Exhaustification, free-choice, and additivity: Evidence from Sakha da(γanɨ)

Abstract

This paper discusses some unique semantic properties displayed by the Sakha quantifier particle daγanɨ (often reduced to da).  It is shown that, despite significant similarity with well-studied additive TOO-particles such as Japanese -mo and Hungarian -is, da(γanɨ) never clearly serves the role of additive too/also/either, nor does it appear in free-choice items.  Adopting an exhaustification-based approach wherein quantifier particles activate grammatical alternatives which are in turn interpreted by covert operators O(nly) or E(ven), it is proposed that da(γanɨ)-marked phrases are typically exhaustified non-recursively.