Speaker: Shrayana Haldar (MIT)
Title: Why Derive Uniqueness of Definites from Contextual Contradiction? A Case from Bengali
Time: Wednesday, October 30, 1pm – 2pm
Location: 32-D461
Abstract: This is Part II of the two-part talk that began last week. In last weeks talk, I showed the theoretical possibility of deriving the uniqueness presupposition of definites from the contextual contradictions that arise when theres a PEX operator inside an indefinite DP. This week, well see this potentially in action in Bengali. The central observation is that, in Bengali, DPs with the numeral NP order have an indefinite reading and those with the NP numeral order have a definite reading, and the definite reading has usually been associated with a DP-internal NP movement past the numeral (Bhattacharya 1998, 1999). However, a definite reading arises nonetheless when DPs with the numeral NP order bears an extra [-i] morpheme, along with a cleft reading. When we look closely, we see that the [-i] morpheme really gives rise to cleft-like semantics in completely unrelated cases, needs to have the semantics as PEX, and the definite reading that arises from it is in complementary distribution with the definite reading that arises from the DP-internal NP movement past the numeral. This strictly ties the definite readings of numeral NP DPs with [-i] to the [-i] morpheme itself, attaching inside the DP (and thus, perhaps, fulfilling the featural needs that the DP-internal NP movement would have otherwise fulfilled.) This is exactly parallel to the hypothetical case we considered last week. Therefore, Bengali gives us empirical reasons to rethink the syntax-semantics of definites in terms of indefinites with a PEX/cleft morpheme. In other words, definites are perhaps clefts of a certain sort those that are embedded inside indefinites.