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theses

This dissertation explores the meaning of the Hindi particle -hii. The standard view is that -hii is equivalent to English only but has various other extraneous uses. I show that these varied uses can be unified as scalar meaning. This research provides the first set of empirical studies into the fine-grained scalar sensitivity of -hii and related particles. In Chapter 1, I introduce -hii by highlighting its similarities and differences with only and even. Chapters 2 through 6 are then devoted to exploring four aspects of the meaning of -hii. First I challenge the standard view of -hii by showing in Chapter 2 that speakers are sensitive to the felicity of -hii based on the scale in the context. In particular, -hii can select for the MAX of one scale type and MIN of another. Using Potts (2005), I assign these scalar meanings to the level of not-at-issue meaning, specifically as conventional implicature. I then show in Chapter 3 how -hii's upper-bounding effect is achieved with entailment-based scales, using the case of numerals. I furthermore show how -hii combines with the particle sirf, which is the Hindi counterpart of English only. In Chapter 4, I introduce the issue of -hii's interaction with negation, and use this to motivate a flexible meaning of -hii that can account for its uses in contexts where scalar orderings are absent. I discuss results of a judgment study showing that both a scalar and non-scalar reading are accessible to speakers when -hii interacts with negation, a problem first observed by Bhatt (1994). In Chapter 5, I discuss uses of -hii that reflect speaker certainty and degree intensification, by introducing data with adjectives and adverbs. I show how these cases are similar to polysemous intensifying particles in other languages -- Italian and Washo, (Beltrama & Bochnak (2015)), Marathi -c (Deo (2014)) and Russian sam (Goncharov (2013)). I demonstrate how these uses of -hii relate to a general association with scalar endpoints. I conclude in Chapter 6 and propose topics for continued investigation within this line of research.

ETD_7595

Ph.D.

Includes bibliographical references

by Vandana Bajaj

doi:10.7282/T34170C8

ETD doctoral

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