(Negative) concord and head directionality in Western Armenian

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy, 2013.

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Khanjian, Hrayr
Other Authors: Norvin Richards.
Format: Thesis
Language:eng
Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2014
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/84419
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author Khanjian, Hrayr
author2 Norvin Richards.
author_facet Norvin Richards.
Khanjian, Hrayr
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description Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy, 2013.
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spelling mit-1721.1/844192019-04-11T11:11:37Z (Negative) concord and head directionality in Western Armenian Khanjian, Hrayr Norvin Richards. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Linguistics and Philosophy. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Linguistics and Philosophy. Linguistics and Philosophy. Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy, 2013. Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. Includes bibliographical references (pages 221-227). This thesis focuses on concord structures found in Western Armenian. I label a structure as concord if two morphemes found in the same clause bear the same feature, yet only result in one semantic interpretation of that feature. The main focus of the thesis is that of negative concord in Western Armenian. Other concord phenomena are also examined: complementizer and additive concord. I draw a parallel between all of these structures, demonstrating that they can be analyzed using the same system of Agreement of the relevant features. A striking similarity between all these concord structures is the optionality of the morphemes involved. Negative morphemes, complementizer heads, and additive markers are optional in Western Armenian. These concord structures bring about some issues regarding head directionality. Western Armenian is a generally head-final language. Certain domains exhibit both head-initial and head-final possible structures. These are found in the complementizers and the adpositions of the language. The complementizer phrases (CPs) which contain more than one morpheme bearing the same feature, are comprised of one head final and one head initial morpheme. Either can be uttered without the other being realized, and both are possible in the same clause as well. Variation, in this case with regards to head direction, is usually studied across multiple languages or across phrase types within a single language; however, WA is a language where variation is seen within the same type of phrase. Western Armenian gives us insights into systems that usually only show one setting in any given language. In analyzing these novel patterns of variability I argue that unique stress and prosodic properties help me unlock these puzzles. by Hrayr Khanjian. Ph.D. 2014-01-23T18:42:57Z 2014-01-23T18:42:57Z 2013 Thesis http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/84419 868025607 eng M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission. http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 227 pages application/pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology
spellingShingle Linguistics and Philosophy.
Khanjian, Hrayr
(Negative) concord and head directionality in Western Armenian
title (Negative) concord and head directionality in Western Armenian
title_full (Negative) concord and head directionality in Western Armenian
title_fullStr (Negative) concord and head directionality in Western Armenian
title_full_unstemmed (Negative) concord and head directionality in Western Armenian
title_short (Negative) concord and head directionality in Western Armenian
title_sort negative concord and head directionality in western armenian
topic Linguistics and Philosophy.
url http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/84419
work_keys_str_mv AT khanjianhrayr negativeconcordandheaddirectionalityinwesternarmenian