The structure and use of collective numeral phrases in Slavic : Russian, Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian, and Polish

This dissertation investigates Slavic collective numerals and their syntactic structure from descriptive and structural perspectives on the basis of the operation Agree. The headedness of Slavic collective numeral phrases will be focused on with three Slavic languages: Russian, Bosnian/ Croatian/Serbian, and Polish. To analyze the semantic and morphosyntactic properties of Slavic collective numeral phrases, I adopted two important concepts proposed by Rappaport (2002, 2006): i) Minimal Lexical Representation (MLR) and ii) pre-valued abstract Quantitative Case (QC). MLR represents the semantic and formal features of nouns, which selectively combine with collective numerals, while the idea of QC can predict the heterogeneous and homogeneous patterns of case assignment. The presence of pre-valued abstract QC triggers heterogeneous morphosyntax, while the absence of QC triggers homogeneous morphosyntax. The spell-out forms of collective numerals are the direct result of morphological syncretic rules. In regard of the headedness of Slavic collective numeral phrases, this research claims that nouns are the heads of Slavic numeral phrases on the grounds that numerals, adjectives, and other modifiers agree with nouns, which functions as the locus of morphosyntax (Zwicky 1985). The use of collective numerals is determined by the properties of nouns. In each chapter, Slavic collective numerals will be analyzed from the three points of view: i) semantics, ii) morphology, and iii) syntax. Collective numerals can emphasize the meaning of collectivity, totality, and cohesiveness as an aggregate. BCS and Polish collective numerals strictly specify a group of mixed gender, while Russian does not. BCS is characterized by three different types of collective numerals: i) collective numeral substantives (dvojica ‘two’, trojica ‘three’, četvorica ’four’, petorica ’five’, etc.), collective numerals (dvoje ‘two’, troje ‘three’, četvoro ’four’, petoro ’five’, etc.), and collective numeral adjectives (dvoji (m.)/ dvoje (f.)/ dvoja (n.) ’two’, etc.). Moreover, indeclinability of numerals is one of the characteristics of BCS numerals. Polish has secondary gender, so-called virile marking, which does not apply to collective numerals. Polish collective numerals are strictly used to express a group of mixed gender.