Author . . Signature rediacted

256 Pages·2017·13.47 MB·English

The Morphosemantics and Morphosyntax of the
Malayalam Verb
by
Amanda Swenson
B.A., Baylor University (2011)
Submitted to the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics
at the
MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
September 2017
Amanda Swenson, MMXVII. All rights reserved.
The author hereby grants to MIT permission to reproduce and to
distribute publicly paper and electronic copies of this thesis document
in whole or in part in any medium now known or hereafter created.
Signature rediacted
Author ..
( De artment of Linguistics and Philosophy
Sb- 0- 20)1 7
Signature redacted tu1UUm e,
Certified by.
Sabine Iatridou
Professor of Linguistics
Thesis Supervisor
Signature redacted
..................
Accepted by...
David Pesetsky
Professor of Linguistics, Department Head
MASS-ACHU-SETTS INSTITUTE
OF TECHNOLOGY
SEP 262017
LIBRARIES
ARCHIVES

The Morphosemantics and Morphosyntax of the Malayalam
Verb
by
Amanda Swenson
Submitted to the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy
on September 6, 2017, in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics
Abstract
The questions posed and addressed in this dissertation are broadly questions regarding
the nature cross-linguistic variation and why languages differ from one another in
these particular ways. This thesis focuses on four known points of cross-linguistic
variation in the verbal domain: tense, aspect, finiteness and the perfect. It uses data
primarily from the Dravidian language Malayalam to explore these questions.
Past work on tense and aspect in Dravidian languages (Amritavalli & Jayaseelan
2005) has claimed that Malayalam, along with the other Dravidian languages, is
tenseless. This dissertation, however, shows that Malayalam is empirically different
from other tenseless languages and that it does have morphology that encodes tense
semantics and a TP. It further examines what have previously been called the two
'imperfectives' and argues that the first one is a type of progressive. The second
form, is shown to be something between an interative and an imperfective. While the
dissertation argues that Malayalam, has tense morphology and a TP, it argues that
Malayalam lacks perfect morphology and a PerfP in, minimally, Universal perfects.
The investigation of finiteness focuses on the empirical facts regarding the different
non-finite forms in Malayalam and the theoretical implications of these facts. It
points out a problem for classifying negation as 'finite' versus 'non-finite', as has
frequently been done (Amritavalli & Jayaseelan 2005, a.o.) and argues that non-
finite uses of the -uka marker are progressive participles, that Conjunctive Participles
are best analyzed as Stump (1985)-style absolutives and that -athu gerunds involve
nominalization above the TP-level (cf. Borsley & Kornfilt 2000, Baker 2011).
Thesis Supervisor: Sabine Iatridou
Title: Professor of Linguistics
3
4
Acknowledgments
This dissertation is the result of a community effort. There is more to be thankful for
than is possible to express here, but I will try nonetheless. If I have missed anyone,
it was definitely not on purpose and all errors are, of course, my own.
First and foremost, to my friends in Kerala who have taught me so much more
than just Malayalam; without you this thesis would not exist, and I would not be the
(better) person I am today.
Secondly, while neither of them were officially on my committee, this thesis would
have been substantially worse without the extensive input on both the data and the
analyses from P. Madhavan and Shijith S. I would have been substantially worse off
without all of the support and encouragement I received from them. From Shijith sir
I learned to read Malayalam script. You never realize how important reading is until
you find yourself somewhere where you can't read.
I am grateful to R. Amritavalli and K.A. Jayaseelan for providing much spirited
debate and, in general, making this thesis much better than it ever would have been
without their objections and suggestions. Thanks also to Jay, whose work reminded
me during my undergrad that I wanted to study Dravidian languages. If not for his
work, this thesis might have been a Classics thesis.
Without Sabine Iatridou this thesis might not exist at all. That Sabine became
my advisor was somewhat of an accident but it is one that I am immensely grateful
for. Sabine has been the perfect advisor with just the right mix of encouragement and
tough love and far more confidence in me than I often had in myself. She has been
incredibly generous with her time and our meetings and her comments on drafts of
this thesis have been invaluable. More than anything, she always cared about me as
a person first and a student second. 'Thank you' is very insufficient. This thesis also
substantially improved thanks to my other committee members, Kai von Fintel and
Norvin Richards. My discussions with them during meetings and their comments
on drafts helped make this thesis much better than it would have been otherwise.
Norvin has helped me from the beginning of grad school with valuable advice on many
5
practical details of doing fieldwork. I have greatly benefited from Kai's professional
advice and understanding and appreciation of who I am. I frequently have come for
meetings and classes with Kai excited about a piece of data in Malayalam or some
other another language and left with a new understanding of why that data piece
should make me excited about English too.
My time at MIT and this thesis was also greatly enriched by the other faculty
members. Shigeru Miyagawa, though not on my committee, has played a consider-
able role in my graduate career. Thanks for always believing in me, encouraging me,
enthusiastically discussing the intricacies of thaan with me, and teaching one of my
favorite MIT classes on agreement and Japanese. Adam Albright was on the commit-
tee for the generals paper that developed into this dissertation. His comments were
invaluable and one of their results is chapter 4 of this thesis. He, along with David
Pesetsky, helped me get started on the morphology project that was the beginning of
this thesis. In addition to teaching a stimulating morphology class, David has given
me valuable feedback on chapter 3 of this thesis, as well as on my work on thaan.
Roger Schwarzschild, though he came to MIT at the end of my time here, helped me
think more clearly about parts of chapters 3 and 4. Noam Chomsky reminded me
at a critical point during thesis work to look beyond surface appearances in the data
to get to the heart of the matter. I admire Irene Heim for her humility and ability
to graciously tell you how to make things better. From her I learned the importance
of going 'deep' into a language. Donca Steriada also played an important role in
my graduate career for encouraging me, during a particular moment in my first year
when I was very discouraged, not to give up working on Dravidian languages. I really
enjoyed TAing for Michel DeGraff, from whom I learned a great deal about teaching.
Our conversations about Haitian Creole and education and language policy, as well
as his professional advice, have greatly enriched my MIT experience. I also benefited
from conversations with Noah Constant and from his class on information structure,
which was my other favorite class at MIT. Being around Danny Fox has reminded me
of the importance of childlike joy in working on linguistics puzzles. I also am grate-
ful to have taken classes with and had discussions with Martin Hackl, Ken Wexler,
6
Maziar Toosarvandani, Michael Kenstowicz, and Ben George during my time at MIT.
This thesis has also greatly benefited from discussions with Athulya Aravind,
Enoch Aboh, Bronwyn Bjorkman, Miriam Butt, Seth Cable, Jessica Coon, Veneeta
Dayal, Jasmine Maria G., Keerthana Gopinathan, Patrick Grosz, Ishani Guha, Heidi
Harley, Despina Ikonomou, Gouthaman K.J., Paul Marty, Mythili Menon, Sarah Mur-
ray, Roumi Pancheva, Pritty Patel-Grosz, Minu Sara Paul, Pooja Paul, Paul Portner,
Abdul-Razak Sulemana, Peter Svenonius, Sergei Tatevosov, Madhu V. and the par-
ticipants of TripleA 3, FASAL 6 and 7, the 42nd and 43rd All Indian conferences of
Dravidian Linguistics, the EFLU seminar series, FTL at UiO, MIT Ling-lunch, and
the MIT-ESSL/LaqLab. Yangchen Roy deserves special thanks for helping me get
the Gopalkrishnan thesis and for enthusiastically discussing the Malayalam data and
possible analyses with me.
I am also grateful to Mala Ghosh for her encouragement and for supporting my
fieldwork with MISTI/MIT-India internships. Additional support for my fieldwork
trips was also provided by Ken Hale grants for linguistic fieldwork.
Any shortcomings or errors in the data or analysis are my own responsibility.
Thanks to Jen Purdy, Matt Sikorski, Christine Graham, Mary Grenham and Chris
Naylor for their help with practical matters throughout my time at MIT. Thanks to
Bev Stohl for being so encouraging.
Thanks to my friends, officemates, and classmates at MIT from whom I learned
a lot about linguistics and life and with whom I had a great time: Abdul-Razak,
Anouch, Athulya, Despina, Erin, Gretchen, Isa, Isaac, Ishani, Juliet, Mar, Marie,
Masako, Mia, Michelle, Paul, Snejana, Suyeon, and TC.
Many other friends outside of the department have made my time in Boston
good (a non-exhaustive list): Mary, Camille, Mina, Natalia, Christina, Caleb, Lina,
John, Tiara, QT, Mark, Guan-Ting, Marcus, Emily, Anya, Nathan, Hannah, Ming,
Yukkee, Gerald, Steph, Heather, Michelle, Ange, Adam, Diana, Parki, Dilpreet, Gao
Yu, Ming, Nayoon, Yukari, Claire, Amanda, Nahomy, Christina, Elizabeth, Julli,
Lindsay, Laura, Theresa, Juliette, Rachel, Vera, Clizia, Salome, Ambrose, Feiby, and
Maurine. Thanks to Erica, who has always been there over the last 10 years, and
7
Lizzy aunty, who gave the first Malayalam judgments. Thanks to George, who so
graciously helped me improve my fieldwork skills, generously answered my tedious
questions about the ins and outs of Malayalam with enthusiasm, and supported me
during the difficult parts of grad school. Thanks to Revanth, Sam and Kiran for
answering my questions about Telugu and for their friendship.
Thanks also to all my friends in Hyderabad for sharing their work with me, having
great discussions about linguistics and non-linguistics topics, helping with practical
details and in general, making my time there great.
Many thanks to Jessica, Rafa, Austin and Caleb for their hospitality and encour-
agement in the final stretch. Thanks also to Graeme, Leasa, Pilar, Damon, Susan,
Karl, Oleksiy, Pam, Judy, Ann, Matt, and Simone for being great colleagues. Thanks
to my LIN 302 students for comments on parts of the material in chapters 1 and 5.
Thanks especially to David, Mari, Levan and Andria for their friendship.
I never would have come to grad school had it not been for my undergraduate
advisor, Lydia Grebenyova, who was excited to work with me when I came and told
her that I wanted to study the syntax of an Indian language. Thanks for being a great
teacher, mentor and for having so much faith in me. Her devotion to her students
and passion for undergraduate research is unparalleled. Thanks to my others teachers
during my undergrad at Baylor for encouraging my interest in linguistics and, in
general, broadening my horizons and encouraging me to learn.
My eighth-grade English teacher Mrs. Andersen was the first person to teach
me how to draw syntax trees and explain to me why we need DPs. Thanks to
my high school English teacher Mrs. Coleman for supporting my desire to learn
about grammar in a more sophisticated way and for allowing me to research the
'unusual' topics I wanted to for my English papers. Thanks to Senora Holmes and
Mme. Rimestad for tirelessly bearing with my questions about why Spanish and
French, especially the verbs, work the way they do. Thanks also to Sartha aunty,
Vinay uncle and Usha aunty for helping me with my first attempts at fieldwork and
patiently answering my questions about Hindi, teaching me about Indian culture and
for generally being encouraging.
8
My thanks to my family and friends outside of Boston for their support and
encouragement throughout grad school. The list would be too long, and I am too
tired at this point, but you know who you are.
Finally, none of this would have been possible without my parents and sister.
Thanks for always being there and loving me unconditionally. From my grandma and
granddaddy I learned more than I could ever express about unconditional love and
the true meaning of success.
For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face.
9
10