Research Article

Semantics of Turkish plural marking revisited

Number: Ö11 July 21, 2022
  • Emrah Görgülü *
TR EN

Semantics of Turkish plural marking revisited

Abstract

It has been claimed in some recent theoretical and experimental studies that in addition to the exclusive reading, there is evidence for the inclusive reading of the plural marker -lAr in Turkish (Sağ 2019 and Renans et al. 2020, among others). The main argumentation comes from the inclusive interpretation of the plural marker in syntactically negative sentences and in certain other downward entailing contexts. However, based on new data, I argue in this paper that the plural marker is primarily associated with the exclusive reading in Turkish (Bliss 2004, Bale et al 2010, Görgülü 2012, Bale and Khanjian 2014, among others) and the apparent inclusive reading arises only in the context of certain logical operators in the structure. More importantly, I show that the experimental design in recent experimental studies has certain issues. This is because number marking in the nominal system of Turkish was not actually taken into consideration in the design process of the experimentation, which apparently led to certain interpretive complications for participants. Thus I argue that a much better way to look at the meaning of plural marking should be through a more careful consideration of the specification of the number and plural marking system in the language.

Keywords

References

  1. Bale, A., Gagnon M. & Khanjian. H. (2010). Cross-linguistic representations of numerals and number marking. N. Li and D. Lutz (eds.), Proceedings of the Twentieth Semantic Analysis and Linguistic Theory, (pp. 582-598).
  2. Bale, A. & Khanjian. H. (2014). Syntactic complexity and competition: The singular-plural distinction in Western Armenian. Linguistic Inquiry 45(1), 1-26.
  3. Bliss, H. (2004). The semantics of the bare noun in Turkish. Calgary Working Papers in Linguistics, 25 (Spring), 1–65. http://hdl.handle.net/1880/51464
  4. Farkas, D. & de Swart, H. (2010). The semantics of plurals. Semantics & Pragmatics 3. 1-54.
  5. Görgülü, E. (2012). Semantics of nouns and the specification of number in Turkish. PhD Dissertation. SFU.
  6. Grimm, S. (2013). Plurality is distinct from number-neutrality. In Yelena Fainleib, Nicholas LaCara & Yangsook Park (Eds.), Proceedings of the North East Linguistic Society (NELS 41), (pp. 247-258). Amherst, MA: GLSA Publications.
  7. Kan, S. (2010). Number marking and Turkish noun phrases. Ms. University of Massachusetts.
  8. Krifka, M. (1989). Nominal reference, temporal constitution and quantification in event semantics. In Renate Bartsch, Johan van Benthem & Peter van Emde Boas (Eds.), Semantics and concextual expressions (pp. 75-116). Dordrecht: Foris.

Details

Primary Language

English

Subjects

Linguistics

Journal Section

Research Article

Authors

Emrah Görgülü * This is me
0000-0003-0879-1049
Türkiye

Publication Date

July 21, 2022

Submission Date

June 16, 2022

Acceptance Date

July 20, 2022

Published in Issue

Year 2022 Number: Ö11

APA
Görgülü, E. (2022). Semantics of Turkish plural marking revisited. RumeliDE Dil Ve Edebiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi, Ö11, 524-534. https://doi.org/10.29000/rumelide.1146708
AMA
1.Görgülü E. Semantics of Turkish plural marking revisited. RumeliDE. 2022;(Ö11):524-534. doi:10.29000/rumelide.1146708
Chicago
Görgülü, Emrah. 2022. “Semantics of Turkish Plural Marking Revisited”. RumeliDE Dil Ve Edebiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi, no. Ö11: 524-34. https://doi.org/10.29000/rumelide.1146708.
EndNote
Görgülü E (July 1, 2022) Semantics of Turkish plural marking revisited. RumeliDE Dil ve Edebiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi Ö11 524–534.
IEEE
[1]E. Görgülü, “Semantics of Turkish plural marking revisited”, RumeliDE, no. Ö11, pp. 524–534, July 2022, doi: 10.29000/rumelide.1146708.
ISNAD
Görgülü, Emrah. “Semantics of Turkish Plural Marking Revisited”. RumeliDE Dil ve Edebiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi. Ö11 (July 1, 2022): 524-534. https://doi.org/10.29000/rumelide.1146708.
JAMA
1.Görgülü E. Semantics of Turkish plural marking revisited. RumeliDE. 2022;:524–534.
MLA
Görgülü, Emrah. “Semantics of Turkish Plural Marking Revisited”. RumeliDE Dil Ve Edebiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi, no. Ö11, July 2022, pp. 524-3, doi:10.29000/rumelide.1146708.
Vancouver
1.Emrah Görgülü. Semantics of Turkish plural marking revisited. RumeliDE. 2022 Jul. 1;(Ö11):524-3. doi:10.29000/rumelide.1146708