[lo kaze aj-aj-aj]. haplology in modern hebrew plural marking
TRANSCRIPT
[lo kaze aj-aj-aj]: haplology in
Modern Hebrew plural marking
Noam Faust
Université Paris 8, CNRS SFL
ISMo, Lille, décembre 2017
[lo kaze aj-aj-aj]
not such/so ajajaj
1) « Not so good »
2) « Not such a sequence of [aj]’s!! »
Faust, Haplology in Modern Hebrew Plurals ISMo, Lille, décembre 2017
Nominal Inflection
« Ideal », one-to-one relation gender = exponent;
number = exponent
Faust, Haplology in Modern Hebrew Plurals ISMo, Lille, décembre 2017
Modern Hebrew: less ideal
Faust, Haplology in Modern Hebrew Plurals ISMo, Lille, décembre 2017
Modern Hebrew: less ideal
1) Not the same plural for M and F
Faust, Haplology in Modern Hebrew Plurals ISMo, Lille, décembre 2017
Modern Hebrew: less ideal
1) Not the same plural for M and F
2) Different Free State and Construct State plurals for M,
but not for F
Faust, Haplology in Modern Hebrew Plurals ISMo, Lille, décembre 2017
Modern Hebrew: less ideal
1) Not the same plural for M and F
2) Different Free State and Construct State plurals for M,
but not for F
This will be formalized in this talk
Faust, Haplology in Modern Hebrew Plurals ISMo, Lille, décembre 2017
Modern Hebrew: Two unnoticed asymmetries
First asymmetry: Only in feminine nouns, plural is marked twice
on possessed nouns, on both possessed and possessor
*[sus-at-ej-xem], *[sus-ot-xem]
Faust, Haplology in Modern Hebrew Plurals ISMo, Lille, décembre 2017
Modern Hebrew: Two unnoticed asymmetries
Second asymmetry: new dual formation with -aim selects
singular base of masculine nous, plural of feminine nouns
*[sus-at-aim]
(paradigm of ‘horse’)
Faust, Haplology in Modern Hebrew Plurals ISMo, Lille, décembre 2017
Modern Hebrew: Two unnoticed asymmetries
Second asymmetry: new dual formation with -aim selects
singular base of masculine nous, plural of feminine nouns
(paradigm of ‘horse’)
The two asymmetries will be
accounted for in this talk
*[sus-at-aim]
Faust, Haplology in Modern Hebrew Plurals ISMo, Lille, décembre 2017
Basic issues
[gen] /at/ (Bat El 1989)
Faust, Haplology in Modern Hebrew Plurals ISMo, Lille, décembre 2017
Basic issues
[plural] /im/ / __]PhonW
[plural] /ej/
Faust, Haplology in Modern Hebrew Plurals ISMo, Lille, décembre 2017
Basic issues
[plural] /im/ / __]PhonW
[plural] /ej/
This rule will also be useful for sus-ej-xem
‘your(pl) horses’.
Faust, Haplology in Modern Hebrew Plurals ISMo, Lille, décembre 2017
Basic issues
[plural, gen] /ot/
Faust, Haplology in Modern Hebrew Plurals ISMo, Lille, décembre 2017
Basic issues
[plural, gen] /ot/
[plural] /im/ / __]PhonW
[plural] /ej/
[gen] /at/
Portmanteau,
will take
precedence
over more
specific rules.
In the sense of Svenonius (2016)
Faust, Haplology in Modern Hebrew Plurals ISMo, Lille, décembre 2017
…To illustrate
HORSE+gen+pl]Pw => sus-ot, *sus-at-im
HORSE+gen+pl+WOOD] Pw => sus-ot eʦ,
*sus-at-ej eʦ
[plural, gen] /ot/
[plural] /im/ / __]PhonW
[plural] /ej/
[gen] /at/
Faust, Haplology in Modern Hebrew Plurals ISMo, Lille, décembre 2017
…To illustrate
HORSE+gen+pl]Pw => sus-ot, *sus-at-im
HORSE+gen+pl+WOOD]Pw => sus-ot eʦ,
*sus-at-ej
[plural, gen] /ot/
[plural] /im/ / __]PhonW
[plural] /ej/
[gen] /at/
The first task –
formalizing the basic
facts – is
accomplished.
Faust, Haplology in Modern Hebrew Plurals ISMo, Lille, décembre 2017
Back to the unnoticed asymmetries
First asymmetry: Only in feminine nouns, plural is marked twice
on possessed nouns, on both possessed and possessor
*[sus-at-ej-xem], *[sus-ot-xem]
Faust, Haplology in Modern Hebrew Plurals ISMo, Lille, décembre 2017
Possessive marking
Faust, Haplology in Modern Hebrew Plurals ISMo, Lille, décembre 2017
Possessive marking
Faust, Haplology in Modern Hebrew Plurals ISMo, Lille, décembre 2017
Back to the unnoticed asymmetries
• One has the urge to analyze -ej- identically for both CS nouns with plural heads and possessed plurals:
sus-ej eʦ ‘wooden horses’
sus-ej xem ‘your(pl) horses’
• The key is to overcome this urge and go for
sus-ej eʦ ‘wooden horses’
sus-ø ej-xem ‘your(pl) horses’
Faust, Haplology in Modern Hebrew Plurals ISMo, Lille, décembre 2017
Back to the unnoticed asymmetries
• One has the urge to analyze -ej- identically for both CS nouns with plural heads and possessed plurals:
sus-ej eʦ ‘wooden horses’
sus-ej xem ‘your(pl) horses’
• The key is to overcome this urge and go for
sus-ej eʦ ‘wooden horses’
sus-ø ej-xem ‘your(pl) horses’
-ej- in -ej-xem is part of the suffix, not the base.
Faust, Haplology in Modern Hebrew Plurals ISMo, Lille, décembre 2017
Possessive marking
• The key is to overcome this urge and go for
sus-ej eʦ ‘wooden horses’
sus-ø ej-xem ‘your(pl) horses’
-ej- is -ej-xem is part of the suffix, not the base.
Faust, Haplology in Modern Hebrew Plurals ISMo, Lille, décembre 2017
Possessive marking
• If -ej- is not the realization of the plural feature on the base, the double marking of the feminine sus-ot-ej-xem is unsurprising: both the feature on the base and the feature of the suffix are realized:
HORSE+gen+pl – pl+POSS.2MPL
sus ot – ej xem
This is agreement between the possessed and the
possessor
Faust, Haplology in Modern Hebrew Plurals ISMo, Lille, décembre 2017
Possessive marking in Nuer
For possessive markers to show agreement in
number is not so strange. Here is an example
from Nuer (my own field work)
Faust, Haplology in Modern Hebrew Plurals ISMo, Lille, décembre 2017
Possessive marking
• But the question is now turned on its head: why does the masculine not show overt marking on the possessed??
HORSE+gen+pl – pl+POSS.2MPL
sus ot – ej xem
HORSE+pl – pl+POSS.2MPL
sus ø – ej xem
Faust, Haplology in Modern Hebrew Plurals ISMo, Lille, décembre 2017
Possessive marking
…Because if it did, we’d predict
HORSE+pl – pl+POSS.2MPL
sus ej – ej xem
(recall [plural] /ej/)
Faust, Haplology in Modern Hebrew Plurals ISMo, Lille, décembre 2017
Haplology in Possessive marking
…Because if it did, we’d predict
HORSE+pl – pl+POSS.2MPL
sus ej – ej xem
(recall [plural] /ej/)
Faust, Haplology in Modern Hebrew Plurals ISMo, Lille, décembre 2017
[lo kaze aj-aj-aj]
not such/so ajajaj
1) « Not so good »
2) « Not such a sequence of [aj]’s!! »
Faust, Haplology in Modern Hebrew Plurals ISMo, Lille, décembre 2017
[lo kaze aj-aj-aj]
not such/so ajajaj
1) « Not so good »
2) « Not such a sequence of [ej]’s!! »
Faust, Haplology in Modern Hebrew Plurals ISMo, Lille, décembre 2017
Haplology
Morphological Obligatory Contour Principle:
avoid adjacent similar markers (Survey in Nevins 2012).
bus’s [bʌs-ɪz]
vs. parents’ [pærənt-s], *[pærənt-s-ɪz].
Haplology: a common repair to this problem, the omission of one of the two similar exponents.
/sus-ej-ej-xem/ => /sus-ej-ej-xem/
Faust, Haplology in Modern Hebrew Plurals ISMo, Lille, décembre 2017
Haplology
Morphological Obligatory Contour Principle:
avoid adjacent similar markers (Survey in Nevins 2012).
bus’s [bʌs-ɪz]
vs. parents’ [pærənt-s], *[pærənt-s-ɪz].
Haplology: a common repair to this problem, namely haplology, the omission of one of the two similar exponents.
/sus-ej-ej-xem/ => /sus-ej-ej-xem/
Corroborating this, Bat EL (2009): words ending in the
suffix sequence -ij-ut, such as medin-ij-ut ‘policy’, are
expected to be pluralized as ??medin-ij-uj-ot. However,
speakers prefer to find other ways to pluralize such
words.
Faust, Haplology in Modern Hebrew Plurals ISMo, Lille, décembre 2017
OK, but why
For all this to work, the possessive suffix has to
agree with the base. But why would it?
Goldenberg (1995): possessive inflection in
Semitic involves co-indexation
sus-i ‘my horse’ = susi-Xi-i,
(X = a silent pronoun)
= horse+(one) of me
Faust, Haplology in Modern Hebrew Plurals ISMo, Lille, décembre 2017
OK, but why
I try to adapt this for Distributed Morphology:
Faust, Haplology in Modern Hebrew Plurals ISMo, Lille, décembre 2017
To second unnoticed asymmetry
Second asymmetry: new dual formation with –aim selects
singular base of masculine nous, plural of feminine nouns
*[sus-at-aim]
(paradigm of ‘horse’)
Faust, Haplology in Modern Hebrew Plurals ISMo, Lille, décembre 2017
New duals
Second asymmetry: new dual formation with –aim selects
singular base of masculine nous, plural of feminine nouns
*[sus-at-aim]
Ritter (1995): Working on old duals, proposes (for the
compositional among them) that [aim] = /ajdual+impl/.
The decompotion is adopted here.
(paradigm of ‘horse’)
Faust, Haplology in Modern Hebrew Plurals ISMo, Lille, décembre 2017
New Duals
• If /aj/ is there, then the asymmetry above can also be understood if the base for the dual is in fact always plural.
HORSE+gen+pl – dual+pl
sus ot – aj im
HORSE+pl – dual+pl
sus ej – aj im
Faust, Haplology in Modern Hebrew Plurals ISMo, Lille, décembre 2017
New Duals
• If /aj/ is there, then the asymmetry above can also be understood if the base for the dual is in fact always plural.
HORSE+gen+pl – dual+pl
sus ot – aj im
HORSE+pl – dual+pl
sus ej – aj im
Morphological OCP violation!
Faust, Haplology in Modern Hebrew Plurals ISMo, Lille, décembre 2017
New Duals
• The question then becomes: why does the dual select for a plural base?
HORSE+gen+pl – dual+pl
sus ot – aj im
HORSE+pl – dual+pl
sus ej – aj im
Morphological OCP violation!
Faust, Haplology in Modern Hebrew Plurals ISMo, Lille, décembre 2017
New duals
Two other important facts about duals
1) there is never dual agreement, and
2) the gender of the base is kept.
/ot
Faust, Haplology in Modern Hebrew Plurals ISMo, Lille, décembre 2017
New duals
Two other important facts about duals
1) there is never dual agreement, and
2) the gender of the base is kept.
/ot
A suffix that does not determine gender is not likely to
be the head of its structure.
Faust, Haplology in Modern Hebrew Plurals ISMo, Lille, décembre 2017
New duals-proposal
The suffix /-aj/ is a pluralia tantum modifier noun:
e.g. sushead-ej eʦmod
horse wood ‘wooden horses’
sushead-ej ajmod-im
horse couple ‘a couple of horses’
joʔaʦhead-ej nisuʔmod-im
counselor marriage ‘marriage counselor’
Faust, Haplology in Modern Hebrew Plurals ISMo, Lille, décembre 2017
New duals-proposal
The suffix /-aj/ is a pluralia tantum modifier noun:
e.g. sushead-ej eʦmod
horse-pl wood ‘wooden horses’
sushead-ej ajmod-im
horse-pl couple ‘a couple of horses’
joʔaʦhead-ej nisuʔmod-im
counselor-pl marriage ‘marriage counselors’
Faust, Haplology in Modern Hebrew Plurals ISMo, Lille, décembre 2017
New duals-proposal
The suffix /-aj/ is a pluralia tantum modifying noun:
e.g. sushead-ej eʦmod
horse-pl wood ‘wooden horses’
sushead-ej ajmod-im
horse-pl couple ‘a couple of horses’
joʔaʦhead-ej nisuʔmod-im
counselor-pl marriage ‘marriage counselors’
This explains why -aj-im never affects the gender of the
noun. It is simply not the head. Modifiers never trigger
agreement.
Faust, Haplology in Modern Hebrew Plurals ISMo, Lille, décembre 2017
New duals-proposal
The suffix /-aj/ is a pluralia tantum modifying noun:
e.g. sushead-ej eʦmod
horse-pl wood ‘wooden horses’
sushead-ej ajmod-im
horse-pl couple ‘a couple of horses’
joʔaʦhead-ej nisuʔmod-im
counselor-pl marriage ‘marriage counselors’
This explains why -aj-im never affects the gender of the
noun. It is simply not the head. Modifiers never trigger
agreement.
It also explains why there is never dual agreement : dual
is simply not a feature of MH, it is a meaning of -aj.
Faust, Haplology in Modern Hebrew Plurals ISMo, Lille, décembre 2017
New duals-proposal
This explains -im. We still haven’t answered the
question why does the dual select for a plural
base?
e.g. sushead-ej eʦmod
horse-pl wood ‘wooden horses’
sushead-ej ajmod-im
horse-pl couple ‘a couple of horses’
joʔaʦhead-ej nisuʔmod-im
counselor-pl marriage ‘marriage counselors’
Faust, Haplology in Modern Hebrew Plurals ISMo, Lille, décembre 2017
New duals-proposal
This explains -im. We still haven’t answered the question why does the dual select for a plural base?
e.g. sushead-ej eʦmod
horse-pl wood ‘wooden horses’
sushead-ej ajmod-im
horse-pl couple ‘a couple of horses’
joʔaʦhead-ej nisuʔmod-im
counselor-pl marriage ‘marriage counselors’
Faust, Haplology in Modern Hebrew Plurals ISMo, Lille, décembre 2017
New duals-proposal
This explains -im. We still haven’t answered the question why does the dual select for a plural base? It’s a semantic effect!
e.g. sushead-ej eʦmod
horse-pl wood ‘wooden horses’
sushead-ej ajmod-im
horse-pl couple *‘a couple of horse’
joʔaʦhead-ej nisuʔmod-im
counselor-pl marriage ‘marriage counselors’
Faust, Haplology in Modern Hebrew Plurals ISMo, Lille, décembre 2017
New Duals-proposal
• The analogy between new duals and N+poss explains 1) lack of dual agreement; 2) transparency for agreement; and 3) asymmetry.
HORSE+gen+pl – dual+pl
sus ot – aj im
HORSE+pl – dual+pl
sus ej – aj im
Morphological OCP violation!
Faust, Haplology in Modern Hebrew Plurals ISMo, Lille, décembre 2017
New duals-proposal
In the terms of Distributed Morphology:
Faust, Haplology in Modern Hebrew Plurals ISMo, Lille, décembre 2017
Conclusion
A first look at Modern Hebrew pluralization patterns reveals several asymmetries
- Different Free State exponence for M and F
- F nouns: FS=CS, but M FS≠CS
- N+possessive: double exponence only in F.
- New duals: double exponence only in F.
Faust, Haplology in Modern Hebrew Plurals ISMo, Lille, décembre 2017
Conclusion
By formalizing the first two asymmetries in terms of
realization rules and protmanteaux, I have shown
that the second two are epiphenomenal.
- Different Free State exponence for M and F
- F nouns: FS=CS, but M FS≠CS
- N+possessive: double exponence only in F.
- New duals: double exponence only in F.
Faust, Haplology in Modern Hebrew Plurals ISMo, Lille, décembre 2017
Conclusion
▪ In fact, both N+possessive and new dual
structures require double exponence regardless
of gender, but in M nouns, this leads to an OCP
violation and a haplological repair.
Faust, Haplology in Modern Hebrew Plurals ISMo, Lille, décembre 2017
Conclusion
▪ The data may initially give the impression that
Morphology can do whatever it wants, like
selecting the singular in M and the plural in F.
But as we saw, that impression is wrong (in this
case).
Faust, Haplology in Modern Hebrew Plurals ISMo, Lille, décembre 2017
Conclusion
▪ The data may initially give the impression that
Morphology can do whatever it wants, like
selecting the singular in M and the plural in F.
But as we saw, that impression is wrong (in this
case).
THANK YOU!
Faust, Haplology in Modern Hebrew Plurals ISMo, Lille, décembre 2017
Faust, Haplology in Modern Hebrew Plurals ISMo, Lille, décembre 2017