Universal #1636

Legacy number: 1636

 Number  1631
 Original  Polysynthetic languages should not have non-referential quantified NPs – that is, NPs comparable to ‘everyone’, ‘everything’, ‘nobody’, and ‘nothing’ in English.
 Standardized  IF there is polysynthesis, THEN there will be no non-referential quantified NPs (quantifiers serving as NPs on their own).
 Formula  polysynthesis ⇒ ¬ true quantifiers
 Keywords  polysynthesis, quantifier
 Domain  morphology, syntax
 Type  implication
 Status  achronic
 Quality  statistical
 Basis  Polysynthetic languages like Mohawk (Iroquoian), Nahuatl (Uto-Aztecan), Kiowa (Kiowa- Tanoan), Gunwinjguan (Gunwingguan, Australian), Wichita (Caddoan), Chukchi (Chukchi-Kamchatkan), Ainu (isolate). Non-polysynthetic languages like Greenlandic (Eskimo-Aleut), Lakhota (Siouan), Slave (Athabaskan), Alamblak (Sepik-Ramu), Chichewa (Bantoid, Niger-Congo), Choctaw (Muskogean)
 Source  Baker 1996: 53

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Discussion
Notes
Baker has no data on Wichita, Chukchi, and Ainu.[But on all other polysynthetic lgs? ]
Comment
Frans Plank · 3 Aug 2006
Baker has no data on Wichita, Chukchi, and Ainu. [But on all other polysynthetic lgs? ]