DOI: 10.1017/s0022226726101169 ISSN: 0022-2267
The (post-)syntax of repeater classifiers: A case study in Thai
Éva DékányAbstract
This paper analyzes the structure of Noun Phrases with repeater classifiers (i.e., numeral classifiers that are only used with the single noun they are form-identical with). I show that a previous attempt to account for repeaters in terms of syntactic head movement encounters both empirical and theoretical problems. I suggest that repeaters emerge in the post-syntactic component, via a melody copying operation, which I characterize as a type of syntactic reduplication.