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Part of
Free Variation in Grammar: Empirical and theoretical approaches
Edited by Kristin Kopf and Thilo Weber
[Studies in Language Companion Series 234] 2023
► pp. 284–314

Chapter 10
Optionality, variation and categorial properties

The case of plural marking in Yucatec Maya

ORCID logo | Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
In this paper, I propose a semantic account of the optionality of plural marking in Yucatec Maya (Mayan; Mexico) which pins the variation in plural marking on the variation in noun denotations (Chierchia 1998; Borer 2005; Deal 2017; Moroney 2021). I argue that this optionality is not a free variation. I further argue that the noun denotations vary between apportionable and generic, which is manifested in the option of a pseudopartitive operation (Selkirk 1977; Higginbotham 1994) available at the final stage of the interpretation of the nouns in the semantics. The fact that, by this account, the computation of Yucatec constructions that involve counting yields correct results provides further supporting evidence for the proposed analysis.
Keywords: semantics, number, plural marking, optionality, Mayan languages, Yucatec, pseudopartitive operator
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Plural marking in Yucatec
  • 3.Variation unexplained
    • 3.1Morphosyntactic analysis of the Yucatec plural marker
    • 3.2Interpretation of the plural morpheme
      • 3.2.1Degree of animacy
      • 3.2.2Argument structure
      • 3.2.3Numerical quantification
    • 3.3Not a case of free variation
  • 4.The condition of the variation
    • 4.1Individuation and (pseudo-)partitivity
    • 4.2Analysis
    • 4.3Compositionality
      • 4.3.1Pluralised nouns
      • 4.3.2Numeral-classifiers with bare nouns
      • 4.3.3Numeral classifiers with pluralised nouns
  • 5.Further discussion
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].

Published online: 31 October 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.234.10yu
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