(In)definiteness, number and multiplicity implicature in an under-represented language: a study of Kaiowá (Tupí-Guaraní)

Abstract

The starting point for the study is the understanding that syntax, semantics, and pragmatics act simultaneously and recursively in the derivation of sentences. Our empirical evidence comes from Kaiowá (Tupí-Guaraní). We present two ways in which the Kaiowá plurals can be expressed: by the noun base form and by the noun form modified by -kuera, a special plural marker. The two forms are not in competition for the plural. Both lead to a weak plural that includes the singular in its extension. The strong plural does not come for free through logic, but is derived via a "multiplicity implicature". We also argue that the Kaiowá bare NP is ambiguous between definite and kind denoting interpretations. Theoretically, we rely on the neo-Carlsonian view of Chierchia (1998) which proposes two principles regulating semantic type shift, Blocking and Ranking. Kaiowá provides additional evidence for Dayal's (2004) revised version of Ranking. In the latter, ^∩ and ι outrank ∃, which is only triggered as a last resort. By showing that Kaiowá has the same readings as languages with articles with regard to the expression of number and (in)definiteness, we suggest that this language presents additional evidence in favor of a localist approach, which claims that multiplicity implicatures be calculated step by step, in the grammar, as soon as the scalar terms enter the derivation, to the detriment of a globalist proposal, which calculates the implicature propositionally, at a post-grammatical level.