Speaker: Polina Berezovskaya (University of Tübingen)
Title: `Small Degrees’: Degree Modification in Nenets.
Time: Thursday, March 17th, 12:30-1:45 pm
Place: 32-D461
In Nenets, an underrepresented Samoyedic language from the
Uralic language family, the suffix ‘-rka’ is commonly found on the
gradable adjective in comparison constructions, cf. (1):(1) Katja Masha-xad saml’ang santimetra-nh pirc’a-rka.
Katja Masha-ABL five cm-DAT tall-RKA
‘Katja is a little taller than Masha.’Contrary to claims in the descriptive literature (e.g. Terezhenko
1947, Nikolaeva 2014), according to which this suffix is a comparative
marker, original fieldwork data shows that it is not. I am proposing
an analysis under which ‘-rka’ is a degree modifier that modifies a
difference degree stating that this degree is small.The Puzzle. The striking fact is that this suffix also appears outside
of comparison constructions. (2) and (3) show instances of ‘-rka’ on
nouns and verbs.(2) a. ngamderc’- chair, ngamderc’arka – kind of a chair
b. neb’a – mother, neb’arka – a mother who kind of fulfils her
duties as a mother, but not quite
c. ne – woman, nerka – kind of a woman (e.g. doesn’t really
behave like one)(3) Man’ s’urba-rka-dm.
I run-RKA-1.SG
‘I ran a little.’The question here is what the core meaning contributed by ‘-rka’ in
all these cases is and whether nouns and verbs carrying this suffix
make reference to some kind of an implicit comparison.The Plot. In this talk, I will explore the meaning contribution of
this suffix in and outside of comparison constructions. An analysis of
Nenets comparisons that are not marked by ‘-rka’ will be provided in
the spirit of the standard analysis (cf. von Stechow 1984, Heim 2001,
Beck 2011). I will also propose an analysis of cases like (1) using a
certain type of the Restrict operation (cf. Chung and Ladusaw 2004).
Ultimately, we will discuss the meaning contribution of -rka outside
of comparisons.