Wohlmuth Kata (Universitat Pompeu Fabra)

Hungarian reduplicated numerals and the Distributive Counting Hypothesis

Időpont: 2019. október 24., 16.30

Helyszín: MTA Nyelvtudományi Intézet, 110-es szoba

In this talk, I propose a novel semantic analysis for Hungarian reduplicated numerals, called the Distributive Counting Hypothesis. The basic insight of this analysis is that Hungarian reduplicated numerals are much like unmarked cardinal numerals in that they provide the cardinality of some entity. But while unmarked cardinal numerals provide the cardinality of the entity they combine with (Landman 2003), reduplicated numerals are unable to do that. Instead, they provide the cardinality of parts of the entity they combine with, where there are different, contextually salient properties, and each of these properties apply to one of these parts. I will show that the Distributive Counting Hypothesis has a wider empirical coverage than the other semantic analyses available for Hungarian reduplicates numerals (either along the lines of referential dependency, see Farkas 1997, Henderson 2012, Kuhn 2017, a. o.; or (distance-)distributivity, see Zimmermann 2002, Cable 2014, Champollion 2016, Wohlmuth 2019 a. o.), and can account for data that are notoriously problematic for these analyses.