The Story of Polish 'Para': From a Group Noun to a Measure Word and Indefinite Quantifier
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2015 |
| Type | Article in Proceedings |
| Conference | Slavic Languages in the Perspective of Formal Grammar. Proceedings of FDSL 10.5, Brno 2014 |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Field | Linguistics |
| Keywords | measure words; group nouns; quantifiers; pluralia tantum; plurality; collectivity |
| Description | In this paper I trace the semantic change the Polish measure word 'para' ('pair') and quantifier 'parę' ('several, a few') have undergone. I show that both words originated from the Old Polish group noun 'par' ('pair') and explore both historical and Modern Polish data concerning puzzles related to the distribution and interpretation of 'para' and 'parę' in phrases with regular count nouns and pluralia tantum. Building on Krifka’s (1995) theory of common nouns which I extend with the group-forming operation developed by Landman (1989, 2000) I propose a semantic analysis of the Modern Polish measure word 'para' which can be further used to reconstruct its semantic development. The analysis assumes distinct denotations of singular and plural regular count nouns on the one hand and mass nouns and pluralia tantum on the other. |