Parametric properties of numeral phrases in Slavic

TLDR: Proposed system allows for a more explanatory analysis of GEN-Q assignment and accounts for several distinctions between QP and NP subjects within Russian, also motivating the absence of these distinctions in Serbo-Croatian.

Abstract: Numeral phrases in Russian display many unusual morphosyntactic properties, e.g., (i) the numeral sometimes assigns genitive (GEN-Q) to the following noun and sometimes agrees with it and (ii) the numeral phrase sometimes induces subject-verb agreement and sometimes does not. In this paper existing analyses of these properties are parametrized to accommodate related phenomena in other Slavic languages. First, Babby's (1987) proposal that GEN-Q is structural in Russian is shown not to extend to Serbo-Croatian, where it must be analyzed as inherent. Second, Pesetsky's (1982) idea that Russian numeral phrases may be either QPs or NPs also does not extend to Serbo-Croatian, where these are only NPs. This set of assumptions explains a range of seemingly unrelated facts about the behavior of numeral phrases in the two languages. Pesetsky's analysis is recast in terms of more recent hypotheses about phrase structure: (i) NPs are actually embedded in DPs and (ii) subjects are D-Structure VP-specifiers. Proposal (i) allows for a more explanatory analysis of GEN-Q assignment and proposal (ii) accounts for several distinctions between QP and NP subjects within Russian, also motivating the absence of these distinctions in Serbo-Croatian. Finally, it is shown that Polish can be assimilated to the proposed system.