What Determiners can do: Data from Mopan Maya

Authors

  • Ellen Contini-Morava University of Virginia
  • Eve Danziger University of Virginia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3765/exabs.v0i0.571

Abstract

The word class Determiners and the functional category D are often characterized as encoding definiteness, specificity and/or uniqueness (Chomeshi-Paul-Wiltschko 2009). In Mopan Maya (Yukatecan), the noun classifiers and article are not sensitive to definiteness, but rather help specify that the associated lexeme be treated as a nominal rather than a predicate. This need arises from Mopan's "omnipredicativity" (Launey 1994): nouns, adjectives, and stative predicates may carry the same affixes, a phenomenon attested in several other indigenous American languages (Mithun 1999) . We describe the syntactic, semantic, and discourse-pragmatic functions of Mopan determiners, and argue for broadening typological definitions of "Determiner".

Author Biographies

  • Ellen Contini-Morava, University of Virginia
    Professor, Department of Anthropology
  • Eve Danziger, University of Virginia
    Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology

Downloads

Published

2011-07-06