(6) b. Selo
i
polje
su
leali/*leala u irokoj dolini.
village.NSg and field.NSg auxPl lay.M/NPl
in broad valley
The village and the field lay in a broad valley.
c. Trinaest pisama
[je isporueno / *su isporuena].
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letter.NGenPl is delivered.NSg are delivered.NPl
Eleven letters have been delivered. (M/FPl allows both)

Conjunctions and numeral-noun expressions are incompatible with

the vague paucal classifier of the collective NPl -a.
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Conclusion
Count nouns incorporate classifier restrictions: count or paucal.
This restriction remains inactive unless structurally expressed.
Gender (in SC) serves this purpose: it grammatically expresses the
classifier component.
Neuter is the absence of gender (Kramer 2015) unexpressed Cl.
Plurals require a grammatically expressed classifier *NPl.
N resorts to collectives (paucal classifier) to express plural meanings.
This explains several otherwise mysterious properties of N in SC.
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THANK YOU

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References
Chierchia, G. 2010. Mass nouns, vagueness and semantic variation. Synthese
174(1): 99149.
Corbett G. G. (1991). Gender. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kramer, Ruth. 2015. The Morphosyntax of Gender. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Landman, F. 2011. Count Nouns Mass Nouns, Neat Nouns Mess Nouns. The
Baltic International Yearbook of Cognition, Logic and Communication, 6, 167.
Rothstein, S. 2010. Counting and the mass/count distinction. Journal of Semantics
27, no. 3: 343397.
Wechsler, S. & L. Zlati. 2000. A Theory of Agreement and its Application to SerboCroatian. Language 76. 799832.
Wechsler, S. &L. Zlatic. 2003. The Many Faces of Agreement. Stanford: CSLI
Publications.
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Neuter-base and non-neuter-base collectives

Both combine with distributive modifiers.
(11) a. dugo/razbacano
prue
b. teka/okupana telad
long/thrown_around stickM.Coll
heavy/bathed calfN.Coll
Only neuter-based ones provide access to the units of counting.
(12) a. *Prua
je
bilo
devet.
stick.CollGen Aux been 9
b. Teladi
je
bilo
devet.
calf.CollGen
Aux been 9
Exactly as predicted by the analysis.
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