Please join us for this week’s ling-lunch:
Speaker: Peter Jenks (Harvard)
Time: Thurs 3/11, 12:30-1:45
Place: 32-D461
Title: Quantifier float, adverbs, and scope in Thai
Novel data in Thai suggest that quantifier float, properly
analyzed, lends further merit to the idea that quantifiers and
argument NPs do not always join the clause as a single DP. More
specifically, Thai data suggest that quantifier float occurs when an
adverb is base generated in its scope position, triggering covert
movement of an argument NP. Thai has SVOAdv word order, with floated
quantifiers appearing in adverbial positions. I present arguments
against a “pure” stranding analysis, where the NP is always generated
Q-internally and then moved, as well as arguments against Q-float as
extraposition. However, island sensitivity and the interpretation of
these quantifiers suggest that they are directly associated with
argument NPs by movement. In order to resolve this conflict, I rely on
three notions: a) base generation of FQs in their scope positions b)
QR via movement or reconstruction to somewhere in the Thai middlefield
by an NP and c) generalized VP-raising. I will also try to show that
that this analysis can account for the typology of quantifier float in
classifier languages, which is limited to languages which allow the
DP-internal order N-Q-Cl.