Lexical Plurals: A Morphosemantic Approach

✍ Scribed by Paolo Acquaviva

• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Year: 2008
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 309
• Series: Oxford Studies in Theoretical Linguistics
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This book explores the wide variety of cases in which the plural of nouns is lexical. When a plural is lexicalized it becomes part of what it is to know a certain word: pence, for example, is lexical because it means a plurality of a certain kind - a multiple value, not a set of physical objects like pennies - and knowing this reading is knowing the word. Languages exhibit countless examples of similar word-dependent irregularities in the form and meaning of plural, but these have never been analyzed in depth from a unified perspective. Dr Acquaviva aims to do just that, using analytic tools from formal semantics and theoretical morphology to shed light on the relation between grammar and the lexicon. After an introduction setting out his approach he divides the book into two parts. The first gives a structured description of the ways plurality can be lexicalized with an emphasis on description and categorization. The second analyzes in depth different types of lexical plurals in Italian, Irish, Arabic and Breton. A final chapter spells out the theoretical consequences for the analysis of the lexicon. The book is unusual in combining a broad typological classification with a unified morphological and semantic analysis based on a formal framework.

✦ Table of Contents

Contents......Page 6
General Preface......Page 10
Acknowledgements......Page 11
Abbreviations......Page 12
1.1 Lexical plurals as a morphosemantic concept......Page 14
1.2 Lexicality in morphology: stems and lexemes......Page 15
1.3 Lexicality in semantics: conceptualization......Page 16
1.4 Lexicality in morphosyntactic structure......Page 17
1.5 Inflection and derivation......Page 18
1.6 Structure of the book......Page 19
Part I. A typology of lexical plurals......Page 22
2.2 Lexical plurals ≠ irregular plurals......Page 24
2.3 Lexical plurals ≠ semantically irregular plurals......Page 26
2.4 Lexical plurals ≠ pluralia tantum......Page 28
2.5 Lexical vs. inflectional plurals: lack of obligatoriness......Page 34
2.6 Lexical vs. inflectional plurals: lack of generality......Page 38
2.7 Lexical vs. inflectional plurals: lack of determinism......Page 46
2.8 Lexical vs. inflectional plurals: semantic opacity......Page 56
2.9 Conclusion......Page 61
3.1 Introduction......Page 62
3.2 Is number lexical on all nouns?......Page 63
3.3 Lexicality as morphosyntactic autonomy......Page 69
3.4 Plural nouns within the base for inflection......Page 75
3.5 Plurals as inherent class feature......Page 84
3.6 Conclusion......Page 90
4.1 Introduction......Page 92
4.2 Plurality without singularity......Page 94
4.3 Ontological categories for a semantic typology......Page 102
4.4 Conceptual/perceptual categories......Page 112
4.5 Plural and instantiation......Page 120
4.6 Conclusion......Page 131
Part II. Four case studies......Page 134
5.1 Introduction......Page 136
5.2 Description......Page 137
5.3 The morphological evidence......Page 143
5.4 The semantic evidence......Page 159
5.5 Conclusion: plurals in -a as derived lexemes......Page 170
6.1 Introduction......Page 175
6.2 Numeral constructions in Irish......Page 176
6.3 Unit nouns and number in comparative perspective......Page 184
6.4 The semantics of unit nouns......Page 189
6.5 Counting plurals as unsuffixed stems......Page 194
6.6 Irish counting plurals as inherently plural classifiers......Page 201
6.7 Conclusion: Irish counting plurals and lexical plurality......Page 206
7.1 Introduction......Page 208
7.2 BPs in Arabic and its dialects......Page 209
7.3 The lexicality of BPs......Page 219
7.4 Derived stems in an inflectional paradigm......Page 228
7.5 Number, collectives, and the semantics of BPs......Page 234
7.6 Conclusion: BPs and lexical plurality......Page 245
8.1 Introduction......Page 247
8.2 Breton plurals between inflection and word formation......Page 249
8.3 The grammatical relevance of part structure......Page 256
8.4 ‘Collectives’ and plural morphology......Page 270
8.5 Conclusion: the peculiarity of Breton plurals......Page 276
9.1 Lexical and grammatical knowledge......Page 279
9.2 Lexemic plurals......Page 280
9.3 Inherently plural stems......Page 281
9.4 Lexical and constructional knowledge......Page 282
9.5 Concluding remarks......Page 285
References......Page 288
D......Page 302
L......Page 303
R......Page 304
Z......Page 305
I......Page 306
Z......Page 307
U......Page 308

✦ Subjects

Языки и языкознание;Лингвистика;Морфология;