Abstract
This paper discusses some unique semantic properties displayed by the Sakha quantifier particle daγanɨ (often reduced to da). It is shown that, despite significant similarity with well-studied additive TOO-particles such as Japanese -mo and Hungarian -is, da(γanɨ) never clearly serves the role of additive too/also/either, nor does it appear in free-choice items. Adopting an exhaustification-based approach wherein quantifier particles activate grammatical alternatives which are in turn interpreted by covert operators O(nly) or E(ven), it is proposed that da(γanɨ)-marked phrases are typically exhaustified non-recursively.
Highlights
IntroductionSakha ( known as “Yakut”) is a Siberian Turkic language spoken mainly in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) in Russia
Sakha is a Siberian Turkic language spoken mainly in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) in Russia
WH-da(Gan1) and biir da2 negative polarity items (NPIs) are grammatical in any position in the scope of negation (1-a)
Summary
Sakha ( known as “Yakut”) is a Siberian Turkic language spoken mainly in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) in Russia. It is shown that Sakha da(Gan1)’s roles form a subset of those of Japanese -mo and Hungarian is/sem, in that da(Gan1) does not appear in free-choice items (FCIs) or as an additive focus particle. When the host is a low-point of scale existential like a WH-word or biir ‘one’, this creates NPIs. When the host is a focused element, it is only interpretable if the focus alternatives are ranked along a probability scale with the da(Gan1)-marked alternative being the scale’s lowest member. The standard analysis of elements like English too is that they are additive focus particles (Rullmann 2003)—that is, they carry a presupposition that, in addition to the ordinary value of the sentence, at least one member of the focus alternative is true This is shown in (5-a) for Hungarian is, corresponding to English too/and (5-b) for sem, corresponding to English post-focal either.
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