Syntactic Complexity and Competition: The Singular-Plural Distinction in Western Armenian
There is much debate in the linguistic literature about what mechanisms are responsible for accessing, implementing, and restricting grammatical competition. Building on this line of research, this article explores competition between plural and singular marking in Western Armenian, a language where...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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MIT Press
2014
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/87585 |
| _version_ | 1811072755938885632 |
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| author | Bale, Alan Khanjian, Hrayr |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Linguistics and Philosophy |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Linguistics and Philosophy Bale, Alan Khanjian, Hrayr |
| author_sort | Bale, Alan |
| collection | MIT |
| description | There is much debate in the linguistic literature about what mechanisms are responsible for accessing, implementing, and restricting grammatical competition. Building on this line of research, this article explores competition between plural and singular marking in Western Armenian, a language where grammatical competition results in a restricted interpretation of singular nouns. Of interest to competition theories in general, this restriction only occurs in certain grammatical environments: namely, definite NPs. As argued here, an adequate treatment of these facts requires comparing utterances in terms of their syntactic complexity (as Katzir (2007) proposes). |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T09:11:50Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/87585 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T09:11:50Z |
| publishDate | 2014 |
| publisher | MIT Press |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/875852022-09-30T14:00:40Z Syntactic Complexity and Competition: The Singular-Plural Distinction in Western Armenian Bale, Alan Khanjian, Hrayr Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Linguistics and Philosophy Khanjian, Hrayr There is much debate in the linguistic literature about what mechanisms are responsible for accessing, implementing, and restricting grammatical competition. Building on this line of research, this article explores competition between plural and singular marking in Western Armenian, a language where grammatical competition results in a restricted interpretation of singular nouns. Of interest to competition theories in general, this restriction only occurs in certain grammatical environments: namely, definite NPs. As argued here, an adequate treatment of these facts requires comparing utterances in terms of their syntactic complexity (as Katzir (2007) proposes). 2014-05-30T15:51:11Z 2014-05-30T15:51:11Z 2014-01 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0024-3892 1530-9150 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/87585 Bale, Alan, and Hrayr Khanjian. “Syntactic Complexity and Competition: The Singular-Plural Distinction in Western Armenian.” Linguistic Inquiry 45, no. 1 (January 2014): 1–26. © 2014 Massachusetts Institute of Technology en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/LING_a_00147 Linguistic Inquiry Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf MIT Press MIT Press |
| spellingShingle | Bale, Alan Khanjian, Hrayr Syntactic Complexity and Competition: The Singular-Plural Distinction in Western Armenian |
| title | Syntactic Complexity and Competition: The Singular-Plural Distinction in Western Armenian |
| title_full | Syntactic Complexity and Competition: The Singular-Plural Distinction in Western Armenian |
| title_fullStr | Syntactic Complexity and Competition: The Singular-Plural Distinction in Western Armenian |
| title_full_unstemmed | Syntactic Complexity and Competition: The Singular-Plural Distinction in Western Armenian |
| title_short | Syntactic Complexity and Competition: The Singular-Plural Distinction in Western Armenian |
| title_sort | syntactic complexity and competition the singular plural distinction in western armenian |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/87585 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT balealan syntacticcomplexityandcompetitionthesingularpluraldistinctioninwesternarmenian AT khanjianhrayr syntacticcomplexityandcompetitionthesingularpluraldistinctioninwesternarmenian |