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Studies in Language: Online-First Articles

Specificity contrasts in Lalo Yi

Structure and interpretation

| University of Southern California
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Lalo Yi (Tibeto-Burman; China) makes systematic distinctions in the encoding of specificity with numerically-quantified nominals. Whereas specific indefinite NPs involve the presence of an article nikhe in an NP-internal position [Noun nikhe Numeral Classifier], non-specific existentially-asserted indefinites require the use of a syntactically discontinuous floating quantifier pattern [NP…Numeral-Classifier…]. A third, distinctive patterning is found with weak, non-specific indefinites (indefinites that are not existentially asserted). This paper describes these previously undocumented contrastive forms in Lalo Yi and how the language has developed a strikingly transparent linking between morpho-syntax and semantics/pragmatics in the domain of nominal phrases.

Keywords: Lalo Yi, specificity, numeral classifiers, articles
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Notions of specificity – a brief review
  • 3.Lalo Yi and the representation of (non-)specificity
    • 3.1Referential specificity
    • 3.2Scopal specificity
    • 3.3Epistemic specificity
      • Context for (17/18)
      • Context for (19/20)
      • Context
  • 4.(Non-)specificity marking in Lalo Yi: Distinctive properties and structures
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 25 April 2024
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https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.23038.hu
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