The Syntax of Numerals in Bosnian 9783929075113

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The Syntax of Numerals in Bosnian Nedžad Leko

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The Syntax o f Numerals in Bosnian

Contents 1. What are numerals? 1.0. Inroduction 1.1. Some dictionary definitions of numerals 1.2. The categorial status of numerals 1.3. Cardinal numeral systems 1.4. Other numerals 1.5. Non-referential counting words and referential number words 1.6. Different kinds of referential number words 1.7. The grammatical properties of referential number words 1.8. Greenberg's Universals relating to numerals

3 3 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 12

2. Numerals in Bosnian 2.0. Introduction 2.1. Cardinal numerals 2.1.1. Jedan {I) 2.1.1.1. The structure of NP in Bosnian 2.1.1.2. The structural position of jedan 2.1.2. Dva (2) 2.1.3. Tri (3) 2.1.4. Četiri (4) 2.1.5. Pet (5) 2.1.6. Šest (6), sedam (7), osam (8), devet (9) 2.1.7. Jedanaest (11), dvanaest (12), trinaest (13),... 2.1.8. Deset (10), dvadeset (20), trideset (30),... 2.1.9. Sto (100) 2.1.10. Dvjesto (200), tristo (300), četiristo (400),... 2.1.11. Hiljada (1,000) 2.1.12. Pet hiljada (5,000),pedeset hiljada (50,000),... 2.1.13. Milion (1,000,000) 2.1.14. Pet miliona (5,000,000),pedeset miliona (50,000,000),... 2.2.15. Milijarda (1,000,000,000) 2.1.16. Summary 2.2. Ordinal numerals 2.2.1. P m (1st) 2.2.2. Drugi (2nd), etc. 2.3. Collective numerals 2.3.1. Dvoje (2) 2.3.2. Troje (3), etc. 2.3.3. Jedni, jedne, jedna (1) 2.3.4. Dvoji, dvoje, dvoja (2), etc. 2.4. Other numerals 2.4.1. Dvojica (2) 2.4.2. Trojica (3), etc. 2.4.3. Jedinica (1) 2.4.4. Dvica, dvojka (2), etc. 2.4.5. Approximative numerals 2.4.6. Fractions 2.4.7. Distributive numerals

23 23 23 23 25 34 36 46 48 50 54 54 54 55 58 61 62 66 68 69 69 72 72 74 76 76 78 79 79 80 80 81 82 82 83 84 85 1

The Syntax of Numerals in Bosnian

3. Concluding considerations 3.0. Introduction 3.1. The syntactic behaviour of numerals in Bosnian 3.2. Numerals that behave like Quantity Nouns 3.3. Numeral Quantifiers 3.4. Adjectival Numerals

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References

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The Syntax o f Numerals in Bosnian

1. What are numerals?

1.0. Introduction This monograph deals with numerals with special emphasis on numerals in Bosnian and their syntactic behaviour. At least eight types of numerals in Bosnian may be singled out, and taking ‘five’ as an example, we have the forms pet, peti, petoro, petori, petorica, petica, petina, po pet representing the various types of numerals. However, syntactically all these numerals behave as three distinct categories, namely as quantifiers, nouns and adjectives. Chapter 1 is devoted to numerals in general. Chapter 2 deals with numerals in Bosnian describing them according to the traditional classification of numerals as cardinal, ordinal, collective, etc. In Chapter 3, I will offer some theoretical considerations about the syntactic behaviour of numerals in Bosnian. Theoretical considerations are based, of course, on real language data, so it was inevitable to repeat in Chapter 3 some parts of the discussion from Chapter 2, which is mainly concerned with the description of various types of numerals. Those readers who are mainly interested in theoretical considerations may read first Chapter 3, which also gives some crucial descriptive facts that are extensively dealt with in Chapter 2.

1.1. Some dictionary definitions o f numerals There is a lot of confusion about the numerals, and that is reflected in various standard dictionaries, and specialized dictionaries of languages and linguistics. For example, for Matthews (1997) a numeral is “one of a set of words or other expressions indicating precise numbers: e.g. three or forty-nine; also the ordinal numerals: third or forty-ninth” (p. 251). He specifies that an ordinal numeral is “one which indicates an ordered position in a series, e.g. third’ (p. 259). And a cardinal numeral is “one which indicates the number of individuals in a set, e.g. three, as opposed to an ordinal numeral, e.g. third’ (p. 45). Some linguists don’t include numerals at all in their discussion of parts of speech. So, for example, there is no entry on numerals in Crystal (1997). Frequently, an alternative term, number, is used for numerals. This is emphasized by Hartmann and Stork (1972) who specify that a numeral is “a word denoting a number or quantity. Two examples of numerals are cardinal numbers {one, two, three) answering the question How many? and ordinal numbers {first, second, third) indicating the order in a sequence. Alternative term: number” (p. 155). For Richards, Platt, and Weber (1985) a numeral is “a word or phrase which is used to name a number. In English, numerals may be cardinal numbers - one, two, three, or ordinal numbers - first, second, third’ (p. 197). They also define an alternative term - number, and specify that “numbers are used either as cardinal numbers (or cardinals) or ordinal numbers (or ordinals). Cardinal numbers are used when counting; eg. 6 boys, 200 dollars, a million years, and they may be used as nouns (eg. Count up to ten). Ordinal numbers are used when we put things in a numerical order, eg. first, second, third’ (p. 197). Trask (1997) gives very short and precise definitions of a cardinal numeral: “A counting number like one, two, three” (p. 35), and an ordinal numeral: “An adjectival form of a number: first, second, third’ (p. 158). In the Oxford English Dictionary (Second edition, Vol. X) the following definitions of a numeral are found: “ l.A word expressing a number; 2. A figure or character (or a group of these) denoting a number” (p. 595). 3

The Syntax of Numerals in Bosnian

On the other hand, the Concise Oxford English Dictionary (2006. Eleventh edition, revised) contains somewhat different definitions of a numeral: “A figure, word, or group of figures denoting a number. Origin ME: from Late Latin numeralis, from Latin numerus” (p. 981) and a number: “An arithmetical value, expressed by a word symbol, or figure, representing a particular quantity” (p. 980). Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary o f Current English (2005. Seventh edition) specifies that a numeral is “a sign or symbol that represent a number” (p. 1042), whereas a number is “a word or symbol that represents an amount or a quantity” (p. 1041). On the other hand, it is specified that a cardinal number is “a number used to show quantity rather than order” (p. 222), whereas an ordinal number is “a number that refers to the position of something in a series” (p. 1070). Barnhart (1988) in his Dictionary o f Etymology says that the word ‘numeral’ in English first appeared in “1530, in Palsgrave’s Lesclarcissement, word expressing a number; later, figure standing for a number (1686) borrowed from Late Latin numeralis of or belonging to a number, from Latin numerus number” (p. 714). For Dixon (1994) cardinal and ordinal numbers are simply types of adjectives: “Types of adjectives: quantifiers {many, few), cardinal {four), and ordinal {fourth) numbers” (p. 29). Bussmann (1996) gives the most extensive definition of numerals: “Class of words consisting primarily of adjectives {six months, double fault, threefold problem) as well as substantives (a dozen eggs), indefinite pronouns {all, both, many, few), and adverbials (He called twice already). Semantically they form a uniform group inasfar as they designate numbers, quantities, and any other countable divisions. However, because their morphological and syntactic behaviour varies in respect to declension, newer grammars classify them differently, relegating them in part to pronouns, in part to adjectives. A basic division is made between definite and indefinite {ten vs. several), where the definite numerals can be divided into the following subgroups: a) cardinals - one, two, three, b) ordinals - first, second, third, c) distributives - six each, d) iteratives - once, twice, thrice, e) multiples - eightfold, f) collective numerals - a dozen, g) fractions - a tenth” (p. 334).

1.2. The categorial status o f numerals Traditional grammarians usually consider numerals as a part of speech in the category of substantives, together with adjectives, pronouns and nouns, as opposed to verbs and adverbs. Most frequently numerals behave syntactically as adjectives in the sense that they may modify nouns and agree with the noun in all relevant features. On the other hand, there are numerals that clearly behave as nouns. It was noted (e.g. Štampe 1976, Corbett (1978)) that universally those numerals that denote lower numbers behave more like adjectives, whereas higher numerals, complex numerals, and expressions designating bases (e.g. ‘five’, ‘ten’, ‘hundred’, etc.) behave more as nouns. When the numerals behave syntactically as adjectives, they still have characteristics that clearly differentiate them from proper adjectives. One important difference is the word order, so that in languages where adjectives follow the head noun, numerals frequently precede the noun. However, if both precede, or both follow the head noun, then the numeral is the one that is more distant from the noun, e.g. six red cars vs. *red six cars. Further difference between adjectival numerals and proper adjectives is their morphology. Very often, adjectival numerals are inflected differently from proper adjectives. For example, they may lack inflection for gender in languages where proper adjectives clearly distinguish gender, and have separate gender inflections. Then in contrast to adjectives which may be predicative adjectives, it is not the case with numerals (e.g. They are tall vs. *They are six). Proper adjectives can be modified, whereas numerals cannot {very red cars vs. *very six cars). Gradable adjectives can be marked to show comparative and superlative degree. That is not 4

The Syntax o f Numerals in Bosnian

the case with numerals. All these differences show that numerals are distinct from adjectives, although they may have many adjective-like properties. Those numerals that behave as nouns may have plural forms (e.g. hundreds). In languages which have richer morphology, these numerals may have full nominal declension with different forms for different cases (e.g. Bosnian: stotina-NOM, stotine-GEN, stotiniDAT, stotinu-ACC, stotinom-INS/ LOC ‘hundred’). The nominal type of behaviour of such numerals is reflected in the fact that they assign the genitive case to the following noun (e.g. stotina vojnika-GEN PL ‘a hundred soldiers’) in the same way as nouns do (e.g. prijatelj vojnika-GEN PL ‘aI the friend of soldiers’). The discussion up to this point refers only to a specific type of numerals - cardinals. This type of numerals is regarded as the basic, or unmarked type. In addition there are other types of numerals. Ordinals are generally recognized as the most important and widespread type. Various authors mention various other types of numerals, like adverbial cardinal (once, twice ...), adverbial ordinal (the first time, the second time ...) and distributives (one each, two each ...) (Greenberg 2000: 771). In addition to these, Bussmann (1996: 334) recognizes also iteratives (once, twice, thrice), multiples (eightfold), collective numerals (a dozen) and fractions (a tenth). In contrast to cardinals which have the unmarked status, all other types of numerals are marked in one way or another. Most frequently, this markedness is realized through affixation to the unmarked cardinal numeral. This is the case, for example, with ordinal numerals in English (e.g. fourth < four-th). The marked numerals may also be realized through expressions of greater complexity, including the use of specialized nouns together with cardinals, as with English adverbial cardinals (e.g.four times) or adverbial ordinals (e.g. the fourth time). The unmarked status of cardinals is confirmed also by the fact that there are languages which have only cardinal numerals.

1.3. Cardinal numeral systems Cardinal numeral systems differ depending on what is taken as the numeral base of the system, so that numeral systems may be quinary (5), decimal (10), duodecimal (12), vigesimal (20), sexagesimal (60). The most widespread in world languages is the decimal system. Mandarin Chinese is an example of a pure decimal system. Some decimal systems have certain deviations, and therefore may be regarded as mixed systems. Such languages are French and Welsh. For example, remnants of a vigesimal system in French are the numerals denoting numbers from 80-99 (e.g. 80: quatre-vingt, literally ‘four-twenty’). With complex cardinal numerals that are formed by addition usually the associative ‘and’ (or ‘with’) is used, or the superessive (Greenberg 2000: 777), an expression meaning ‘upon’ or something similar (e.g. Bosnian jedanaest < jedan na deset ‘one upon ten’). In English, coordinators are optionally used in higher cardinal numerals (e.g. three hundred (and) sixty). There are also complex cardinal numerals that are formed as a result of multiplication. Here, the base is usually treated syntactically as a noun which is multiplied (e.g. 30: trideset ‘three ten’). Multiplication with ‘one’ is possible only when the base is treated as a noun. So in English one hundred or a hundred is possible, but not *one ten or *a ten. Exact parallelism is found in Bosnian: jedna stotina ‘one hundred’ vs. *jedanjjedna/jedno deset ‘one ten’. In addition to nominal stotina, Bosnian also has a quantifier sto for the number 100, but whereas jedna stotina is possible, a quantifier form cannot be multiplied with ‘one’: *jedan/jedna/ jedno sto. There are languages which use subtraction, division, and a process called overcounting to form complex cardinal numerals. When such numerals are formed by subtraction, then they usually include a separate morpheme with the meaning ‘from’, ‘without’, or ‘take away’. In 5

The Syntax o f Numerals in Bosnian

languages that use division to form complex numerals, division is usually by ‘two’ and, rarely, by ‘four’. In this way complex numerals are formed usually in languages that have the vigesimal numeral system. In such languages, 50 is most frequently formed by division and expressed as ‘half of 100’, that is 100 divided by 2. Finally, an operation called overcounting assumes overt expressions of this operation, so that the morpheme meaning ‘towards’ or ‘going-on’ is used. For example, in Ostyak, an Ugric language, 18 is expressed as ‘eighttwenty’ and interpreted as ‘8 going-on 20’ (Greenberg 2000: 774). It was already pointed out that numerals have many properties characteristic for adjectives. They may resemble adjectives morphologically, and this is especially case with lower numerals. In languages where adjectives agree with the head noun in features like gender, number and case, numerals will agree also in the same features. However, some features may be neutralized, and also numerals may have idiosyncratic morphology. For example, numerals may agree in number with the head noun. So, the numeral 'one' may agree with a singular noun, larger numerals may have morphogical plural characteristics and agre with a noun in the plural. Those language which distinguish dual, in addition to singular and plural, usually have a special, dual, morphology on the numeral 'two' which agrees with the noun that is itself in the dual. Regarding number features of the noun preceded by the numeral, not so rare is the case of the neutralization of number, so that the noun appears always in the singular form when modified by a numeral (e.g. Hungarian and Turkish). In contrast to lower numerals which may have adjectival characteristics, higher numerals are morphologically often like substantives. This is especially the case with bases. Often they do not agree with the noun, but rather assign the genitive case to it.

1.4. Other numerals It was pointed out earlier that ordinals are often formed from cardinals by ading affixes. Hower, lower numerals may be the exception to this tendency. The ordinal 'first' in world languages is not derived from the cardinal 'one', but from some word meaning 'in front', or 'foremost'. Although the ordinal 'second' is usually derived from the corresponding cardinal numeral, often it may be derived from the word or root meaning 'following' (e.g. Latin secundus from sequi 'to follow'). Languages also have special numerals that are used not for counting of nominal objects, but rather for counting of verbal actions. They are called multiplicative numerals or adverbial numerals. Languages may have both adverbial cardinals (e.g. once, twice..?) and adverbial ordinals {the first time, the second time...). Adverbial cardinals in some languages are formed by adding a distictive affix to the base of the cardinal numeral (e.g. Latin, English), or by a particular word (like English time, French fois, Bosnian puta) combined with a cardinal numeral. Finally, there are languages in which the adverbial expression is incorporated into the cardinal numeral (e.g. German dreimal, Bosnian triput). Adverbial cardinals and adverbial ordinals may modify only active predicates, never stative ones. For example, in Bosnian (and English) the following expression is unacceptable: *biti blijed dva puta 'to be pale twice', and the desired meaning can be expressed only using an active predicate: poblijediti dva puta 'to become (turn) pale twice'. The distinction between adverbial cardinals and adverbial ordinals may be illustrated with an interesting contrast in Bosnian: dvaput/ dva puta vs. drugi put/ *drugi puta. Adverbial cardinals in Bosnian may be formed either by incorporation {dvaput) or by combining puta with the cardinal numeral {dva puta). On the other hand, with adverbial ordinals only one option exists: there is no incorporation, and instead of the full form puta, only the reduced form put may be used. The next category of numerals are so-colled collective numerals. They are frequently used to modify the so-called pluralia tantum nouns (e.g. scissors, pants), or nouns with different meanings in the singular and plural (e.g. Latin sg. llttera 'letter, character', pi. litterae 6

The Syntax o f Numerals in Bosnian

T. letters, characters; 2. written message'). Although there are no separate forms for collective numerals in English, a cardinal numeral on its own cannot be used with pluralia tantum nouns, but rather in combination with the word pair (e.g. two pair(s) o f scissors vs. *two scissors). On the other hand, many languages have a set of collective numerals which are used withpluralia.tantum nouns (e.g. Bosnian dvoje makaze 'two pair(s) of scissors' vs. *dva/ dvije makaze). In cases when a plural form may have two different meanings, like in the case of Latin litterae, then different numeral forms are used depending on the intended meaning. So, the phrase including a cardinal numeral duae litterae is unambiguous and may mean only 'two letters, characters (e.g. b and p). On the other hand, when the same plural form is used to express a singular meaning, that is the meaning 'written message', then only a collective numeral may be used with such a noun, e.g. binae litterae. Collective numerals may be adjectival, or substantival, or even adverbial. When modifying pluralia tantum nouns, they are adjectival (e.g. dvoje makaze-NOM). However, when used with the so-called collective nouns in some languages (e.g. Bosnian djeca 'children', pilad 'chicken', dugmad ’buttons'), then the following noun is in the genitive (e.g. dvoje djece-GEN vs. *dvoje djeca-NOM). An example of an adverbial form of collective numerals are Bosnian forms udvoje, utroje, etc. These forms are used to indicate joint actions, usually expressed in English with together. Distributive numerals may be expressed in various ways. It may be achieved by using a cardinal numeral with some adverb like 'each', as in English (e.g. one each, two each ...). In some languages distributive meaning is expressed by reduplication of the cardinal numeral (e.g. in Hebrew). There are also cases of using an adposition with a cardinal numeral. For example, a preposition po is used which assigns dative to the cardinal numeral, whereas the noun that follows is in genitive (e.g. Russian po pjati rublej 'five rubles each').

1.5. Non-referential counting words and referential number words Wiese (2003) makes a distinction between non-referential counting words and referential number words (expressions for numerical concepts). Non-referential counting words would be, for example, English 'five', 'fifth', 'number five', or corresponding Bosnian 'pet', 'peti', 'petica'. Referential number words would be those occurring in expressions like 'five books', 'the fifth student', bus number five', or corresponding Bosnian expressions 'pet knjiga’, 'peti student', 'autobus broj pet' or 'petica'. Counting words are non-referential in the sense that they do not refer to anything, but are employed as tools for expressing numerical quantities (e.g. 'five'), ranks (e.g. 'fifth'), and labels (e.g. 'number five'). Referential number words are used to denote these quantities, ranks, and labels, as in expressions like 'five books', 'the fifth student', or 'bus number five1. The number words used in these English expressions are identical to counting words in form. They differ in referentiality: number words are referential, whereas counting words are not referential, but rather instrumental. Number words refer to numerical concepts, but they are not used as numbers. On the other hand, counting words are used as numbers, but they do not refer to numbers. The expression 'five books' contains the cardinal number word which is referential: it refers to a cardinality. On the other hand, the counting word 'five' used as a part of a numerical sequence in counting is not referential, but instrumental. It is used as a tool in counting. Languages often have the same form used both as a counting word and a referential number word. For example, the same form 'five' in English is used in three ways: 1. as the counting word 'five' which occurs as one element in a counting sequence 'one, two, three, four, five,...', and does not refer to anything; 2. as the cardinal number word 'five' which is used to refer to the cardinality of a set as in the expression 'five books'; 7

The Syntax of Numerals in Bosnian

3. as the number word combined with the lexical item 'number' in expressions like 'bus number five' with a nominal meaning. In contrast to English with one form employed in three different functions, there are languages which have different forms for different functions, so that counting words differ from referential number words in form. This is especially the case with smaller numbers. Wiese (2003) mentions Cantonese and Hebrew as examples of such languages. So, the form yih is used in Cantonese as the counting word 'two', whereas the form leuhng is used as the cardinal number 'two' which modifies a noun (e.g. leuhng gauh 'two cakes'). In Hebrew, the counting word 'two' is shtdyim, but it can also be used as a nominalised number word. On the other hand, the forms shney (with masculine nouns) and shtey (with feminine nouns) are used as the cardinal number words which modify a noun, as in expressions like shney tapuchim 'two apples' or shtey bananot 'two bananas'. Languages usually have one set of counting words, whereas they may have different kinds of referential number words. In case a language has different cardinal and ordinal number words, then the cardinal number words are often identical or similar in form to. counting words. However, counting words do not appear in different inflectional forms, whereas there are languages in which cardinal number words may have inflectional forms if the noun phrase in which they occur takes a specific syntactic position. But in general, there is similarity (often identity) between the counting words and cardinal number words. On the other hand, the lexical items used to express ordinal or nominal number concepts are usually derived items (e.g. 'tenth' in English is derived by suffixation: 'ten' + -th > 'tenth', and corresponding Bosnian 'deset' + -i > 'deseti'), and sometime may include additional lexical items (like 'number' in English to express a nominal number concept in 'bus number five'). When counting words and cardinal number words differ, it is mostly in the domain of small numbers. So for example, the cardinal number word leuhng 'two' in Cantonese is not derived from a corresponding counting word yih. In the same way, the ordinal number words may also have suppletive forms in the domain of small numbers. For example, ordinal numerals in Bosnian are derived from cardinals by -i suffixation, starting from 'five': pet 'five' + -i > peti 'fifth'. However, smaller ordinals have suppletive forms: jedan 'one' but prvi 'first', dva 'two' but drugi 'second', tri 'three' but treći 'third', četiri 'four' but četvrti 'fourth'. In English also ordinals 'first' and 'second' are not derived from corresponding counting words. Wiese (2003) points out that it seems that there are no parallel examples of suppletive forms within the nominal number words. Wiese (2003: 270) suggests that 'a reason why there are no special suppletive forms for nominal number words might be that there seem to be no particular (say, morphologically derived) nominal number words in the first place'. Instead of a separate nominal number words, complex constructions are used which often involve additional lexical items like 'number' in the English '(bus) number three'. However, Bosnian is a language which actually can express this type of meaning by a separate nominal number word. So, corresponding to the English example, a complex construction may be used, as in (autobus) broj tri '(bus) number three', but nominal number words may be used to express the same meaning: trica or trojka. So for example '(bus) number one/ two/ three...' would be simply: jedinica, dvica/ dvojka, trica/ trojka, četvrtica/ četvorka, petica, šestica, etc.

1.6. Different kinds o f referential number words Languages employ various kinds of number words to refer to various numerical concepts. In English, three number constmctions may be distinguished: a construction with a cardinal number word ('five buses'), a construction with an ordinal number word ('the fifth bus'), and a 'number-construction ('bus number five'). However, in addition to these, there is at least one additional number construction in Bosnian: a construction with a collective number word (petoro djece 'five children'). 8

The Syntax o f Numerals in Bosnian

There is one-to-one relation between cardinal and ordinal number words and corresponding cardinal and ordinal concepts, so that constructions with cardinal number words express concepts of numerical quantity, while constructions with ordinal number words express concepts of numerical ranks. Number-constructions typically express concepts of numerical label, as in 'bus number five'. However, such constructions may be used also to refer to numerical ranks, and thus have ordinal, rather than nominal interpretations, as in the following examples from Wiese (2003: 271): (1)

a. You are the number one in my life. b. She is the number one tennis player in the world.

It should be pointed out that special nominal number words in Bosnian cannot be used with ordinal interpretation, so that in constructions corresponding to (1) only structures with 'number' + cardinal numerals may be used. Bosnian translations of sentences in (1) are given in (2): (2)

a. Ti si broj jedan u mom životu. vs. *Ti si jedinica u mom životu. b. Ona je svjetska teniserka broj jedan. vs. *Ona je svjetska teniserka jedinica.

Consequently, we may conclude that there is no one-to-one relation between 'numberconstructions and concepts of numerical label in English. On the other hand, Bosnian nominal number words do have one-to-one relation between number constructions and concepts of numerical label. Therefore, we conclude that nominal number words in Bosnian are specialised for nominal reference exclusively. On the other hand, English has ordinal number words which are specialised for ordinal reference. There are languages, however, which lack ordinal number words. For example, Cantonese has two types of 'number-constructions, one being used with ordinal reference, and the other is used with nominal reference.

1.7. The grammatical properties o f referential number words Referential number word constructions exhibit grammatical parallels to some nonnumerical expressions. Wiese (2003: 275) points out that cardinal number words behave similarly to quantifier expressions like 'many' or 'few', as illustrated by the English examples in (3) where the quantifier 'many' and the cardinal number word 'five' are combined with the same noun: (3) many apples/ five apples. We find parallel examples in Bosnian: (4) mnogo j abuka/ many apples-GEN PL/

pet j abuka five apples-GEN PL

Notice that the norm jabuka 'apple' appears in the genitive plural form both after the quantifier mnogo 'many' and pet 'five'. It means that these lexical items syntactically behave as belonging to the same class - they are both quantifiers. Quantifiers in Bosnian assign genitive case to their plural nominal complement. However, not all cardinal number words in Bosnian behave as quantifiers. Of course, the noun in (3) may be preceded by an adjective, so some authors suggest that cardinal number words manifest an adjective-like behaviour (cf. Corbett (1978), Hurford 9

The Syntax of Numerals in Bosnian

(1987)). In Bosnian the only cardinal number word that is completely adjectival is 'one'. It has the adjectival declension and agrees with the noun in gender, number and case: (5) a. jedna jabuka one-FEM SG NOM apple-FEM SG NOM b. jedan orah one-MASC SG NOMnut-MASC SG NOM c. jedno govedo one-NEUT SG NOM head of cattle-NEUT SG NOM But other cardinal number words (like pet 'five' in (4)) cannot be treated as adjectives, since they don't agree with the noun in gender, number and case. The same form is used regardless of the gender of the noun that follows: (6)

pet five

jabuka/ oraha/ goveda apples-FEM GEN PL nuts-MASC GEN PL heads of cattle-NEUT GEN PL

The same forms of nouns are found with quantifiers like mnogo 'many': (7)

mnogo jabuka/ oraha/ goveda many apples-FEM GEN PL nuts-MASC GEN PL head of cattle-NEUT GEN PL

Therefore, we could conclude that cardinal number words like pet 'five' behave syntactically in the same way as quantifiers. Wiese (2003) points out some parallels between quantifiers and cardinal number words. For example, they occur in the same position, preceding adjectives and nouns, as in (8): (8) a. mnogo many

malih jabuka crvenih small-GEN PL red-GEN PL apples-GEN PL

b. pet five

malih jabuka crvenih small-GEN PL red-GEN PL apples-GEN PL

Both in English and Bosnian quantifiers and cardinal number words occur in front of the adjectives. And this is, according to Greenberg (1966a), a general property of languages: cardinal number words and quantifiers do not occur between the adjective and the noun. Also, both quantifiers and cardinal number words allow so-called 'quantifier float', appearing in positions removed from the noun phrase: (9)

Pisama sam dobio mnogo/ pet. letters-GEN PL (I) received many/ five 'Letters I received many/ five'

But not all cardinal number words behave syntactically as quantifiers. There is a tendency in world languages that higher cardinal number words mainfest a noun-like behaviour, as in English 'millions of apples' (cf. Menninger (1958), Corbett (1978)). In Bosnian the cardinal number words stotina ’hundred', hiljada 'thousand', tisuća 'thousand', milion 'million', milijarda 'billion', etc. behave syntactically as nouns. They have full nominal declensions. Parallel to this, there are also some expressions with quantificational force which 10

The Syntax o f Numerals in Bosnian

syntactically behave as nouns rather than quantifiers, as for example in English nominal constructions like 'a huge amount of apples'. In Bosnian in addition to the quantifier mnogo 'many' there is a corresponding nominal expression mnoštvo. In contrast to mnogo which has only one form, mnoštvo has the full nominal declension. On the basis of examples of cardinal number words in Bosnian, like jedan/ jedna/ jedno 'one', pet 'five', stotina 'hundred', we can conclude that the grammatical behaviour of cardinal number words is not idiosyncratic: some behave as adjectives (e.g .jedan), others are quantifiers (e.g. pet), and still others have nominal characteristics (e.g. stotina). On the other hand, ordinal number words usually manifest adjectival characteristics, more specifically, characteristics of superlative adjectives. For example, they usually occur in front of all other modifiers in definite noun phrases, that is in the same position as superlatives: (10)

the fifth American president/ the oldest American president

In Bosnian, ordinal number words are fully adjectival - they have the adjectival declension and agree with the head noun in gender, number and case: (11) a. peti fifth-MASC SGNOM

amerifiki predsjednik American-MASC SG NOM president- MASC SG NOM

b. peta fifth-FEM SGNOM

američka American-FEM SG NOM

c.

američko dijete American-NEUT SG NOM child-NEUT SG NOM

peto fifth-NEUT SG NOM

predsjednica president-FEM SG NOM

The connection between ordinal number words and superlatives is documented in Proto-Indo-European in the sense that the same suffix was used for deriving superlative forms from the adjectival stem, and for deriving some ordinal number words from the numeral stem. The remnants of this system are still visible in some Indo-European languages. For example, the same suffix is used in German for both superlative forms and ordinal number words (e.g. schon-st 'prettiest', drei/3ig-st 'thirtieth'). Notice also similarity in Bosnian between treći 'third' < tret-ji and the comparative form žuči 'yellower' < žut-ji. Wiese (2003) singles out the third class of number words, the so-called 'number'constmctions, pointing out that these constructions behave as proper names: (12) ship number five/

ship Titanic

This example shows that the 'number'-item and the number word ('number' + 'five') together behave like a proper name, so that 'number five' may be replaced by a proper name like 'Titanic'. The construction in (12) has several possible variants: 'the number five ship', 'the number five', 'ship five', 'the five'. But there is no separate number word that would be used instead of these constructions in English. On the other hand, there are special number words that are used in such constructions in Bosnian. For example, English 'tram number five' would be simply petica 'five'. The corresponding 'number-construction is also used (tramvaj broj pet), but a special number word with nominal function (e.g. petica) is preferred. Such number words have full nominal declension, but like proper names, these number words don't take complements. In conclusion, number words syntactically do not behave as a unique class, but rather share grammatical properties with other classes of words. So cardinals behave mainly as 11

The Syntax o f Numerals in Bosnian

quantifiers (although some cardinals manifest adjectival and nominal behaviour), ordinals manifest adjectival behaviour, whereas 'number'-constructions behave as proper names. Consequently, in generative grammar cardinal number words are usually analysed as quantifiers, that is as heads of a functional projection QP above NP, whereas ordinal number words are treated as adjectives, that is as heads of an adjective phrase AP which is integrated into the NP (cf. Abney 1987, Giusti 1991).

1.8. Greenberg's Universals relating to numerals Among typological studies of numerals, those by Greenberg were most influential. In a number of his studies (cf. Greenberg 1966a, 1966b, 1978, 1989), various language universals were proposed, including those that are directly, or indirectly, related to numerals. In one of the first papers dealing with this topic, a paper presented at a conference in 1961 (Greenberg 1966a), he proposed 45 universals of grammar, paying special attention to the morpheme and word order, based on the investigation of the thirty-language sample of the world's languages (including European, African, Asian, Oceanian, and American Indian). Tree of these universals are dealing directly, or indirectly, with numerals: Universals 18, 19, and 20 (Greenberg 1966a: 86-87). It is pointed out that the position of numerals (and demonstratives) is related to that of descriptive adjectives in world's languages in the sense that numerals usually precede descriptive adjectives. We can illustrate this with examples from Bosnian, where the order in which a numeral follows the descriptive adjective is ungrammatical, as in (13b): (13) a. pet pametnih five clever-GEN PL 'five tall students'

studenata students-GEN PL

b. *pametnih pet studenata In grammatical (13a), both the numeral and the descriptive adjective precede the noun. In those languages, however, where the descriptive adjectives may appear after the noun, nevertheless the numerals manifest a marked tendency to appear in front of the noun. For example, in Bosnian, single adjectives do not appear in postnominal position, but adjective phrases, or coordinated single adjectives, may have the position after the noun. In such a case, the numeral cannot appear after the noun, but may only precede it, as in (14b) and (14e): (14) a. pet pametnih i five clever-GEN PL and 'five clever and diligent students'

vrijednih diligent-GEN PL

b. pet studenata, pametnih i vrijednih c. *studenata pet pametnih i vrij ednih d. pet veoma pametnih studenata five very clever-GEN PL students-GEN PL 'five very clever students' e. pet studenata, veoma pametnih f. * studenata pet veoma pametnih 12

studenata students-GEN PL

The Syntax o f Numerals in Bosnian

Taking into account the facts illustrated with examples in (14), it is not surprising that in those languages where the descriptive adjective precedes the noun, then the numerals (and demonstratives) also always precede the noun. On the basis of this, the following universals were formulated: 1. When the descriptive adjective precedes the noun, the demonstrative and the numeral, with overwhelmingly more than chance frequency, do likewise (Greenberg's (1966a: 86) Universal 18). 2. When the general rule is that the descriptive adjective follows, there may be a minority of adjectives which usually precede, but when the general rule is that descriptive adjectives precede, there are no exceptions (Greenberg's (1966a: 87) Universal 19). The examples in (14b) and (14e) are not counterexamples to Greenberg's Universal 19, because a single descriptive adjective in Bosnian can never appear in postnominal positon, so that the example in (15) is ungrammatical: (15) *pet studenata pametnih Compare (15) with (13a), the only acceptable order. Greenberg (1966a: 87) also emphasises that the order of elements within the noun phrase is usually fixed, in the sense that if all of the three types of noun modifiers precede the noun, then the order is always the same: demonstrative, numeral, adjective, noun (e.g. those five clever students). It is not surprising that such an order is a norm in so-called fixed word order languages, like English, but we could expect deviations from this order in so-called free word order languages, like Bosnian. The fact is that there are no deviations. Compare examples in (16) from Bosnian: (16) a. onih pet those-GEN PL five 'those five clever students'

pametnih clever-GEN PL

studenata students-GEN PL

b. *pet onih pametnih studenata However, the fact that we find the genitive plural (onih) in (16a) and not the expected nominative plural form (oni) of the demonstrative shows that the demonstrative is first merged with the NP pametni studenti 'clever students', as in oni pametni studenti 'those clever students'. Then the numeral pet 'five' is merged to this complex and the numeral assigns the genitive case to the following NP, so we get the form onih pametnih studenata. However, the demonstrative cannot stay in this position, because it has to check additional features, presumably [Ref] features (Referential features), and so it has to move to a higher projection, above the projection that is hosting numerals. Consequently, we get the order, as in (16a). On the other hand, in those languages where these modifiers (demonstratives, numerals, and adjectives) appear after the noun, then we find the opposite order: noun, adjective, numeral, demonstrative. However, there is a less frequent alternative in which the noun is followed by modifiers in the same order as in the case of modifiers preceding the noun, that is the order: noun, demonstrative, numeral, adjective. So, such an alternative postnominal order appears, for example in Kikuyu, a Bantu language of East Africa, but such an order is not so frequent. On the basis of these observations, the following universal was formulated: 3. When any or all of the items (demonstrative, numeral, and descriptive adjective) precede the noun, they are always found in that order. If they follow, the order is either the same or its exact opposite (Greenberg's (1966a: 87) Universal 20). 13

The Syntax o f Numerals in Bosnian

These are three universals related to numerals that Greenberg proposed in his paper on univerals of grammar in general. Subsequently, Greenberg proposed a number of generalizations concerning numeral systems in world's languages in a separate study dealing exclusively with numerals (Greenberg 1978). Here, I will single out and discuss those generalizations that are most interesting from the point of view of our investigation. Greenberg first studied cardinal numerals in the attributive constructions and proposed 54 generalisations. The three initial generalisations are related to the scope of cardinal numeral systems: 4. Every language has a numeral system of finite scope (Greenberg's (1978: 253) generalisation 1). This means that every language has a defined set of numbers that can be expressed in that language. For example, in American English that set ends with the number 1036 because this number has the corresponding numeral expression, that is the lexical item decillion. Of course, there are numbers larger than this, but there is no lexical item in American English that would designate such a number. So, it is important to make the distinction between a number and a numeral expression. For example, twelve is a numeral expresion for the number '12' in English. But the same number may be expressed using a numeral expression dozen. The same is true in Bosnian: both dvanaest and tuce may be used to designate '12'. On the basis of such examples we can conclude that the set of numeral expressions is broader than the set of cardinal numerals. However, the cardinal numeral system of a given language is generated by the act of counting. The square root o f sixten, the square o f four, dozen, score, etc., are also numeral expresions, but they are not included in the cardinal numeral system of English because such expressions do not appear in the act of counting. The corresponding numeral expressions in Bosnian (kvadratni korjen od šesnaest, četiri na kvadrat, tuce) also are not a part of the cardinal numeral system of Bosnian. The numerals used in counting and cardinal numerals used with nouns are usually identical in form. Few languages have numerals used in counting different in form from the corresponding cardinal numerals. Greenberg (1978: 253) defines 'the limit number L for each (numeral) system as the next largest natural number after the largest expressible in the system. The reason for adding 1 is that this will often give us a convenient round number.' 5. Every number n (0 1, then complex numerals with 'one' as an addend will take the plural of the noun if'one' is not a separate word (Greenberg's (1978: 283) generalization 42). For example, English numerals two, three, etc. require a plural noun, e.g. two/ three/... students. The numeral for 10+1 is eleven, and it also requires a plural noun: eleven students. This is also the case with jedanaest T T in Bosnian: jedanaest studenata 'eleven students-GEN PL'. However, when 'one' is a separate word inside a complex numeral, then such a complex numeral may or may not require the singular noun. For example, in English the plural is required (e.g. twenty-one students), whereas in Bosnian only singular is possible (e.g. dvadesetjedan student 'twenty-one student-SG'). 32. Where there is rule-governed variation between the use of the singular and plural with numerals, the use of the singular is favored with higher numbers, in measure 20

The Syntax o f Numerals in Bosnian

constructions, in indefinite constructions, and with nouns which are inanimate or impersonal (Greenberg's (1978: 283) generalization 43). For example, in Modem Arabic dialects the plural form of the noun is used after numerals 2 to 10 (or 3 to 10 in dialects with dual), whereas the singular form is used after numerals larger than 10. In Amharic, either the singular or plural form is used with animate nouns after numerals 2 to 99, and exclusively singular form with animate nouns following numerals larger than 99. On the other hand, the singular or plural form is used with inanimate norms following numerals 2 to 9, and only the singular form after numerals larger than 9. In Tlappanec, a language of Nicaragua, personal nouns appear in the plural form when combined with numerals, whereas impersonal nouns have the singular form in combinations with numerals. In Akkadian, the singular form of nouns is used with measure expressions, and the plural form with countable nouns. In Armenian and Ewe, the singular noun appears in indefinite numeral constructions, whereas the plural form is used in definite constructions. There is variation in the use of the singular or plural form of the noun with numerals in Bosnian also, but it is not related to the higher or lower value of the number. It depends exclusively on the syntactic status of the numeral. All numeral expressions that end in jedan, jedna (FEM), jedno (NEUT) (1, 21,... 91, 101, 121, ...191, 1,001, etc.) maybe followed only by a singular noun, as in (19a); all numeral expressions that end in dva, dvije (FEM), tri, and četiri (2, 3, 4, 22, 23, 24,... 92, 93, 94, 102, 103, 104, etc.) require a special form of the noun that follows, a form that looks like the genitive singular, but it is actually a remnant of the old dual, which was lost in the development of the languages, except in contexts with dva, dvije, tri, and četiri, as in (19b). Finally, the third form of the noun that is found in contexts with numerals is the genitive plural form, as in (19c), and it appears in all contexts, except when the noun follows numeral expressions with 1, 2, 3, and 4, as the only, or the final element of the numeral expression (e.g., 21,22,23, 24). (19) a. jedan/ dvadeset jedan/ one twenty-one

sto jedan/ hundred and one

hiljadu jedan thousand and one

b. dva/ tri/ četiri/ dvadeset dva/ sto dva two three four twenty-one hundred and one c. pet/ five

šest/ six

student student-SG

studenta student-PAUC

sedam/ osam/ devet/ deset/ jedanaest/ ..devetnaest/ dvadeset studenata seven eight nine ten. eleven nineteen twenty students-PL

So, in (19) the three forms of the noun appear: student, studenta, studenata. The singular form student is found after the numeral jedan, and after any numeral expression ending in jedan. The dual (or more properly, paucal) form studenta is found after the numerals dva, tri, and četiri, and after numeral expressions ending in dva, tri, and četiri. Finally, the plural form studenata is found after all other numeral expressions. Notice, that the plural form is required also after the numerals jedanaest (11), dvanaest (12), trinaest (13), and četrnaest (14). It was pointed our earlier that the origin of these numerals was the following: jedan na deset 'oneupon-ten’, dva na deset, etc. In complex numeral expressions, the last item is the head of the whole expression, determining the form of the noun that follows. In other words, jedanaest behaves syntactically as deset, whereas dvadeset jedan behaves syntactically as jedan, because jedan is the head of this complex numeral expression, and not dvadeset. Since deset, and also jedanaest, behave as quantifiers, they take a plural noun as the complement and assign genitive case to it. On the other hand, jedan, and also dvadeset jedan, behave as adjectives and may modify only a singular noun. Numerals dva, dvije, tri, and četiri also behave as quantifiers assigning the genitive case to the following noun which has neither 21

The Syntax o f Numerals in Bosnian

singular nor plural form, but rather a special paucal form, a remnant of the earlier dual declension. 33. The order noun-numeral is favored in definite and approximative constmctions (Greenberg's (1978: 284) generalization 44). There are two types of variation in the order of the noun and the numeral. First, there are languages in which any numeral can either precede or follow the noun. Different orders are related with different semantic or syntactic functions. Second, there are languages in which some numerals precede and others follow the noun. In Palestinian Arabic, numerals precede nouns, but when the order in which the numeral follows the noun occurs, it is with the definite construction. In Russian, numerals precede nouns, but the opposite order occurs with approximative constmctions (e.g., pjat' karandašej ’five pencils1vs. karandašej pjat' ’about five pencils’). In Bosnian, numerals always precede nouns, and approximative constructions do not involve the opposite order of numerals and nouns. The preposition oko ’about’ is used to express the concept of approximate number (e.g., oko pet olovaka ’about five pencils') in most cases, but this concept may be also expressed by some other means. The form ending in -ak is used only with numerals stotina, deset, and those ending in deset (dvadeset, trideset, etc.) to express this concept: stotinjak 'about hundred', desetak 'about ten', dvadesetak 'about twenty', etc. Finally, the approximative construction may involve using two numerals next to each other: dvije-tri olovke 'two or three pencils', pet-šest olovaka 'five or six pencils'. 34. If a language has NG order in the possessive construction, it has QN order in the partitive construction (Greenberg's (1978: 284) generalization 45). NG order is the order with the genitive noun following the head noun in the possessive construction (e.g., books o f the man). In such a case, the partitive constmction with the numeral follows the same patem (e.g., five o f the books). In Bosnian, the possessive construction is often expressed with a possessive adjective preceding the head noun, but it may consist of the genitive noun phrase following the head noun: knjige tog čovjeka 'books of that man'. If a possessor is indicated by a single noun, then a structure with a possessive adjective is preferred: čovjekove knjige rather than knjige čovjeka 'books of the man'. And in the partitive constmction, the 'of phrase' follows the numeral: pet od tih knjiga 'five of those books' 35. If a language has both partitive and adjectival QN constmctions, the smallest number which employs the partitive is larger than the largest number which has the adjectival constmction (Greenberg's (1978: 285) generalization 47). This generalization points out to a preference for the partitive constmction with larger numerals. Examples of such behavior are the following: In some Berber dialects, numerals 'one' and 'two' behave as adjectives, whereas other numerals establish a genitive-like constmction with the following noun. In Rumanian, numerals from 20 are followed by de 'of, horn' with the noun. Both partitive an adjectival constmctions are found in Welsh, but the partitive constmction is preferred with higher numerals. Numerals from 1 to 9 behave as adjectives in Lithuanian, whereas the genitive plural is used with larger numerals. In Russian and some other Slavic languages, numerals larger than 'four' in the direct case contexts govern the genitive plural of the following noun. This applies to Bosnian also, but in all contexts, not only in the direct case contexts (e.g. pet knjiga-GEN PL 'five books'). However, it should be pointed out that in Bosnian and Russian complex numerals have specific syntactic behaviour determined by the smallest addend. For example, the complex numeral 21 behaves syntactically in the same way as the numeral 1 (e.g. 1: jedan dan 'one day'; 5: pet dana-, 21: dvadesetjedan dan vs. *dvadesetjedan dana).

22

r The Syntax o f Numerals in Bosnian

2. Numerals in Bosnian

2.0. Introduction Numerals in Bosnian have a very peculiar syntactic behaviour. Although semantically clearly a single category, syntactically they behave as three distinct categories, namely as quantifiers, nouns and adjectives. Traditionally, the distinction between numerals is made taking into account semantics, and not their syntactic behaviour, so that three classes of numerals are usually distinguished: cardinal, ordinal, and collective numerals: (i) cardinal numerals: jedan (1), dva (2), tri (3), četiri (4),pet (5), šest (6), sedam (7), osam,... (ii) ordinal numerals: prvi (1st), drugi (2nd), treći (3rd), četvrti (4th), peti (5th), šesti (6th),... (iii) collective numerals: dvoje (2), troje (3), četvoro {A), petoro (5), šestoro (6), sedmoro (7), I will follow this traditional division, and discuss first cardinals, then ordinals, and then collective numerals. It should be pointed out, however, that this division can be maintained only as far as semantics is concerned. Syntactically, quite another division of numerals is necessary, and I will propose it in the conclusion of my discussion. But I will start with what is traditionally called cardinal numerals.

2.1. Cardinal numerals 2.1.1. Jedan (1)

The numeral one is the only cardinal numeral that behaves as a tme adjective.1 It is a syntactic modifier of a head noun in a noun phrase, and it agrees with the head noun in number, gender and case, as any other adjective. It is the only cardinal numeral with separate forms for three genders (masculine (jedan), feminine (jedna), and neuter (jedno)), two numbers (singular (jedan, jedna, jedno) and plural (jedni, jedne, jedna)), and six cases (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, and locative).2 To illustrate agreement of jedan with the head noun, I give the following examples with nouns of masculine (1), feminine (2), and neuter gender (3): 1 Also all those cardinal numerals that end in one behave in the same way: dvadeset jedan (21), trideset jedan (31),... etc. 2 Jedan has an adjectival declension, but interestingly, it declines as a definite form adjective, and semantically behaves as an indefinite adjective. Namely, descriptive adjectives in Bosnian can actually have two forms, labelled conventionally as indefinite and definite forms: (i) crven stroj red-INDEF machine 'a red machine' (ii) crveni stroj red-DEF machine “the red machine1 This distinction will be discussed in more details in a separate section. These two types of adjectives have different declensions. Jedan declines as crveni, but its meaning is that of an indefinite adjective, so that jedan stroj could be translated in English as 'a/ one/ some machine'. 23

The Syntax o f Numerals in Bosnian

24

a.

Jedan one-MASC NOM

muškarac man-MASC NOM

je spavao. AUX slept-3P SG MASC

b.

Bojao se (he) was afraid of

jednog one-MASC GEN

muškarca. man-MASC GEN

c.

Pisao je (he) wrote (to)

jednom one-MASC DAT

muškarcu. man-MASC DAT

d.

Vidio je (he) saw

jednog one-MASC ACC

e.

Išao je (he) walked

sa with

f.

Pričao je (he) talked

0 jednom about one-MASC LOC

a.

Jedna one-FEM NOM

je spavala. žena woman-FEM NOM AUX slept-3P SG FEM

b.

Bojao se (he) was afraid of

jedne one-FEM GEN

žene. woman-FEM GEN

a

Pisao je (he) wrote (to)

jednoj one-FEM DAT

ženi. woman-FEM DAT

d.

Vidio je (he) saw

jednu one-FEM ACC

e.

Išao je (he) walked

sa with

f.

Pričao je (he) talked

0 jednoj about one-FEM LOC

a.

Jedno one-NEUT NOM

je spavalo. govedo head of cattle-NEUT NOM AUX slept-3P SG NEUT

b.

Bojao se (he) was afraid of

jednog one-NEUT GEN

goveda. head of cattle-NEUT GEN

c.

Pisaoje (he) wrote (to)

jednom one-NEUT DAT

govedu. head of cattle-NEUT DAT

d.

Vidio je (he) saw

jedno one-NEUT ACC

e.

Išaoje (he) walked

sa with

muškarca. man-MASC ACC

jednim one-MASC INS

muškarcem. man-MASC INS muškarcu. man-MASC LOC

ženu. woman-FEM ACC

jednom one-FEM INS

ženom. woman-FEM INS ženi. woman-FEM LOC

govedo. head of cattle-NEUT ACC

jednim one-NEUT INS

govedom. head of cattle-NEUT INS

The Syntax o f Numerals in Bosnian

f.

Pričao je (he) talked

o jednom about one-NEUT LOC

govedu. head of cattle-NEUT LOC

In all examples given in (l)-(3) numerals may be left out without any change of morphological form of remaining lexical items in the sentence. This means that the numeral one is an adjectival modifier which always receives gender, number, and case features from the head noun by the feature spreading mechanism. The functioning of this mechanism is elaborated in more detail elsewhere (Leko 1990). It is obvious from paradigms in (l)-(3) that six cases may be distinguished in Bosnian: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, and locative.3 Examples in (l)-(3) illustrate agreement in gender and case. What about agreement in number? It is somewhat unusual that a numeral like one, denoting a single item, may have a plural form, but it actually has. However, its use is restricted to modifying only pluralia tantum nouns: (4) a. Jedni svatovi su stigli. one-MASC PL NOM wedding procession-MASC PL NOM AUX arrived-3P PL M b.

Jedne one-FEM PL NOM

naočale spectacles-FEM PL NOM

c.

Jedna kola one-NEUT PL NOM carriage-NEUT PL NOM

su pukle AUX broke-3P PL FEM su stigla. AUX airived-3P PL NEUT

What is important for our discussion is that in all these examples one behaves syntactically as an adjective, and it must agree with the noun it modifies in gender, number, and case. Depending on gender and number of the head noun, one will have one of the following six forms in subject nominative phrases: ( 5)

______________________ _______________ ____________ ___

SG PL

MASC jedan jedni

FEM jedna jedne

NEUT jedno jedna

What is a position of one in the structure of NP? In order to answer this question I have to elaborate on the possible structure of noun phrases in Bosnian. 2.1.1.1. The structure ofNP in Bosnian In generative grammar it was originally assumed that a simple phrase like a book is a Noun Phrase (NP) in which the noun (N) book is the head of the phrase, whereas the determiner a is the Specifier of NP. With Abney (1987), the perspective changed. A functional projection above NP was postulated, so that the determiner was no longer regarded as the specifier of NP, but rather as the head of the phrase. Therefore, if the determiner (D) is the head, then the whole structure must be the Determiner Phrase (DP) in which the D head takes an NP as its complement. Consequently, a phrase like a book was no longer treated as an NP, but rather as a DP. However, in a language like Bosnian, corresponding to a book, we have simply knjiga, whereas in English *book without an article, or some other determiner, is 3 The seventh case - vocative - is not included in these paradigms, since it is rarely used, and not relevant for our discussion. 25

The Syntax of Numerals in Bosnian

ungrammatical. Therefore, we could say that noun phrases in English are indeed DPs, but in Bosnian they are not DPs, but rather NPs. Another possibility was to postulate a universal DP structure, in other words, noun phrases are always DPs, even in languages without articles, like Bosnian, and the head of DPs in such languages is simply a null element, or zero determiner. Many linguists adopted this approach. However, it was noticed that languages with articles behave differently from languages without articles with respect to certain syntactic phenomena. On the basis of this, it was proposed, that the postulation of the universal structure of noun phrases as DPs cannot be maintained, but instead we should distinguish between languages in which noun phrases are DPs, and those in which noun phrases are simply NPs. For example, on the basis of detailed argumentation, Bošković (2008) concludes that lexical items which are determiners in English are actually not D heads in Bosnian, which argues in favour of the no-DP analysis of noun phrases in Bosnian, and all other languages lacking articles. However, Bošković allows the possibility that there is some functional structure in noun phrases of languages without articles, but it cannot be DP. I agree with Bošković that Bosnian doesn’t have any lexical items or morphological elements that would qualify as D heads. Also I assume that all noun premodifiers are phrasal and adjectival in character. All of them must agree with a noun in relevant agreement features, that is phi-features and case. I agree with Bošković also that these premodifiers are base generated inside an NP, and I assume that they are generated in multiple Spec positions of NP. Bošković also allows the possibility of these elements being NP adjoined. However, I differ from Bošković, because I don’t think that these adjectival elements stay inside an NP. In highly inflected languages like Bosnian, it is necessary to postulate some kind of agreement functional projection not only for clauses, but also for noun phrases. The fact that there is definitely a default order of adjectival elements modifying a noun, and frequently that default order is the only order possible, also suggests that there must be a hierarchy of functional projections above an NP. In that hierarchy, the first one above an NP, call it AgrP, would be a functional category responsible for checking relevant gender, number and case features on agreeing adjectival elements. At the moment we are interested only in the lower portion of a noun phrase, that is an NP proper. I assume that an NP is a complement of a functional category Agr. The head of NP is a nominal element: a noun proper, like pisac 'writer' in (6a), or a quantity noun, like većina 'majority' in (6b). They both assign genitive case to their complement: (6) a. pisac knjiga writer books-GEN PL 'a writer of books' b. većina knjiga majority books-GEN PL 'majority of books' The head of NP may take a complement, which may be another NP (7a), AP (7b), PP (7c), or a clause (7d), forming an N' projection: (7) a. [n pisac [np zanimljivih writer interesting-GEN 'a/ the writer of interesting books'

26

knjiga]], books-GEN

The Syntax o f Numerals in Bosnian

b.

[n' dječak [ap crven u lieu]] boy 1red in face 'a/ the red-faced boy'

c.

[n1stroj [pj>iz uvoza]] machine from import 'an/ the imported machine'

d.

[n1pisac [cp koji piše zanimljive knjige]] writer who writes interesting-ACC books-ACC 'a/ the writer who writes interesting books'

The configuration of (7c) is represented in (8):

N

PP

stroj

iz uvoza

We will be more interested here in structures of premodification, that is structures consisting of a noun head and its premodifier found in a Specifier (Spec) position. Typical noun premodifiers are adjectives. I follow Jackendoff (1977) in postulating three levels of adjectival structure inside an NP: appositive, restrictive, and functional. It is easy to make distinction between restrictive and nonrestrictive complements of nouns both in English and in Bosnian. For example, nonrestrictive relative clauses as complements of nouns are distinguished from restrictive relative clauses by comma intonation. However, it is difficult to establish a distinction between restrictive and appositive adjectives in English, since there is no distinction in form - an adjective can have only one form. Nevertheless, the fact that (9) may be interpreted in more than one way is a clear indication that adjectives may have a restrictive and a nonrestrictive sense: (9) Our excellent students like syntax. The nonrestrictive interpretation of the adjective excellent in this example is that all students, for example, in our department, are excellent and they like syntax. On the other hand, the sentence can mean that only those students who are excellent like syntax, so that the adjective excellent has the restrictive interpretation. Although it appears that this distinction is only semantic, without parallel structural differentation, the possibility of differentation by means of intonational pattern and stress is evidence that the two different semantic interpretations correspond to a deeper structural difference. The distinction between restrictive and appositive adjectives is easier to establish in Bosnian, since a descriptive adjective actually can have two forms, labelled conventionally as definite and indefinite forms. The distinction in form of descriptive adjectives is easily perceived in singular, as in (10a,b), whereas plural distinctions depend on stress and vowel length: 27

The Syntax o f Numerals in Bosnian

vojnik (10) a. mlad young-INDEF soldier-MASC b. mladi young-DEF

vojnik soldier-MASC

c. mladi vojnici young-INDEF soldiers-MASC d. mlddl young-DEF

vojnici soldiers-MASC

Comparing indefinite and definite singular forms of adjectives, it is clear that they differ most in masculine gender, as in (10): the definite form has a long -i ending, whereas the indefinite form ends in a consonant. Definite and indefinite forms of adjectives in feminine and neuter gender differ only in the length of the final vowel, definite forms having long endings: mlada (fem), mlado (neut). I will show that a definite form of descriptive adjectives is a restrictive modifier, whereas an indefinite adjective form in Bosnian is appositive in nature. Both forms of adjectives, indefinite and definite, may be used as single modifiers of a noun head, as in (10). However, they may be used in combination with other descriptive adjectives, modifying the same head. In such a case, however, certain distribution restrictions are percieved: erven ) a. nov, new-INDEF red-INDEF b. novi new-DEF

stroj machine

crveni red-DEF

stroj machine

c. nov, crveni new-INDEF red-DEF

stroj machine

d. erven, red-INDEF

novi new-DEF

stroj machine

e. *novi new-DEF

erven red-INDEF

stroj machine

f. *crveni red-DEF

nov stroj new-INDEF machine

Whenever adjectives of both forms appear in prehead positions modifying the same noun, only combinations with indefinite form preceding definite form adjectives are allowed, as in (llc,d). If the order is reversed, examples are unacceptable, as in (lle,f). I assume that indefinite and definite adjectives operate on different levels, and since an indefinite adjective is a modifier of a higher level, it must precede a definite form adjective. The fact that comma intonation is obligatory in (1 lc,d) is an indication that indefinite adjectives are nonrestrictive. Another piece of evidence that indefinite adjective forms are appositive is the fact that only these forms may occur in postnominal positions. Definite forms never occur postnominally. In Bosnian a single adjective as a part of NP regularly appears in prehead positions: 28

The Syntax o f Numerals in Bosnian

(12) a. dobri good-DEF b.

dječak boy

*dječak dobri Left dislocation is possible, as in (13), but rarely used:

(13)

Dječak dobri boy good-DEF

spava, sleeps.

This sentence is strongly marked and with a heavy stress on dječak. However, conjoined adjectives and adjective phrases may occur either in prehead, or posthead positions. When they are used after the head, certain distribution restrictions are perceived: (14) a. stroj, machine b. *stroj, machine

nov i new-INDEF and

erven red-INDEF

novi new-DEF

crveni red-DEF

i and

c. *stroj nov i erven d. dječak, crven boy red-INDEF 'a red-faced boy1

u licu in face

e. *dječak crven u licu Only examples (14a,d) are acceptable with indefinite forms of descriptive adjectives in a postnominal position which must be interpreted as nonrestrictive, since the comma intonation is obligatory. Examples (14c,e) lacking comma intonation are unacceptable. This shows that indefinite adjectives are nonrestrictive. Only indefinite form adjectives may be used in the predicate: (15) a. Njegov kaput je nov. his coat is new-INDEF b. *Njegov kaput je novi. his coat is new-DEF However, there are descriptive adjectives which do not have indefinite forms, but only definite forms ending in long vowels i, a, o. In such a case, the definite form adjective may be used even in the predicate: (16) a. Njegov kaput je mali. his coat is small b. *Njegov kaput je mal.

29

The Syntax of Numerals in Bosnian

The form mal, as in (16b), simply does not exist. Another piece of evidence that definite adjective forms are restrictive is the fact that only these forms are used in complex lexical items like in (17): slijepi blind-DEF 'bat'

miš mouse

crveni red-DEF 'onion'

luk onion

Of course, these lexical items can be modified by both definite and indefinite adjective forms, whereas modification with a definite form would be impossible if an indefinite form is a part of these lexical items, as in (18d): odvratni slijepi blind-DEF ugly-DEF 'the ugly bat'

miš mouse

slijepi odvratan ugly-INDEF blind-DEF 'an ugly bat'

miš mouse

slijep odvratan. miš ugly-INDEF blind-INDEF mouse 'an ugly blind mouse' *odvratni ugly-DEF

slijep miš blind-INDEF mouse

Notice that (18c) is acceptable only with litteral interpretation. It no longer means 'an ugly bat', but rather 'an ugly blind mouse'. If these proposals regarding different levels of adjectives are correct, we would expect that it would be possible to conjoin only adjectives of the same level. That is, we expect that it will be possible to conjoin two (or more) indefinite adjective forms, or two (or more) definite adjective forms, whereas conjoining of definite and indefinite forms should be unacceptable. The examples of conjoined adjectives are given in (19): i (19) a. siromašan poor-INDEF and

bolestan sick-INDEF

dječak boy

i and

bolesni sick-DEF

dječak boy

c. *siromasan i poor-INDEF and

bolesni sick-DEF

dječak boy

bolestan sick-INDEF

dječak boy

b. siromašni poor-DEF

d. *siromašni poor-DEF 30

i and

The Syntax o f Numerals in Bosnian

The examples (19c,d) are unacceptable because modifiers of different levels are conjoined. Only modifiers of the same level can be conjoined, as shown in (19a,b). There are other ways to prove that two types of descriptive adjectives, definite and indefinite, indeed differ syntactically. One of them is to separate the adjective from its head with parenthetical material. It appears that such material may be inserted only between an indefinite adjective and its head, whereas separation of the definite adjective and the head with the same material results in an unacceptable sequence: (20) a. Uznemiren, ponekad bez razloga, upset-INDEF sometimes without reason 'An upset dog, sometimes without reason, barks.' b. *Uznemireni, ponekad upset-DEF sometimes

bez without

razloga, reason

pas dog

laje. barks

pas dog

laje. barks

Another difference between the two types of descriptive adjectives is their potential mobility, so that indefinite adjectives are quite easily preposed, whereas definite adjectives do not allow such an option: (21) a. Njegov pametan i his clever-INDEF and

precizan odgovor precise-INDEF answer

je iznenadio surprised

sve studente, all students

b. Pametan i clever-INDEF and

precizan, precise-INDEF

c. Njegov pametni his clever-DEF

i and

d. *Pametni clever-DEF

precizni, njegov odgovor je iznenadio sve studente. precise-DEF his answer surprised all students

i and

njegov odgovor je iznenadio sve studente, his answer surprised all students

precizni odgovor je iznenadio sve studente, precise-DEF answer surprised all students

Indefinite adjectives can be actually moved in any direction, so that the posthead position immediately after the noun is quite usual: (21) e. Njegov odgovor, pametan i his answer clever-INDEF f. *Njegov odgovor, his answer

pametni clever-DEF

precizan, je iznenadio and precise-INDEF surprised

sve studente, all students

i and

sve studente. all students

precizni, je iznenadio precise-DEF surprised

As (2If) shows, definite adjectives cannot be postposed. However, it appears that a single indefinite adjective is less easily moved: (21) g. ?Tačan, correct-INDEF

njegov odgovor je iznenadio sve studente. his answer surprised all students

h. *Njegov odgovor, tačan his answer correct-INDEF i. Njegov tačan his correct-INDEF

odgovor answer

je iznenadio sve studente, surprised all students je iznenadio surprised

sve studente, all students 31

The Syntax o f Numerals in Bosnian

This implies that coordination is sufficiently "heavy" to allow postposing. There are adjectives in a complex structure of modification that always immediately precede the head, being the most tightly bound to the head as such. These adjectives are extensively studied by Levi (1978). She established that in English there is a class of adjectives which are regularly used only in prehead positions, and cannot be used in the predicate to modify the same noun. "Nonpredicating adjectives" are found also in Bosnian: (22)

a.

mašinski mechanical

tehničar technician

b.

Tehničar technician

koji who

c.

mladi young-DEF

mašinski mechanical

tehničar technician

d.

?mašinski mechanical

mladi young-DEF

tehničar technician

je is

mašinski mechanical

A parallel example to (22a), with the same adjective mašinski 'mechanical', but used in the relative clause, in (22b), is unacceptable. "Nonpredicating adjectives" usually do not allow insertion of other adjectives between them and the head. Therefore, most speakers reject any other order except the one in (22c), whereas some would allow (22d) as a stylistic variant. "Nonpredicating adjectives" are similar to definite adjectives in the sense that they are also restrictive, limiting the set of referents expressed by the head. However, in contrast to definite form adjectives, they establish a functional relation with the head. To illustrate the difference between a functional and nonfunctional relation, I will analyze modifiers of the noun stroj 'machine' in (23): (23)

električni electric

šivaći stroj sewing machine

The modifier električni 'electric' is not used to say anything about the function of the machine. It describes a type of the machine - it is electric, rather than mechanical - that is, a physical property of the machine. On the other hand, the modifier šivaći 'sewing' tells exactly what is the function of the machine, that is, to sew. On the basis of these facts we may conclude that three distinct levels of adjectival structure should be postulated in Bosnian: appositive, restrictive, and functional. To illustrate the difference between the three levels of adjectival structure, I will analyze adjectives modifying the noun stroj 'machine' in (24): (24)

nov, crveni new-INDEF red-DEF

šivaći stroj sewing machine

This complex NP describes a new machine, which is red, and whose function is to sew. Any other sequence of modifiers would be unacceptable. The lower level is a level of functional arguments. It consists of adjectives strictly subcategorized by the head. They are most tightly bound to the head. In (24) we find the adjective šivaći in this position. The higher level is a level of restrictive adjectives. They limit the set of referents expressed by the head. We find the definite form of the descriptive adjective crveni in this position in (24). Finally, 32

The Syntax o f Numerals in Bosnian

the highest level is a level of nonrestrictive, that is, appositive adjectives, and we find the indefinite form of the descriptive adjective nov in this position in our example (24). If the noun stroj is modified by two definite form adjectives, their order is flexible, and native speakers accept both (25a) and (25b): (25)

a.

sjajni shiny-DEF

crveni red-DEF

b.

crveni sjajni šivaći stroj

šivaći stroj sewing machine

However, in case of examples given in (26) with both functional and definite adjectives present, a reversal of order would be regarded as a stylistic variant, if accepted at all: (26)

a.

crveni red-DEF

šivaći stroj sewing machine

b.

?šivaći crveni stroj

These facts may suggest that a single functional head (Def) has two Spec positions, a higher one, for indefinite adjectives (or adjective phrases), and a lower one, for definite adjectives (or adjective phrases). This is in line with a proposal by Chomsky (1994) formulated in his bare phrase structure theory which allows multiple Specs in principle, as in structure (27):

Speci

X' Spec2

X' Head

Complement

Alternatively, it may be proposed that definite and indefinite forms of descriptive adjectives are projections of two separate heads, one specified positively for the feature definiteness, and another negatively. Because of examples like (24) we are almost forced to adopt an analysis with two separate Def heads, rather than a single one. This analysis is unsatisfactory, however, primarily because it allows a single phrase to be specified both positively and negatively with respect to the same feature, in this case the definiteness feature. Therefore, I assume that there is only one Def head with a standard binary feature. In (24) the feature is positively specified and the phrase has definite interpretation. We are talking about 'the red machine', and the fact that it is new is an additional property, appositive in nature. It is important to notice that (24) is acceptable only with comma intonation. This may be an indication that adjunction is involved, rather than substitution or base generation. I will pursue this proposal and suggest that indefinite adjectives in examples like (24) are actually predicative adjectives which are adjoined to DefP without checking definiteness features. Therefore, they are deprived of their indefiniteness force in such examples, and consequently, there is no conflict of features: such phrases are interpreted as definite. I assume that (24) has the configuration as represented in (28): 33

The Syntax of Numerals in Bosnian

nov,

crveni

šivaći

stroj

In highly inflected languages like Bosnian, it is necessary to postulate some kind of agreement functional projection not only for clauses, but also for noun phrases. The adjectival agreement must be checked in some functional projection. It is not obvious that this AgrP projection should be a split projection, as proposed here. After all, one could claim that definiteness, as well as gender, number and case are checked in the same projection. However, these features differ. Gender, number and case are clearly agreement features in the sense that adjectives must agree with the gender, number and case of the head noun. On the other hand, definiteness is not an agreement feature in Bosnian. The definite adjective doesn't agree in definiteness with the noun, since the noun is not inherently definite/ indefinite and there is no article which would determine the definite/ indefinite status of the noun. Consequently, another projection should be postulated in which only the definiteness of descriptive adjectives would be checked. The fixed order of adjectives, with descriptive adjectives preceding other types of adjectives, represents support for this proposal. In conclusion, I assume that adjectival elements are base generated in Spec of NP. However, they cannot remain in situ. They must move in order to check various features. Nonpredicating adjectives must agree with the noun in gender, number and case. Therefore, they move to Spec of AgrP to check these features establishing Spec-head agreement with Agr head. Definite and indefinite form adjectives first check their agreement features in AgrP and then move to Spec of DefP where they check their definiteness features. 2.1.1.2. The structural position of jedan Now we can attempt to answer the question posed at the end of the section 2.1.1: what is a position of one in the structure of NP? The question as it is formulated assumes that one is a part of an NP. This assumption should not be controversial, since we have seen in our examples (l)-(5) that one indeed behaves as any other adjectival lexical item in terms of agreement with the head noun. Therefore, although it doesn't have all properties of an adjective proper (e.g., it lacks comparative forms), I still treat it as a special type of adjective, which may be called an adjectival numeral. 34

The Syntax o f Numerals in Bosnian

In the section 2.1.1.1,1 proposed three structural positions for adjectives in Bosnian. We will now try to determine which of these positions is available to one, under the assumption that it is an adjective. In the section 2.1.1, a peculiar property of one was pointed out: it declines as a definite form adjective, but semantically it behaves as an indefinite adjective. An example was given that jedan stroj could be translated not only as 'one machine', but also as 'a machine', or even 'some machine'. Bosnian does not have articles. However, frequently used translation equivalent of an indefinite article is jedan, in addition to neki 'some'. This implies that indefmiteness is a feature of one, and that therefore it should be classed with indefinite adjectives. In order to prove this, we should try to apply some of the tests used in a previous section to determine syntactic behaviour of definite and indefinite adjectives. Is it possible to combine one with other descriptive adjectives, and if so, what kind of combinations are allowed? One can combine with both definite and indefinite adjectives, but only if it precedes these adjectives, as in (29a,b). If there is a reversal of order, it seems that only a combination with an indefinite adjective preceding one is allowed, as in (29c): (29)

a.

jedan visok one tall-INDEF

čovjek man

b.

jedan visoki one tall-DEF

čovjek man

c.

visok tall-INDEF

jedan čovjek one man

d.

*visoki tall-DEF

jedan čovjek one man

One, coordinated with another indefinite adjective, may appear in the posthead position, or in the predicate: (30)

a.

život, jedan i life one and

dragocjen valuable-INDEF

b.

*život, jedan i life one and

dragocjeni valuable-DEF

c.

sin, jedan u roditelja son one in parents 'the only son of his parents'

d.

Život je life is

jedan. one

It was shown in the preceding section that only adjectives of the same level can be conjoined. Therefore, jedan cannot combine with a definite form adjective in (30b). The example (30d) shows that we find jedan also in the predicate, so that it cannot be treated as belonging to the third class of nonpredicating adjectives. Also, examples (29)-(30) strongly suggest that one behaves in many respects as an indefinite adjective.

35

The Syntax of Numerals in Bosnian

Therefore, I assume that one is base generated in Spec of NP position. Then it moves to Spec of AgrP in order to check gender, number and case features, like all other adjectives. Finally, it moves to Spec of DefP where it checks its definiteness features.

2.1.2. Dva (2)

We are tempted to conclude that two does not differ syntactically from one because parralel to a paradigm for one in (32a), we can propose a paradigm for two in (32b): (32) a. b.

MASC jedan dva

FEM jedna dvije

NEUT jedno dvoje

We find three different forms both in (32a) and in (32b), but the paradigm in (32b) is artificial, being a combination of cardinal and collective numerals. The neuter singular form dvoje is not a cardinal numeral, but rather a collective numeral, which selects exclusively collective nouns (e.g. dvoje djece 'two children’), and will be discussed in more detail later. So, in contrast to one, the cardinal numeral two has only two forms: the form dvije which selects feminine nouns, whereas the form dva is used not only with masculine, but also with neuter nouns. It appears that these two forms exhibit different syntactic behaviour. Let us first consider examples with the form dvije. Parallel to examples in (2), we have sentences in (33): (33)

36

Dvije two-FEM NOM

žene women-FEM NOM PL

b.

Bojao se (he) was afraid of

dviju two-FEM GEN

c.

Pisao je dvjema (he) wrote (to) two-FEM DAT

su spavale. slept-3P PL FEM

žena women-FEM GEN PL

ženama. women-FEM DAT PL

The Syntax o f Numerals in Bosnian

d.

Vidio je (he) saw

dvije two-FEM ACC

žene. women-FEM ACC PL

e.

Išao je (he) walked

sa with

f.

Pričao je (he) talked

o, dvjema about two-FEM LOC

dvjema two-FEM INS

ženama. women-FEM INS PL ženama. women-FEM LOC PL

From (33) we could conclude that the feminine form of two is an adjective, because it agrees with the head noun in all agreement features in the same way as the cardinal numeral one does. However, whereas sentences with one can be expressed only as in (2), sentences with two in (33) have alternative forms, so that parallel to (33e,f), equally acceptable, even more frequent in colloquial speech, are the following sentences: (34)

a.

Išaoje sa (he) walked with

b.

Pričao je (he) talked

dvije žene.4 two women

o dvije žene about two women

It should be pointed out that there is no difference in meaning between sentences in (34) and corresponding examples in (33e,f). One would expect to find the same alternative forms with (33b,c). Howevere, whereas some speakers find (35a) questionable, no native speaker accepts (35b): (35)

a.

?Bojao se (he) was afraid of

dvije žene. two women

b.

*Pisaoje (he) wrote (to)

dvije žene. two women

Yet, we find alternative forms with genitive and dative phrases, like (33b,c), in the following examples: (36)

a.

Bježao je od dviju žena. (he) was running away from two-FEM GEN women-FEM GEN PL

b.

Bježao je od dvije žene.

c.

Pokazao je prema (he) pointed towards

d.

Pokazao j e prema dvij e žene.

dvjema ženama. two-FEM DAT women-FEM DAT PL

Comparing (34), (35) and (36) we can conclude that alternative forms are possible only inside prepositional phrases. Prepositions in Bosnian govern genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, and locative cases, so that we find alternative forms whenever a preposition 4 Whenever a numeral is dropped from PP, the noun must receive a corresponding case, here instrumental: (i) *Išao je sa žene; (ii) Išaoje sa ženama.. 37

The Syntax o f Numerals in Bosnian

which assigns one of these cases is present. The locative is the only case which is always assigned by a preposition. Therefore, alternative forms are always possible in locative phrases, as in (33f) and (34b). In contrast to locative, other cases are not exclusively governed by a preposition. As a consequence, whenever a preposition is not present to assign case, the alternative form is not allowed. Therefore, (35b) cannot replace a dative phrase given in (33c).5 In addition to genitive and dative, instrumental doesn't have to be assigned by a preposition. When the instrumental case is assigned by a verb, as in (37), then only one form is possible. The alternative form, as in (37b), is ungrammatical: (37)

a.

Kopao je (he) was digging (with)

b.

*Kopaoje dvije lopate.

dvjema lopatama. two-FEM INS spades-FEM INS PL

We could conclude from this that the feminine form of two exhibits ambivalent behaviour. It behaves as an adjective in (33), manifesting complete agreement with the head noun in gender, number, and case. However, there is another lexical item two which behaves as a quantifier, having only one form - dvije. This form can be used after prepositions, as in (34a,b) and (36b,d). In all these examples where a preposition is followed by the phrase dvije žene, the head of this phrase is the quantifier dvije, and žene is its complement. Quantifiers are case-assigners in Bosnian and they typically assign genitive as their default, or structural case. What is a case assigned by dvije to its noun complement? The feminine declension in Bosnian has the same plural form in nominative and accusative - žene. Therefore, there is no way to decide on case of žene on the basis of its form. However, following Chomsky (1981) I assume that the nominative case is not lexically assigned, and it is not the case found on complements to lexical items. Rather, nominative is typically a case of subjects, assigned by a functional category INFL. Consequently, žene in our phrase dvije žene may be accusative, but not nominative. Therefore, we could conclude that accusative is assigned to žene by the quantifier dvije, which has case-assigning potential, but being undeclinable, itself cannot receive a case. However, the whole phrase dvije žene with dvije as a head must be assigned a case by the preposition, but its percolation to the head of the phrase is blocked, dvije being an undeclinable lexical item. We still have to explain why examples in (35b) and (37b) are unacceptable. We find the phrases dvije žene and dvije lopate in these examples, which are identical in form to accusative phrases: (40)

a.

Vidio je (he) saw

dvije žene. two women-ACC

b.

Kupio je (he) bought

dvije lopate. two spades-ACC

However, in the feminine declension, accusative always has a plural form different from all other cases except nominative. Therefore, in all those unacceptable examples, genitive, dative and instrumental phrases, respectively, are interpreted as accusative phrases, since there is no formal clue to indicate that other cases, not accusative, are assigned. Such formal clue is provided by prepositions sa 'with' and o 'about' in (34), and od 'from' and prema 5 The genitive phrase in (35a) is acceptable for most speakers although a preposition is not present, and we will try to find explanation for this fact in later discussion. 38

The Syntax o f Numerals in Bosnian

'toward' in (36). These prepositions not only assign a corresponding case to the phrase headed by dvije but also serve as a flag to indicate which case is assigned. Percolation of case from the phrasal category to the head dvije is blocked, since it is an indeclinable lexical item. I will briefly illustrate the mechanisms of case assignment and case percolation on examples (33f) and (34b), repeated here as (41): (41)

a.

Pričao je (he) talked

0 dvjema ženama. about two-FEM LOC women-FEM LOC PL

b.

Pričao je (he) talked

dvije žene. 0 about two women

Actually, I assume three independent processes by which an abstract Case is ultimately realized as a morphological case. In this proposal, all lexical categories with Case­ assigning potential may assign Case to their sister phrasal category. The configurations in (42) represent prepositional phrases in (41a) and (41b), respectively, and illustrate Caseassignment: (42)

a.

b. PP P' PP P’

In (42a), corresponding to (41a), the only lexical category able to assign Case is a circled category P and it assigns locative to its sister NP. Case-assignment is represented by a single arrow. In (42b), corresponding to (41b), there are two lexical categories with Caseassigning potential - the circled P and Q. They assign locative and accusative, respectively, to their sisters. After they assign Case, [+N] lexical categories are free to receive case themselves through the operation of another mechanism - Case-percolation. This mechanism is responsible for the morphological realization of Case on the heads of NPs. Noun heads eventually receive a case by percolation from the phrasal category which immediately dominates them. Thus, Case-assignment is a process involving sisters, whereas Casepercolation is a process involving mothers and daughters. Case-percolation is represented in (43): 39

The Syntax of Numerals in Bosnian

(43)

b.

a.

PP

F PP P

In (43a), corresponding to (41a), the phrasal category which is assigned Case is circled, and its Case percolates down to the head of the phrase. Case-percolation is represented by a double arrow. By the process of percolation Case is finally realized as a concrete morphological case on the head of the phrasal category. The head noun žene thus receives the locative case ženama. In (43b), corresponding to (41b), two phrasal categories are assigned Case and both are circled. The head of QP is the quantifier dvije. Since it is an indeclinable lexical item, the percolation of locative case from the phrasal category is blocked. However, Case from the NP can percolate, because its head is a declinable noun, so that the accusative case is morphologically realized on the noun žene. Finally, I assume that the third mechanism - case-spreading - is responsible for case realization on agreeing lexical categories. In other words, in the final step, the morphological case of the head of the phrase will spread to all lexical categories that must agree with the head in case features. This mechanism doesn't apply in (41 b), since there is no agreeing categories. Its operation is represented in (44), corresponding to (41a): (44) PP F P

NP AdjP

N'

Adj N

o

dvjema

ttt_

ženama

Joe. pl fern

40

The Syntax o f Numerals in Bosnian

Feature spreading is represented by a triple arrow. In this process, all agreement features, not only case, are transferred to the lexical item that agrees with the head noun in case, number, and gender. So, the locative form dvjema is a result of feature spreading. We can now make preliminary conclusions. It appears that there are two lexical items of the same phonological shape - dvije. One behaves as an adjective modifying plural feminine nouns. Another behaves as a quantifier. It requires a plural feminine noun as its complement assigning accusative case to it. Another form of two - dva - selects nouns of masculine and neuter gender. We will first discuss examples with norms of masculine gender. Parallel to examples in (33), we find the following sentences: (45)

a.

Dva two

muškarca su spavala. man-MASC GEN/ACC SG slept-3P NEUT PL

b.

Bojao se (he) was afraid of

c.

Pisao je dvama (he) wrote (to) two-DAT

d.

Vidio je (he) saw

dva two

muškarca. man-MASC GEN/ACC SG

e.

?Išao je (he) walked

sa with

dvama two-INS

f.

?Pričao je (he) talked

0 dvama about two-LOC

dvaju two-GEN

muškaraca. men-MASC GEN PL

muškarcima. men-MASC DAT PL

muškarcima. men-MASC INS PL muškarcima. men-MASC LOC PL

Surprisingly, we do not find the expected nominative plural form muškarci in (45a), and accusative plural form muškarce in (45d). Such structures are unacceptable: (46)

a.

*Dva muškarci su spavali. two men-NOM PL slept-3P MASC PL

b.

*Vidioje (he) saw

dva two

muškarce. men-ACC PL

The corresponding examples with a feminine noun in (33a,d) have nominative/ accusative form žene, as expected. We find the form muškarca in (45a,d) which may be either genitive or accusative singular. I claim that this form is actually genitive, not accusative. Only animate masculine nouns have identical genitive and accusative singular forms. Inanimate nouns (e.g. bor 'pine') have identical nominative and accusative forms (bor-NOM/ ACC SG), different from genitive (bora-GEN SG) Therefore, I conclude that the form muškarca in (45a,d) is genitive, rather than accusative. Notice also that there is no expected masculine form of the predicate in (45a), but rather a neuter form su spavala. Obviously, the predicate does not agree with the masculine form muškarca, but rather with dva. We could conclude from this that dva behaves as a quantifier. Here we must assume that dva has default neuter features, like all quantifiers, but in contrast to other quantifiers which may take complements of any gender, dva can combine only with masculine and neuter norms, whereas another form - dvije - is used with feminine 41

The Syntax o f Numerals in Bosnian

nouns. Dva assigns genitive to its complement. What is peculiar about dva is its selection of what appears to be a singular noun as a complement. However, it only appears to be a genitive singular form, because when an adjective is added as a modifier of a noun in (45a), it must have a form which is certainly not genitive singular, as obvious from ungrammatical (47b): (47)

a.

Ona dva those two

visoka muškarca tall men

su spavala, slept

b.

*Ona dva

visokog muškarca su spavala. tall-GEN SG

The sentence with the genitive singular form visokog in (47b) is unacceptable, and only (47a) with the adjective form visoka is possible. The descriptive adjectives have two forms, indefinite and definite: visok and visoki, respectively. The form visoka is the genitive singular of the indefinite form, whereas visokog is the genitive singular of the definite form. However, the form visoka in (47a) cannot be the indefinite form of the adjective, because the stress pattern is different, and also because the demonstrative is used in this phrase, and by definition, the demonstrative cannot be followed by an indefinite adjective. Therefore, visoka in (47a) cannot be the genitive singular of the indefinite adjective visok, but rather the genitive dual form of the definite adjective visoki. This form visoka is actually a remnant of the old dual. Bosnian used to have three numbers in nominal declension (singular, plural, and dual). The dual number was lost as a separate category in the development of language. There are few remnants of dual forms in contemporary language, and one of them may be the form of the noun after the numeral two. So what appears to be a genitive singular form, should be rather treated as a genitive dual. I have claimed, discussing feminine forms of two, that there is an adjectival form dvije with full adjectival declension. It appears that the masculine form dva does not have full adjectival declension. Indeed, unacceptable examples in (46) prove that dva cannot be treated as an adjectival lexical item in nominative and accusative contexts. Otherwise, sentences in (46) would be acceptable, and dva would be the nominative and accusative agreement forms of the adjectival two. And still, there are adjectival forms of dva in oblique cases, as obvious from (45 b,c,e,f). It should be pointed out that forms in (45 e,f) are just marginally acceptable for most native speakers, and corresponding sentences with undeclinable dva are preferred: a.

Išao je (he) walked

sa with

dva two

muškarca. man-GEN DU

b.

Pričao je (he) talked

0 dva about two

muškarca. man-GEN DU

It is unusual that adjectival forms of dvije and dva apparently differ syntactically, the first having a full declension, and the second only a partial one. I will try to show that both are actually the same in having only a partial declension. This is not so obvious in the feminine gender, because the noun following dvije in subject and object phrases has the form which appears to be nominative/ accusative plural, and therefore, dvije is simply interpreted as a nominative/ accusative agreement form of the adjectival two. I will propose, however, that what appears to be the adjectival agreement form dvije in nominative and accusative is actually a quantifier dvije which selects genitive dual form of feminine nouns as its complement, in the same way as dva is a quantifier in corresponding examples of masculine forms in nominative and accusative, which also selects genitive dual form of the following noun. 42

The Syntax o f Numerals in Bosnian

Dva is possible in genitive phrases exactly because of the genitive case on the complement noun. So in addition to (45b) with the adjectival form dvaju, the alternative form with dva is allowed, as in (49a): (49)

a.

Bojao se (he) was afraid of

dva two

muškarca. man-GEN DU

b.

Bojao se (he) was afraid of

muškarca. man-GEN SG

In both (49a) and (49b) we find the genitive form muškarca. In (49b) the case is assigned by the verb bojati se, and in (49a) by dva. The important thing is that the genitive case is present, and its presence actually licences the structure. There is no difference in form between genitive singular and dual of masculine nouns. In feminine declension, however, genitive dual is identical in form with nominative/ accusative plural, and this is probably a reason that (35a) with a quantifier form dvije in a genitive context is less acceptable for some speakers. Whereas (45b) may be alternatively expressed as in (49a), no alternative form is possible with dative phrases in (45c), so that (50) is unacceptable: (50)

*Pisaoje dva muškarca. (he) wrote (to) two man-GEN DU

There is no formal signal in (50) to indicate that dative is assigned to a phrase dva muškarca, and the sentence is therefore unacceptable. Parallel to examples in (36), we find alternative forms inside genitive and dative prepositional phrases: a.

Bježaoje (he) was running ( away)

od dva from two

b.

Bježaoje (he) was running (away)

od dvaju from two-GEN

c.

Pokazao je prema (he) pointed towards

dva two

d.

?Pokazaoje prema (he) pointed towards

dvama muškarcima. two-DAT men-DAT PL

muškarca. man-GEN DU muškaraca. men-GEN PL

muškarca. man-GEN DU

The example (51d) is questionable, and ( 51c) is a preferred alternative for expressing this meaning. The same is true for instrumental and locative phrases in (45 e,f), which have the same form as the phrase in (5Id) - dvama muškarcima. This shows that adjectival forms of two are probably in retreat, and that this process first affects the form dvama. We can even speculate that the quantifier form of two will stay as the only one in the further development of language. The following examples may support this assumption: (52)

a.

Kopao je (he) was digging

sa with

drugovima. ffiends-MASC INS PL

43

The Syntax o f Numerals in Bosnian

sa with

b.

*Kopao je (he) was digging

c.

Kopao je (he) was digging (with)

d.

?Kopao je dvama (he) was digging (with) two-INS

pijucima. picks-MASC INS PL

e.

Kopao je (he) was digging

pijuka. picks-GEN DU

sa with

pijucima. picks-MASC INS PL pijucima. picks-MASC INS PL

dva two

The instrumental case is assigned by the preposition sa 'with' only to animate nouns, as in (52a), whereas verbs assign instrumental to inanimate nouns, as in (52c). The preposition sa implies company, meaning 'together with'. Therefore, (52b) is unacceptable, since it would mean that he was digging together with picks, implying that picks are animate, and this is, of course, nonsense. Only (52c) is acceptable, implying means of performing the action. Consequently, only (52d) should be acceptable, but it sounds so awkward that probably no native speaker would use it in everyday speech. Instead, (52e) would be used, although prescriptive grammarians disallow it. The fact that (52e), and not (52d), is regularly used may be support for a speculation that the quantifier form of two will eventually totally substitute the adjectival form. Another speculation is that it may happen sooner with the masculine form, since parallel feminine adjectival forms are still used, so that we find both (53a) and (53b): (53)

a.

Kopao je dvjema (he) was digging (with) two-INS

b.

Kopao je (he) was digging

sa with

lopatama. spades-FEM INS PL

dvije lopate. two spade-FEM GEN DU

To conclude our discussion of two used with masculine nouns, we may say that there are actually two lexical items. One behaves as a quantifier and it has default neuter features. It selects a masculine dual noun as its complement, and assigns genitive case to it. Other behaves as an adjective of incomplete declension modifying plural masculine nouns in oblique cases. The same form of two (dva) as in examples with masculine nouns is used with neuter nouns. Parallel examples to those in (45) are given in (54): (54)

44

a.

Dva goveda su spavala.. two head of cattle-NEUT GEN DU slept-3P NEUT PL

b.

Bojao se (he) was afraid of

dvaju two-GEN

goveda. head of cattle-NEUT GEN PL

c.

?Prišaoje dvama (he) approached (to) two-DAT

govedima. head o f cattle-NEUT DAT PL

d.

Vidio j e (he) saw

dva goveda. two head of cattle-NEUT GEN DU

r The Syntax o f Numerals in Bosnian

e.

?Išaoje (he) walked

sa with

dvama two-INS

f.

?Pričao je (he) talked

0 dvama about two-LOC

govedima. head of cattle-NEUT INS PL govedima. head of cattle-NEUT LOC PL

From these examples, it is obvious that the quantifier form dva used in (45 a,d) with complements of masculine gender does not differ from dva in (54 a,d) used with complements of neuter gender. Again, dva is a head of the phrase and it assigns genitive to its complement. Also we find the same plural form in the predicate. We can conclude from this that dva behaves as a quantifier with default neuter features which assigns genitive to masculine or neuter dual nouns. We can conclude from examples in (54) that adjectival use of two is even more restricted with neuter nouns, than with masculine nouns. Namely, in oblique cases only (54b) is unanimously acceptable by native speakers. Therefore, alternative forms are more frequently used, except in dative phrases: (55)

a.

Bojao se (he) was afraid of

dva goveda.6 two head of cattle-NEUT GEN DU

b.

*Prišao je (he) approached

dva goveda. two head of cattle-NEUT GEN DU

c.

Išaoje (he) walked

sa with

dva goveda. two head of cattle-NEUT GEN DU

d.

Pričao je (he) talked

o dva goveda. about two head of cattle-NEUT GEN DU

The example in (55b) is unacceptable for the same reason as (50). The quantifier use of two is predominant in combinations with neuter nouns. Adjectival forms of two are most frequently used with feminine nouns. It should be pointed out that adjectival forms of two are the same for both masculine and neuter gender: dvaju (genitive), and dvama (dative, instrumental, locative). This should not be surprising, however, since it is a characteristic of regular adjectival declension to have the same forms in oblique cases for masculine and neuter gender. Our discussion of two showed that there are more than one lexical item two\ 1. dvije, which behaves as a quantifier which requires a feminine plural form of the predicate; 2. dva, which behaves as a quantifier which requires a neuter plural form of the predicate; 3. adjectival two in oblique cases, which behaves as an adjective of incomplete declension. Dvije assigns genitive to its complement - a dual feminine noun. Dva assigns genitive to its complement - a dual noun of masculine or neuter gender. The adjectival form of two agrees with its head noun in gender and case. Agreement in case is manifested only in genitive, dative, instrumental, and locative, since adjectival two has an incomplete declension. Genitive forms are: dviju for feminine, and dvaju for masculine and neuter gender. In other cases we find dvjema for feminine, and dvama for masculine and neuter gender.6 6 The form goveda in (55a) and (54b) appear the same in writing, but they are clearly distinguished by stress and final vowel length. 45

The Syntax of Numerals in Bosnian 2.1.3. Tri (3) In contrast to two with two phonological shapes in nominative subject phrases - dvije and dva - three has only one form in subject phrases - tri. (56)

a.

Tri muškarca/ goveda su spavala. three man-M GEN PAUC head of cattle-N GEN PAUC slept-3P PL NEUT

b.

Tri žene three women-FEM GEN PAUC

su spavale. slept-3P PL FEM

If we compare these examples with those in (33a), (45a), and (54a), we will discover parallels in syntactic behaviour of tri in the same environment in which dvije and dva are found. Nouns following tri have the same form as those following dvije and dva. Therefore, we conclude that the grammatical number of these nouns is not dual, but rather paucal, since these noun forms are selected not only by two, but also by three. We could conclude from examples in (56) that, in the same way as there are two lexical items two which behave as quantifiers - dvije and dva - there are also two lexical items three, but of the same phonological shape - tri. Tri\ behaves as a quantifier with feminine features and imposes feminine plural agreement form of the predicate, whereas tri2 behaves as a quantifier with default neuter features imposing the neuter plural form of the predicate. Let us now consider object accusative phrases. We find, parallel to (33d), (45d), and (54d), the following examples: (57)

Vidio je tri muškarca/ goveda/ žene. (he) saw three man-M GEN PAUC head of cattle-N GEN PAUC women-F GEN PA The same phrases are found if preceded by a preposition:

(58)

Pričao je sa/ o tri muškarca/ goveda/ žene. (he) talked with/ about three man-GEN PA head of cattle-GEN PA women-GEN PA

Since there is a complete parallelism in syntactic behaviour of quantifiers two and three, we expect to find adjectival forms of three also. And indeed, we find the following forms in genitive phrases: (59)

a. Bojao se (he) feared

triju three-GEN

muškaraca/ goveda/ žena. men-GEN PL head of cattle-GEN PL women-GEN PL

And similarly with dative phrases: (60)

46

a.

Pisao je trima ženama. (he) wrote (to) three-DAT women-FEM DAT PL

b.

?Pisaoje trima muškarcima. (he) wrote (to) three-DAT men-MASC DAT PL

c.

??Prišaoje trima (he) approached (to) three-DAT

govedima. head of cattle-NEUT DAT PL

The Syntax o f Numerals in Bosnian

The same phonological shape as in dative phrases {trima) is found, but less frequently, in instrumental and locative phrases: a.

Pričao je (he) talked

sa/ with

0 trima ženama. about three women

b.

?Pričao je (he)talked

sa/ with

0 trima muškarcima. about three men

c.

??Pricao je (he) talked

sa/ with

0 trima govedima. about three head of cattle

Let us now consider the possibility of adjectival forms of three in subject and object phrases. Only forms in (56) and (57) are possible, and not, for example, those in (62): (62)

a.

*Tri muškarci su spavali. three men-MASC NOM PL slept-3P MASC PL

b.

*Vidio je (he) saw

tri muškarce. three men-MASC ACC PL

These examples are unacceptable because there is no adjectival form of three in nominative and accusative. Let us now consider examples with feminine nouns: a.

Tri žene su spavale. three women-FEM slept-3P FEM PL

b.

Vidio je (he) saw

tri žene. three women-FEM

The feminine nouns like žena 'woman' have the same nominative and accusative plural forms - žene. Therefore, it appears that tri agrees with these forms. However, tri in (63) actually behaves as a quantifier which assigns genitive case to its paucal complement which has the same form as nominative/ accusative plural. We will next consider examples with neuter nouns: (64)

a.

Tri goveda su spavala. three head of cattle-NEUT slept-3P NEUT PL

b.

Vidio je (he) saw

tri goveda. three head of cattle-NEUT

Neuter nouns like govedo have identical forms in genitive singular, nominative plural, and accusative plural. Therefore, it is difficult to decide on the basis of examples with neuter nouns like govedo whether tri behaves as an adjective or a quantifier in corresponding subject and object phrases. There is no way to decide what is the case of goveda in (64). However, there are neuter nouns with different forms in genitive singular and nominative/ accusative plural. One of them is bure 'barrel'. Again, the phonological shape of two forms is the same,

47

The Syntax o f Numerals in Bosnian

but they differ in stress: biireta (genitive singular) vs. bureta (nominative/ accusative plural), the falling stress in the first, and the rising stress in the second. Therefore, only examples with the falling stress on bureta are allowed in subject and object phrases, as in (65 a,b), which means that the form in question may be genitive singular, but not nomimative/ accusative plural. Examples (65 c,d) are unacceptable because they have the rising stress, which means that they are nominative/ accusative plural forms: (65)

a.

Tri biireta three barrels-NEUT GEN SG

b.

Vidio je (he) saw

c.

*Tri bureta three barrels-NEUT NOM PL

d.

*Vidio je (he) saw

tri three

tri three

su pala. fell-3P NEUT PL

biireta. barrels-NEUT GEN SG su pala. fell-3P NEUT PL

bureta. barrels-NEUT ACC PL

These examples helped us to solve the puzzle of case on the noun goveda in (64). It must be genitive. Therefore, we conclude that tri does not behave as an adjective in subject and object phrases, but rather as a quantifier. Adjectival forms of three are found only in genitive, dative, and less frequently, in instrumental and locative. Notice that adjectival forms are the same for all three genders: triju in genitive, and trima in other oblique cases. So, in the same way as with two, there are three lexical items three-. 1. tri\, which behaves as a quantifier which requires a feminine plural form of the predicate; 2. tri2 , which behaves as a quantifier which requires a neuter plural form of the predicate; 3. adjectival three in oblique cases, which behaves as an adjective of incomplete declension. Trii assigns genitive to its complement - a paucal feminine noun. Ih '2 assigns genitive to its complement - a paucal noun of masculine or neuter gender. The adjectival form of three agrees with its head noun in case. Agreement is manifested only in genitive, dative, instrumental, and locative, since adjectival three has an incomplete declension. The genitive form is triju, whereas the form trima is found in other oblique cases. 2.1.4. Četiri (4) There is only one form offour in subject phrases - četiri. Our examples in (56), (57), and (58) will not change syntactically if we replace tri with četiri. This means that four behaves syntactically in the same way as three. There are two lexical items four of the same phonological shape - četiri. We also find adjectival forms of four in the same examples as those for three, but less frequently: (66)

?Bojao se četiriju žena/ muškaraca/ goveda. (he) was afraid of four-GEN women-GEN PL men-GEN PL head of cattle-GEN PL7

7 There are four so-called accents in Bosnian: two rising - short and long, and two falling short and long accents. Traditionally, the following diacritics are used to denote them, for example on the vowel e: e - long rising, e - short rising, e - long falling, e - short falling. 48

The Syntax of Numerals in Bosnian

Adjectival forms are even less frequently found with dative phrases: (67)

??Prišaoje četirma ženama/ muškarcima/ govedima. (he) approached four-DAT women-DAT PL men-DAT PL head of cattle-DAT PL

Most native speakers find adjectival forms totally unacceptable in instrumental and locative phrases: (68)

?*Pričaoje sa/ o četirma ženama/ muškarcima/ govedima. (he) talked with about four-INS/LOC women-INS/LOC men-INS/LOC cattle-INS/LO

Not surprisingly, adjectival forms are unacceptable in subject and object phrases. We would have the same acceptability judgements as in (62), (63), (64), and (65) if we replace tri with četiri. Therefore, we conclude that there are also three lexical items four. 1. četirii, which behaves as a quantifier which requires a feminin plural form of the predicate; 2. četirii, which behaves as a quantifier which requires a neuter plural form of the predicate; 3. adjectival four in oblique cases, which behaves as an adjective of incomplete declension. Četirii assigns genitive to its complement - a paucal feminine noun. Četirii assigns genitive to its complement - a paucal noun of masculine or neuter gender. The adjectival form offour agrees with its head noun in case. Agreement is manifested only in oblique cases, since adjectival four has an incomplete declension. However, dative, instrumental and locative forms are extremely rare. The genitive form is četiriju, and the form četirma is found in other oblique cases. The syntactic behaviour of cardinal numerals higher than four is different from that of lexical items two, three, andfour} Therefore, before discussing five, I will make the following conclusions about two, three, and four. 1. They manifest ambivalent syntactic behaviour: a. as quantifiers, and b. as adjectives of incomplete declension. The forms corresponding to (a) are summarized in (69a), and those corresponding to (b) in (69b):8 (69)

a. ______________________ ____________ quantifiers dvfie dva trii tri2 četirii četiri2 b. adjectival forms Genitive dative, instrumental, locative feminine Dviju dvjema masculine, neuter Dvaju dvama fem., masc., neut. triju trima četirma četiriju

8 It should be pointed out that numerals dvadeset dva (22), dvadeset tri (23), dvadeset četiri (24), and all higher numerals ending in dva, tri, and četiri behave syntactically in the same way as two, three, andfour. 49

The Syntax o f Numerals in Bosnian

There are nine lexical items referring to two, three, and four. Six of them are quantifiers, and three are adjectives. There are 12 different phonological shapes of these lexical items. The quantifier three, as well as four, represent two lexical items of the same phonological shape, one requires a feminine plural form of the predicate, and another requires a neuter plural form of the predicate. There is a separate feminine adjectival declension of two, whereas three and four have the same adjectival declension for all three genders. 2. Alternative forms of two, three, and four, a quantifier or/ and an adjective, are allowed only when the quantified phrases are preceded by a preposition. 3. If there is no preposition in front of the quantified phrase, only adjectival forms are allowed in oblique cases. 4. There are contexts, especially in dative phrases, when neither quantifier nor adjectival forms of two, three, and four are possible. Another, descriptive way of expressing the desired meaning must be found in such contexts. 5. Whenever alternative forms are allowed, quantifier forms of two, three, and four are preferred. 6. Two, three, and four, which behave as quantifiers, are heads of phrases in which they appear, assigning Case to their complements. They assign genitive Case to the following noun which must be of paucal number. Two, three, and four as quantifiers are indeclinable, so that they themselves cannot receive Case. 7. Two, three, and four, which behave as adjectives, have incomplete declensions. They agree with the head noun which they modify only in oblique cases. Gender agreement is manifested in NPs with two as a modifier, having separate feminine forms. 8. Adjectival use of two, three, and four is most restricted with neuter nouns. Adjectival forms most frequently modify feminine nouns. Adjectival forms of four are least frequently used, whereas adjectival use of two is most frequent. Genitive forms of two, three, and four are quite often, and locative forms are extremely rare. On the basis of these facts I will propose the following scale of frequency of adjectival forms: (70)

most frequent:

feminine — > masculine —> neuter : leastfrequent dva---- -— > tr i-----------> četiri genitive---- > dative------> instrumental-------- > locative

This scale tells us that the most frequent adjectival form is the feminine genitive dviju. On the other side of the scale we find neuter locative četirma as the least frequent adjectival form. 9. The preference for quantifier forms is an indication that these forms may eventually totally substitute adjectival forms. Feminine adjectival forms may last longer than their masculine and neuter counterparts. Also, adjectival forms of two are more stable than those of three and four. We can speculate that the genitive form will survive longest. The last to surrender will probably be the feminine genitive form dviju. 2.1.5. Pet (5) There is only one form of the cardinal numeral five - pet. Let us illustrate its syntactic behaviour first with examples including feminine nouns, parallel to those in (2) and (33): (71)

50

a.

Pet five

žena women-GEN PL FEM

b.

Bojao se (he) was afraid of

pet five

je spavalo. slept-NEUT SG

žena. women-GEN PL

The Syntax o f Numerals in Bosnian

c.

*Pisao je pet (he) wrote (to) five

žena. women-GEN PL

d.

Vidio je (he) saw

pet five

žena. women-GEN PL

e.

Išaoje (he) walked

sa with

pet five

žena. women-GEN PL

f.

Pričao je (he)talked

0 pet about five

žena. women-GEN PL

In all sentences in (71), we find the same form of five - pet, and the same form of women - the genitive plural form žena. Since there is no agreement in case, we conclude that pet does not behave as an adjective, but rather as a quantifier which assigns genitive case to its complement, and requires a neuter singular form of the predicate (je spavalo) in (71a). The same form in all sentences - pet - proves that it is an indeclinable form. It also requires plural noun in its complement. No alternative forms are possible in either of these examples, since there are no declinable forms of pet, and therefore we conclude that, in contrast to two, three and four, there is no adjectival five. We will see that the same is true for five appearing in phrases with masculine and neuter nouns. There is only one form, a quantifier pet. In my previous discussion it was pointed out that prepositions not only assign Case, but also signal which Case was assigned. For example, although the same form pet žena is found in (71 e,f), we know that these phrases are instrumental and locative, respectively, because prepositions sa 'with' and o 'about' signal this. What happens in those examples, like (71a,b,c,d), where the preposition is not present to signal which Case is assigned? In (71c) the verb pisati 'to write' assigns dative to the phrase pet žena 'five women'. The percolation of Case from the phrasal category to its head pet is blocked and the sentence is unacceptable, because there is no formal signal to indicate that dative was assigned: neither a preposition nor a dative ending are present. There is another way to express this meaning with two, three and four. (72)

Pisao je dvjema/ (he) wrote (to) two-DAT

trima/ three-DAT

(?)četirma four-DAT

ženama. women-DAT PL

The alternative adjectival form is used, but the corresponding adjectival form petma simply doesn't exist. Therefore, the dative meaning with five may be expressed only if a preposition is present, as in (73): (73)

Pokazao je prema (he) pointed towards

pet five

žena. women-GEN PL

In (71c) no preposition may be inserted, and consequently, the sentence is unacceptable. The English sentence 'He wrote to five women' simply cannot be literally translated into Bosnian. There are no prepositions in (71a,b,d) and yet, these sentences are acceptable. Let us look first at (71b). The verb bojati se 'to be afraid of assigns genitive to the following phrase. We find the genitive form žena 'women' which makes the sentence acceptable, although the genitive case is assigned by pet, not by the verb. But the very presence of the formal genitive ending on the noun licences the structure. What about subject and object phrases in (71a,d)? Generally, subject phrases are assigned nominative by the INFL element, whereas accusative is assigned to the object by the 51

The Syntax o f Numerals in Bosnian

verb. The fact that the sentences (71a,d) are acceptable is an indication that nominative and accusative are actually realized. Pet is a quantifier with default neuter singular features, and it is a characteristic of nominal neuter declension that nominative and accusative singular forms are identical. Therefore, the phrases with the quantifier pet may appear in direct case contexts and be interpreted as nominative, or accusative phrases. This is even more obvious when we compare (71c) with the following example: (74)

Pisao je pet pjesama. (he) wrote five poems-GEN PL FEM 'Ete was writing five poems.'

The verb pisati 'to write' may assign accusative, in addition to dative. In (74) it assigns accusative to the following phrase pet pjesama 'five poems'. The sentence is acceptable because the phrase pet pjesama is interpreted as the accusative phrase, and the form pet allows the accusative interpretation. If the verb pisati assigns the dative case, then it cannot percolate to the head of the phrase - pet - in (71c) and there is no other formal clue to indicate that the dative is assigned. Therefore, (71c) is unacceptable. We may suspect that it is only dative that cannot be morphologically realized on pet, since all other examples in the paradigm (71) are acceptable. Let us check, therefore, the only other case, in addition to those already discussed, that does not have to be assigned by a preposition. It is instrumental, and we find the following examples parallel to those in (37): (75)

a.

Kopao je (he) was digging

b.

*Kopao je pet lopata.

sa with

pet five

lopata. spades-GEN PL FEM

The verb kopati 'to dig' in (75b) assigns instrumental to its complement phrase pet lopata 'five spades'. The case cannot, however, percolate to the head of the phrase - pet, and since there is no other formal signal that instrumental was assigned, the structure is unacceptable. Therefore, in order to express the desired meaning, the sentence (75a) is used. The preposition sa 'with' assigns instrumental case and it serves as a signal that this case is assigned to the following phrase. Sentences like (75a) are widely used, although they are frowned upon by prescriptive grammarians, since the preposition sa is claimed to mean only 'together with' and should not be used with the meaning 'by means of, as in (75a). Now we have to examine syntactic behaviour of five in phrases with masculine nouns. Parallel to examples in (1) and (45), we find the following: (76)

52

a.

Pet five

muškaraca je spavalo. men-GEN PL slept-NEUT SG

b.

Bojao se (he) was afraid of

pet five

c.

*Pisaoje pet (he) wrote (to) five

muškaraca. men-GEN PL

d.

Vidio je (he) saw

muškaraca. men-GEN PL

pet five

muškaraca. men-GEN PL

The Syntax o f Numerals in Bosnian

e.

Išao je (he) walked

sa with

pet five

muškaraca men-GEN PL

f.

Pričao je (he) talked

0 pet about five

muškaraca. men-GEN PL

If we compare paradigms in (71) and (76), we notice close correspondences. The noun muškarac 'man' is always in its genitive plural form - muškaraca. The form of the predicate in (76a) is neuter singular - je spavalo. We conclude from this that pet in (76) doesn't differ from pet in (71). No alternative forms are possible in (76), since there is no adjectival five. The example (76c) is unacceptable for the same reason as (71c). But in contrast to (71c), the deshed meaning here may be expressed in the following way: (77)

Pisao je petorici (he) wrote (to) five-DAT

muškaraca. men-GEN PL

The declinable form petorica is not a cardinal numeral, and will be discussed in a separate section. It refers only to males, and there is no corresponding form for females. In the same way as with feminine nouns, the meaning of instrumental case cannot be expressed without a preposition. Therefore, parallel to (75), we find the examples in (78) with a masculine noun. The discussion of examples in (52) applies here, too. (78)

a.

b.

Kopao je (he) was digging

sa with

pet five

pijuka. picks-GEN PL MASC

*Kopaoje pet pijuka.

Finally, let us consider examples with five in phrases containing neuter nouns: (79)

a.

Pet goveda five head of cattle-GEN PL

je spavalo. slept-NEUT SG

b.

Bojao se (he) was afraid of

pet five

goveda. head of cattle-GEN PL

c.

*Prišao je (he) approached

pet five

goveda. head of cattle-GEN PL

d.

Vidio je (he) saw

pet five

goveda. head of cattle-GEN PL

e.

Išao je (he) walked

sa with

pet five

goveda. head of cattle-GEN PL

f.

Pričao je (he) talked

0 pet about five

goveda. head of cattle-GEN PL

Comparing (79) with (71) and (76), we discover that there is no difference in syntactic behaviour of pet. We find again genitive plural noun as its complement - goveda, and the neuter singular agreement form in the predicate - je spavalo. Therefore, the conclusion is that 53

The Syntax o f Numerals in Bosnian

there is a single lexical item five. It behaves as a quantifier which assigns genitive to its complement of any gender. In the same way as with feminine and masculine nouns, alternative adjectival forms are not possible in (79), since adjectival five does not exist. Since there is no adjectival five, and there is no preposition to assign and signal dative case, (79c) is unacceptable. There is no form corresponding to petorica, as in (77), that would refer to neuter nouns, and therefore the English sentence 'He approached five head of cattle' cannot be literally translated into Bosnian. A preposition is necessary to assign instrumental case to phrases with neuter nouns, like in examples of phrases with feminine and masculine nouns. Parallel to (75) and (78), we find only (80a), but not (80b), with neuter nouns like štilo 'pen-holder': (80) a.

b.

Kopao je (he) was digging

sa with

pet five

stila. pen-holders-GEN PL NEUT

*Kopao je pet stila.

To summarize: There is only a single lexical item five - pet, which behaves as a quantifier with default neuter singular features. It requires a neuter singular form of the predicate. Pet assigns genitive to its plural complement of any gender. 2.1.6. Šest (6), sedam (7), osam (8), devet (9) Cardinal numerals six, seven, eight, nine have only one form each: šest, sedam, osam and devet. Our examples in (71), (76), (79) will not change syntactically if we replace pet with any of these numerals. This means that all these numerals behave syntactically like pet. They all behave as quantifiers.9 2.1.7. Jedanaest (11), dvanaest (12), trinaest (13), četrnaest (14), petnaest (15), šesnaest (16), sedamnaest (17), osamnaest (18), devetnaest (19) All these numerals also behave as quantifiers, and any of them may replace pet in our examples (71), (76), (79), which will not change syntactically. 2.1.8. Deset (10), dvadeset (20), trideset (30), četrdeset (40), pedeset (50), šezdeset (60), sedamdeset (70), osamdeset (80), devedeset (90) These cardinal numerals also belong to the same class as pef. they all behave as quantifiers if inserted instead of pet in our examples in (71), (76) and (79). All higher cardinal numerals ending in one of these behave in the same way (e.g. 110, 120..., 210, 220..., etc).

9 Numerals dvadeset pet (25), dvadeset šest (26), dvadeset sedam (27), dvadeset osam (28), dvadeset devet (29), and all higher cardinal numerals ending in pet, šest, sedam, osam and devet, behave syntactically in the same way as pet. 54

The Syntax o f Numerals in Bosnian

2.1.9. Sto (100) The English sentence 'A hundred men were sleeping.' can be translated in three different ways into Bosnian:10 (81)

a.

Sto hundred

muškaraca je spavalo. men-GEN PL slept-NEUT SG

b.

Stotinu hundred

muškaraca je spavalo. men-GEN PL slept-NEUT SG

c.

Stotina hundred

muškaraca je spavala. men-GEN PL slept-FEM SG

Neither of these three forms of hundred is adjectival, since we do not find a nominative plural form muškarci with them, but rather a genitive plural form muškaraca. The form stotina in (81 c) clearly behaves as a feminine noun, since we find a feminine agreement form in the predicate - je spavala. On the other hand, we find a neuter singular form of the predicate both in (81a) and (81b) - je spavalo. It means that sto in (81a) and stotinu in (81b) behave as quantifiers. It seems that these two forms belong to the same class of quantifiers as pet. If it is so we would expect to find the same forms in object accusative phrases. But we would also expect to find the third form stotina. However, in contrast to subject phrases, only two forms are acceptable in accusative phrases: (82)

a.

Vidio je (he) saw

sto hundred

b.

Vidio je stotinu muškaraca.

c.

*Vidio je stotina muškaraca.

muškaraca. men-GEN PL

In genitive phrases given in (83), three forms are possible: a.

Bojao se (he) was afraid of

b.

Bojao se stotinu muškaraca.

c.

Bojao se (he) was afraid of

sto hundred

muškaraca. men-GEN PL

stotine muškaraca. hundred-GEN men-GEN PL

In (83a,b) we find the same forms sto and stotinu as in (81a,b) and (82a,b). However, in (83c) we find a different form - stotine - from the one in (81c) - stotina. It means that the feminine form of hundred is a fully declinable noun, and (82c) is unacceptable because the form stotina is not accusative of the feminine noun stotina. We have to check syntactic behaviour of hundred in other grammatical cases. If the feminine form of hundred is fully

10 I will continue to use examples with masculine nouns like muškarac 'man', since nothing will change syntactically, if we use feminine or neuter nouns instead. 55

The Syntax o f Numerals in Bosnian

declinable, then we should not have problems to express dative phrases, which we encountered in examples (71c), (76c), and (79c): (84)

a.

*Pisaoje sto muškaraca.

b.

*Pisaoje stotinu muškaraca.

c.

Pisao je stotini muškaraca. (he) wrote (to) hundred-DAT men-GEN PL

In (84c) the dative case is assigned by the verb pisati 'to write' to the NP stotina muškaraca 'hundred men'. Since the head of the phrase - stotina - is a fully declinable noun, dative may percolate from the phrasal category to the head of the phrase and be morphologically realized in the form stotini. Its percolation, however, is blocked when the head of the phrase is a form sto in (84a) or stotinu in (84b), since these forms are not nouns and dative cannot be morphologically realized on them. As a consequence, sentences in (84a,b) are unacceptable. The locative case is the only one which is always assigned by a preposition. Since the preposition is always present to signal that locative is assigned, we would expect that locative meaning with hundred may be expressed in three ways, which is confirmed by (85): (85)

a.

Pričao je (he) talked

o sto about hundred

b.

Pričao je o stotinu muškaraca.

c.

Pričao je (he) talked

muškaraca. men-GEN PL

o stotini muškaraca. about hundred-LOC men-GEN PL

It is a characteristic of feminine declension in Bosnian that dative and locative cases have the same form, so that we find the same form stotini both in (84c) and (85c). It is still another proof that stotina indeed behaves as a fully declinable feminine noun. Whenever instrumental case is assigned by a preposition, we find all three forms of hundred, as in (86): (86)

a.

Išaoje (he) walked

sa with

b.

Išaoje sa stotinu muškaraca.

c.

Išaoje (he) walked

sa with

sto hundred

muškaraca. men-GEN PL

muškaraca. stotinom hundred-INS men-GEN PL

However, if a preposition is not present to signal that instrumental is assigned, the forms with sto and stotinu should be disallowed, and only the instrumental form of stotina should be acceptable. This is exactly what we find in (87): (87)

56

a.

*Kopaoje sto pijuka.

b.

*Kopao je stotinu pijuka.

The Syntax o f Numerals in Bosnian

c.

Kopao je stotinom pijuka. (he) was digging (with) hundred-INS picks

Now it is clear that the accusative form of stotina is not missing, as it looked like in (82c). Rather, the accusative form of the nominal stotina is identical in form to the quantifier stotinu. This is an explanation for the fact that we have only two acceptable sentences in (82) instead of expected three. The form stotinu in (82b) may be interpreted either as the quantifier or as the accusative form of the noun stotina. The numeral stotina behaves as a fully declinable noun, and therefore we expect to find also its plural forms. The full paradigm is given in (88): (88)

a.

Stotine hundreds-NOM

muškaraca su spavale.11 men-GEN PL slept-3PS FEM PL

b.

Bojao se (he) was afraid of

stotina muškaraca. hundreds-GEN men-GEN PL

c.

Pisao je stotinama (he) wrote (to) hundreds-DAT

muškaraca. men-GEN PL

d.

Vidio je (he) saw

stotine hundreds-ACC

muškaraca. men-GEN PL

e.

Išaoje (he) walked

sa with

f.

Pričao je (he) talked

0 stotinama muškaraca. about hundreds-LOC men-GEN PL

stotinama muškaraca. hundreds-INS men-GEN PL

The form of the predicate in (88a) is the feminine plural - su spavale - in agreement with the feminine plural head - stotine - of the subject phrase. We find the same genitive plural form of the complement noun - muškaraca - in all examples in (88). Finally, the case endings of the plural forms of stotina are those characteristic of the feminine declension. This proves that stotina behaves as a feminine noun with full singular and plural declensions. In that respect stotina differs from all other cardinal numerals discussed so far. However, we find, parallel to (88), the following plural paradigm: (89)

a.

Desetine tens-NOM

muškaraca su spavale. men-GEN PL slept-3PS FEM PL

b.

Bojao se (he) was afraid of

c.

Pisao je desetinama (he) wrote (to) tens-DAT

desetina tens-GEN

muškaraca. men-GEN PL

muškaraca. men-GEN PL

11 The masculine agreement form of the predicate in (88a) is also possible - su spavali. This is a semantic agreement with what is felt to be a semantic head of the phrase, namely the masculine noun muškaraca. 57

The Syntax of Numerals in Bosnian

d.

Vidio je (he) saw

desetine tens-ACC

muškaraca. men-GEN PL

e.

Išaoje (he) walked

sa with

desetinama tens-INS

muškaraca. men-GEN PL

f.

Pričao je (he) talked

o desetinama about tens-LOC

muškaraca. men-GEN PL

Obviously, the Bosnian numeral ten is not as simple as originally postulated in the section 2.1.8. There I simply stated that it behaves as a quantifier with a single form - deset. From (89) we conclude that there must exist another lexical item ten. Comparing (88) and (89) we conclude that both stotine and destine behave as feminine plural nouns. Is there a singular form corresponding to plural desetine? If there is, then it should be possible to translate the English sentence 'Ten men were sleeping' in more than one way: (90)

a.

Deset muškaraca je spavalo, ten men-GEN PL slept-NEUT SG

b.

*Desetinu muškaraca je spavalo.

c.

%Desetina ten-NOM

muškaraca je spavala. men-GEN PL slept-FEM SG

The only way of expressing the desired meaning is as in (90a), using the cardinal numeral deset. The quantifier form desetinu, corresponding to stotinu, simply does not exist. Therefore, (90b) is unacceptable. But (90c) is grammatical. However, whereas there is no difference in meaning between sto and stotina, so that (81a) and (81c) are exact parallels, the form desetina acquired a different shade of meaning. The meaning of (90c) could be paraphrased as: 'A group of ten men taken as an entity was sleeping.' Therefore, the only literal translation of the English sentence 'Ten men were sleeping' is the one given in (90a). The nominal form desetina also has a full feminine declension as stotina with the same case endings. The forms desetine (gen), desetini (dat), desetinu (acc), desetinom (ins), and desetini (loc) may be inserted in place of corresponding forms of stotina in examples (82)-(86). We conclude from this that there are two lexical items ten\ deset, which behaves as a quantifier; and desetina, which behaves as a fully declinable feminine noun. 2.1.10. Dvjesto (200), tristo (300), četiristo (400), petsto (500), šesto (600), sedamsto (700), osamsto (800), devetsto (900) All these cardinal numerals behave syntactically in the same way. Since they end in sto, we would expect to find, parallel to (81), the following sentences with two hundred, for example: (91)

58

a.

Dvjesto muškaraca je spavalo. two hundred men-GEN PL slept-NEUT SG

b.

*Dvjestotinu muškaraca je spavalo.

The Syntax o f Numerals in Bosnian

c.

Dvije stotine two hundred-GEN PAUC FEM

muškaraca su spavale. men-GEN PL slept-FEM PL

Notice, first, that there is no form dvjestotim corresponding to stotinu in (81b). Therefore, (91b) is unacceptable. However, there is a form corresponding to stotina. It is a form dvije stotine in (91c). What is a head of the subject phrase in (91c)? The form of the predicate is the feminine plural su spavale, and it may be in agreement with either stotine, as in (88a), or with dvije, as in (33 a). It may be suggested that stotine is a nominative plural form and a head of the subject phrase. This would mean that dvije is an adjectival nominative form. This assumption must be rejected, however, since adjectival two, being of incomplete declension, doesn’t have nominative and accusative forms, as pointed out in the section 2.1.2. Therefore, we conclude that dvije in (91c) actually behaves as a quantifier and a head of the subject phrase. The following example will support this conclusion: (92)

Pet stotina muškaraca je spavalo, five hundred-GEN PL FEM men-GEN PL MASC slept-NEUT SG

In (92) we find a neuter singular form in the predicate - je spavalo, which may be only in agreement with the default neuter features of pet, since other two lexical items in the subject phrase are of feminine (stotina) and masculine gender (muškaraca). These examples help us to confirm our earlier conclusions about the form stotina. It indeed behaves as a noun of feminine gender, since dvije requires a feminine noun as its complement, and it also has a plural declension, since pet selects a plural noun as its complement. On the basis of ungrammatical (91b), we could conclude that cardinal numerals 200, 300, 400, 500, etc. do not have forms corresponding to stotinu. To prove that this is indeed the case, I will give examples with five hundred in accusative contexts, as in (93): (93)

a.

Vidio je (he) saw

petsto muškaraca. five hundred men-GEN PL

b.

*Vidio je petstotinu muškaraca.

c.

Vidio je (he) saw

pet stotina muškaraca. five hundred-GEN PL men-GEN PL

Clearly, higher numerals ending in hundred have only two forms. In the case of five hundred, these forms are petsto and pet stotina. The first one behaves exactly as sto, that is, as a quantifier. The other one is a complex lexical item, with the leftmost element as its head, so that pet stotina behaves in the same way as pet, that is, as a quantifier. In (93c) we find two genitive plural forms following pet. It is clear that genitive is assigned to stotina by pet. The question is what assigns case to the noun muškaraca? In order to answer this question, I will represent case assignment inside the VP by the following configuration of the VP from our example (93c):

59

Verbs, nouns and quantifiers are lexical categories with Case-assigning potential. They assign Case to their sister phrasal categories. The verb vidjeti ‘to see’ has Case-assigning potential. It assigns accusative to its sister QP. We have seen that pet behaves as a quantifier, and therefore it also has Case-assigning potential. However, it assigns genitive to its sister NP. We have seen that stotina behaves as a noun and it also assigns genitive to its sister NP. The noun muškarac also can assign Case, but there is no available NP to receive it, so that the Case-assigning potential of the noun muškarac is not realized in this particular example. Lexical categories with Case-assigning potential are circled in (94a) and Case assignment is represented by a single arrow. The result of Case-assignment is represented by circled categories in (94b). These categories carry Case: the highest one, accusative, and the other two, genitive. In the next step, Case is morphologically realized on the heads through the operation of another mechanism - Case-percolation. This process is represented by double arrows in (94b). The genitive of the higher NP percolates down and is morphologically realized as stotina. The lower NP also carries genitive which percolates to the head of the phrase and gets the morphological realization as muškaraca. However, this analysis doesn’t take into account the fact that pet stotina is a single lexical item, a complex one, but still a single item, on a par with petsto. Therefore, the configuration of the VP in (93c) must take into account this fact, so that pet stotina must be represented as a single constituent:

60

The Syntax o f Numerals in Bosnian

(95)

b. VP

VP

V

V

The lexical item pet stotina is felt as a compound, and therefore dominated by Q. This is in agreement with a theoretical proposal that only lexical categories, in addition to INFL, may assign Case. The node Q dominating pet stotina has Case-assigning potential and it assigns genitive to its sister NP node. The theory assumes that Case may be assigned by lexical categories only to their sister phrasal nodes. Therefore the node N dominating stotina is not able to assign Case to NP dominating muškaraca, since these two nodes are not sisters. On the other hand the node dominating pet may assign genitive to its sister NP node. Case assignment is represented by single arrows in (95a) and lexical categories assigning Case are circled. Case percolation is represented by double arrows in (95b). The morphological realization of genitive case on stotina and muškaraca is a result of case percolation from NP nodes immediately dominating these lexical items. Therefore, we conclude that (95) is an adequate representation of the VP from (93c) and the mechanisms involved in morphological realization of Case. 2.1.11. Hiljada (1,000) The meaning of the English sentence ‘A thousand men were sleeping’ may be expressed in two ways in Bosnian: (96)

a.

Hiljadu thousand

muškaraca je spavalo. men-GEN PL slept-NEUT SG

b.

Hiljada muškaraca je spavala. thousand-NOM men-GEN PL slept-FEM SG

There is no shorter form of thousand, which would be parallel to the short form sto. In all other respects thousand behaves syntactically in the same way as hundred, so that the form 61

The Syntax of Numerals in Bosnian

hiljadu is parallel to stotinu, whereas the form hiljada parallels the behaviour of stotina. The first form - hiljadu - behaves as a quantifier, and the second form - hiljada - as a feminine noun. As expected, only one form is possible in object accusative phrases: (97)

Vidio je (he) saw

hiljadu thousand-ACC

muškaraca. men-GEN PL

The nominal form hiljada has the identical form in accusative as a corresponding quantifier - hiljadu, and therefore only one sentence is possible with object phrases, as in (97). Owing to the fact that hiljada is fully declinable, it is possible to express the dative meaning, as in (98): (98)

a.

Pisao je hiljadi muškaraca, (he) wrote (to) thousand-DAT men-GEN PL

b.

*Pisao je hiljadu muškaraca.

Of course, (98b) is unacceptable, because the percolation of the dative case is blocked, since hiljadu behaves as a quantifier, and therefore is not able to receive the dative case. If the form hiljada behaves in all respects as stotina, having the same case endings, we would expect to find its plural forms. And indeed, we find the following sentence, corresponding to (88a): (99)

Hiljade muškaraca su spavale. thousands-NOM PL men-GEN PL slept-FEM PL

We conclude that the form hiljada also has the full feminine declension as stotina, with the same case endings. The forms hiljada, hiljadama, hiljade, hiljadama, hiljadama may be inserted in place of corresponding forms of stotina in (88b-f). Both stotina and hiljada behave as feminine nouns with full singular and plural declensions. 2.1.12. Pet hiljada (5,000), pedeset hiljada (50,000), pet stotina/ petsto hiljada (500,000) Corresponding to the sentence in (93c), we find the sentence with pet hiljada in (100): (100) Vidio je (he) saw

pet hiljada muškaraca. five thousand-GEN PL men-GEN PL

The VP in (100) would have the same structure as the one in (95). What would be the structure of the VP with both stotina and hiljada in it, as in (101)? (101) Vidio je (he) saw

pet stotina hiljada five hundred-GEN PL thousand-GEN PL

muškaraca. men-GEN PL

We find three genitive forms in a row following pet. What assigns Case to all these forms? It may be proposed that the structure of the VP in (101) has the configuration as represented in (102):

62

The Syntax o f Numerals in Bosnian

(102) a.

VP V’

b.

VP V

In (102a) the verb assigns accusative to its sister QP. The highest Q node assigns genitive to its sister NP, which is then morphologically realized by percolation in the form muškaraca. The node Q dominating pet assigns genitive to its sister NP. This case then percolates to the head of the phrase and gets morphological shape stotina. Finally, the genitive case is assigned to the lowest NP by the N dominating stotin-. This case is realized in the 63

The Syntax of Numerals in Bosnian

form hiljada by percolation, as represented in (102b). There is an alternative way of representing the structure of the VP in (101), as in (103): (103) a. VP V

b. VP

V

Configurations in (102) and (103) differ in constituent structure. In (102) stotina hiljada is a constituent, and in (103) pet stotina is a constituent. Is there any reason to prefer one structure 64

The Syntax o f Numerals in Bosnian

over the other? It all depends on which structure better reflects psychological reality. Do native speakers perceive the numeral 500,000 as 5X100,000 or as 500X1,000. The structure in (102) would be appropriate for pet stotina hiljada perceived as 5X100,000. The table in (104) will help us to solve this problem: (104) a. b. c. d. e. f. gh. i. jk. 1.

5 10 50 = 5X10 100 500 = 5X100 1,000 5,000 = 5X1,000 10,000 = 10X1,000 50,000 = [5X10]X1,000 100,000= 100X1,000 500,000 = [5X100JX1,000 1,000,000

pet deset pedeset