Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Decomposing notions of adjectival transitivity in Navajo

  • Published:
Natural Language Semantics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Points of variation manifested by adjectives crosslinguistically have received much recent attention in the literature. This paper argues that one way in which adjectives may differ (crosslinguistically or within a single language) is in their projection of a degree argument position in the syntax. Under standard analyses of adjectival meaning, semantic transitivity implies syntactic transitivity. However, the Navajo data presented in this paper suggests that while all Navajo adjectives have a degree argument in their semantics, syntactic projection of the degree argument is only licensed by special morphology on the adjective.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Bartsch, Renate, and Theo Vennemann. 1972. The grammar of relative adjectives and of comparison. Linguistische Berichte 20: 19–32.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beck, Sigrid, Sveta Krasikova, Daniel Fleischer, Remus Gergel, Stefan Hofstetter, Christiane Savelsberg, John Vanderelst, and Elisabeth Villalta. 2009. Crosslinguistic variation in comparison constructions. In Linguistic variation yearbook 9, ed. Jeroen van Craenenbroeck and Johan Rooryck, 1–66. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bhatt, Rajesh, and Shoichi Takahashi. 2011. Reduced and unreduced phrasal comparatives. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 29: 581–620.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bierwisch, Manfred. 1989. The semantics of gradation. In Dimensional adjectives, ed. Manfred Bierwisch and Ewald Lang, 71–262. Berlin: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Bochnak, M. Ryan. To appear. The non-universal status of degrees: Evidence from Washo. In Proceedings of NELS 42, ed. Stefan Keine and Shayne Sloggett. Amherst, MA: GLSA Publications.

  • Bogal-Allbritten, Elizabeth. 2008. Gradability and degree constructions in Navajo. BA thesis, Swarthmore College.

  • Bogal-Allbritten, Elizabeth. 2010. Distribution and function of comparative aspect in Athabaskan/Dene. In Proceedings of the 2009 Dene/Athabaskan languages conference, ed. Justin Spencer and Siri Tuttle. Fairbanks: Alaska Native Language Center.

  • Bresnan, Joan. 1973. Syntax of the comparative clause in English. Linguistic Inquiry 4: 275–343.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chomsky, Noam. 1977. On wh-movement. In Formal syntax, ed. Peter Culicover, Thomas Wasow, and Adrian Akmajian, 71–132. New York: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cresswell, Max J. 1976. The semantics of degree. In Montague grammar, ed. Barbara Partee, 261–292. New York: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Diesing, Molly. 1992. Indefinites. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Faltz, Leonard. 2000. A semantic basis for Navajo syntactic typology. In The Athabaskan languages: Perspectives on a Native American language family, ed. Theodore Fernald, and Paul Platero, 28–50. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gergel, Remus. 2008. Topicalization, doubling, and a little more on adjectives: what de does to degree dependencies in Romanian. Paper presented at the 30th annual convention of the German Society of Linguistics (DGfS), Universität Bamberg.

  • Grano, Thomas. 2012. Mandarin hen and universal markedness in gradable adjectives. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 30: 513–565.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grano, Thomas, and Christopher Kennedy. 2011. Mandarin transitive comparatives and the grammar of measurement. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 21: 219–266.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hale, Kenneth. 2003. On the significance of Eloise Jelinek’s pronominal argument hypothesis. In Formal approaches to function in grammar: In honor of Eloise Jelinek, ed. Andrew Carnie, Heidi Harley, and MaryAnn Willie. Linguistik Aktuell 62. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

  • Heim, Irene. 1982. The semantics of definite and indefinite noun phrases. PhD dissertation, University of Massachusetts Amherst.

  • Heim, Irene. 2001. Degree operators and scope. In Audiatur Vox Sapientiae: A festschrift for Arnim von Stechow, ed. Caroline Féry, and Wolfgang Sternefeld, 214–239. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heim, Irene. 2006. Little. In Proceedings of SALT 16, ed. Masayuki Gibson, and Jonathan Howell, 35–58. Ithaca, NY: CLC Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jelinek, Eloise. 1984. Empty categories, case, and configurationality. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 2: 39–76.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kamp, Hans. 1981. A theory of truth and semantic representation. In Formal methods in study of language, part 1, ed. Jeroen Groenendijk, Theo Janssen, and Marin Stokhoff, 277–322. Amsterdam: Mathematisch Centrum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kennedy, Christopher. 1999. Projecting the adjective: The syntax and semantics of gradability and comparison. New York: Garland (1997 UCSC PhD dissertation).

  • Kennedy, Christopher. 2007. Modes of comparison. In Proceedings of CLS 43, ed. Malcolm Elliot, James Kirby, Osamu Sawada, Eleni Staraki, and Suwon Yoon, 141–165. Chicago: The Chicago Linguistic Society.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kennedy, Christopher, and Louise McNally. 2005. Scale structure and the semantic typology of gradable predicates. Language 81: 345–381.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Klein, Ewan. 1980. A semantics for positive and comparative adjectives. Linguistics and Philosophy 4: 1–45.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Krasikova, Sveta. 2009. Norm-relatedness in degree constructions. In Proceedings of SuB 12, ed. Arndt Riester and Torgrim Solstad. University of Stuttgart.

  • Kratzer, Angelika. 1996. Severing the external argument from its verb. In Phrase structure and the lexicon, ed. Johan Rooryck and Laurie Ann Zaring, 109–137. Dordrecht: Kluwer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Matthewson, Lisa. 2004. On the methodology of semantic fieldwork. International Journal of American Linguistics 70: 369–415.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rett, Jessica. 2008. Degree modification in natural language. PhD dissertation, Rutgers University.

  • Schauber, Ellen. 1979. The syntax and semantics of questions in Navajo. New York: Garland.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schwarzschild, Roger. 2005. Measure phrases as modifiers of adjectives. Recherches Linguistiques de Vincennes 34: 207–228.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schwarzschild, Roger. 2008. The semantics of comparatives and other degree constructions. Language and Linguistics Compass 2: 308–331.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schwarzschild, Roger. 2010. Dimensional adjectives and quantifier-domain adverbials. Handout for talk at workshop on comparison constructions crosslinguistically, Tübingen University, May 2010.

  • Schwarzschild, Roger. 2011. Quantifier domain adverbials: Semantic change and the comparative. Handout for talk at University of Massachusetts Amherst, October 2011.

  • Schwarzschild, Roger and Karina Wilkinson. 2002. Quantifiers in comparatives: A semantics of degree based on intervals. Natural Language Semantics 10:1–41.

  • Seuren, Pieter A.M. 1973. The comparative. In Generative grammar in Europe, ed. Ferenc Kiefer and Nicolas Ruwet, 528–564. Dordrecht: Riedel.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Stassen, Leon. 1985. Comparison and universal grammar: An essay in universal grammar. Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Svenonius, Peter, and Christopher Kennedy. 2006. Northern Norwegian degree questions and the syntax of measurement. In Phases of interpretation (Studies in generative grammar, vol. 9), ed. Maria Frascarelli, 133–161. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

  • van Rooij, Robert. 2011. Implicit versus explicit comparatives. In Vagueness and language use, ed. Paul Egré and Nathan Klinedinst, 51–72. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • von Fintel, Kai. 1994. Restrictions on quantifier domains. PhD dissertation, University of Massachusetts Amherst.

  • von Stechow, Arnim. 1984. Comparing semantic theories of comparison. Journal of Semantics 3: 1–77.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • von Stechow, Arnim. 2009. The temporal degree adjectives früh(er)/spät(er) ‘early(er)’/’later’ and the semantics of the positive. In Quantification, definiteness and nominalization, ed. Anastasia Giannakidou and Monika Rathert, 214–233. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Willie, MaryAnne, and Eloise Jelinek. 2000. Navajo as a discourse configurational language. In The Athabaskan languages: Perspectives on a Native American language family, ed. Theodore Fernald and Paul Platero, 252–287. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Young, Robert W., and William Morgan. 1987. The Navajo language: A grammar and colloquial dictionary. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Linguistics, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, 226 South College, 150 Hicks Way, Amherst, MA, 01003-9274, USA

    Elizabeth Bogal-Allbritten

Authors
  1. Elizabeth Bogal-Allbritten
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Elizabeth Bogal-Allbritten.

Additional information

Previous forms of ideas expressed in this paper can be found in Bogal-Allbritten (2008) and were presented at the 2009 LSA and SSILA meetings, at MIT and University of Chicago Workshops on Comparatives, and in joint work with Rajesh Bhatt at the 2010 Workshop on Comparison Constructions Crosslinguistically at Tübingen University.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Bogal-Allbritten, E. Decomposing notions of adjectival transitivity in Navajo. Nat Lang Semantics 21, 277–314 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11050-012-9093-2

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11050-012-9093-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation