Gradability and Degree Constructions in Navajo

Description

Honors Thesis, Linguistics Department, Swarthmore College; December 2008. — 103 с.The relational analysis of gradable predicates and degree constructions posits that allgradable predicates are of type ⟨d,et⟩ and that degree morphology introduces the orderingbetween topic and standard of comparison. While well supported by data from many languages,the relational analysis is shown in this thesis not to adequately account for data from Navajo.Drawing on extensive data from Navajo gradable predicates and degree constructions, it isshown that alternation in degree morphology determines the semantic type of gradable predicates(⟨d,et⟩ vs. ⟨et⟩) while standard markers introduce the ordering relation. The syntax andsemantics of degree constructions using both types of predicates are considered in detail. Themost tenable analysis of the Navajo data builds on a recent proposal by Kennedy (2007a) inwhich standard markers introduce the semantics of the degree construction while degreemorphology has a greatly reduced role, serving only to determine the type of the predicate. Notonly does this analysis account for the Navajo data but it also accounts for ‘problematic’ aspectsof degree constructions in other languages.