Moni or monta? The collective vs. distributive opposition between two forms of the quantifier 'many' in Finnish
Huumo Tuomas
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe2021042717029
Tiivistelmä
Abstract. In this work I explore the semantics of two case forms of the Finnish quantifier
moni ‘many’: the regular nominative moni and the regular partitive monta [mon-ta
many-PARTITIVE], which however has taken on a function similar to that of the nominative
of numerals and is thus not a functional partitive anymore. This development has
apparently motivated the rise of the pleonastic montaa [mon-ta-a many-PARTITIVE-PARTITIVE]
to unambiguously mark the partitive. I argue that an important difference between
moni and monta is the opposition between a distributive and a collective meaning:
in ambiguous contexts, moni is clearly distributive and monta collective. I compare
the two with the nominative form of the near-synonymous quantifier usea ‘several; a
number of', which in similar contexts displays ambiguity between the distributive and
collective readings. The analysis sheds new light to the division of labor between the
two (functional) nominative forms of moni, showing that they divide the functions of
the nominative in an idiosyncratic way.
Kokoelmat
- Rinnakkaistallenteet [19207]