Mitrović & Sauerland (2016): Two conjunctions are better than one

[MS16] [MS14] [Mit21] [Has07]

Moreno Mitrović & Uli Sauerland. "Two conjunctions are better than one." Acta Linguistica Hungarica 63 (2016) 4, 471–494. DOI: 10.1556/064.2016.63.4.5

The paper proposes a universal J-μ system for DP coordination: μ is an e-type head (combines with a single individual) and J is a t-type head (combines two truth-value-typed arguments). Languages parametrise which heads are overtly pronounced; the predictions are:

• J-type coordinators (e.g. English and) have propositional uses, do not double, and lack additive/quantificational uses.
• μ-type coordinators (e.g. Japanese mo) combine DPs, can double, and may have additive/quantificational uses.
• Some languages overtly realise both heads, giving triadic exponency (J + two μ): [MS16] §3.1 lists SE Macedonian, Hungarian, and Avar as their attested cases (with SerBo-Croatian approaching the pattern with adversative J).

Main declarations

• hasAllThreeStrategies — propositional predicate for triadic exponency.
• mu_additive_generalization — every language with a μ morpheme has a μ morpheme that also serves as the additive particle (§3).
• j_is_universal — every M&S focus language has a J-only strategy (§1).
• all_three_is_rare — within the focus sample, only Hungarian and Georgian show triadic exponency; the paper's own sample uses SE Macedonian, Avar, Hungarian (none of SE Macedonian / Avar / SerBo-Croatian is encoded here, so the formalised claim is restricted to the M&S focus sub-sample).
• mu_boundness_asymmetry — Georgian μ is bound, Hungarian μ is free; [BGD+25] link this morphological asymmetry to acquisition difficulty.

Implementation notes

• Language records (english, japanese, hungarian, georgian, latin, korean, slovenian) are defined in Studies/Haspelmath2007.lean and reused here unchanged. Triadic-exponency classification of Georgian follows [Mit21]; [MS16] itself does not include Georgian.
• The original paper's languages SE Macedonian, Avar, and SerBo-Croatian are not yet in the sample.

Triadic-exponency predicate

def MitrovicSauerland2016.hasAllThreeStrategies (sys : Syntax.Coordination.ConjunctionSystem) : Prop

A language exhibits triadic exponency when all three M&S strategies (J-only, MU-only, J-MU) are attested. The paper's strongest synchronic typological observation (§3.1).

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.

@[implicit_reducible]

instance MitrovicSauerland2016.instDecidableHasAllThreeStrategies (sys : Syntax.Coordination.ConjunctionSystem) : Decidable (hasAllThreeStrategies sys)

Equations

• MitrovicSauerland2016.instDecidableHasAllThreeStrategies sys = id inferInstance

M&S 2016 generalisations

theorem MitrovicSauerland2016.mu_additive_generalization (sys : Syntax.Coordination.ConjunctionSystem) : sys ∈ Haspelmath2007.allLanguages → (∃ m ∈ sys.morphemes, m.entry.role = Coordinator.Role.mu) → sys.muIsAdditive

MU is additive. Every language with a MU conjunction particle uses the same morpheme as its additive ("also/too") particle ([MS16] §3). MU is a single lexical item with subset semantics that appears in both conjunction and additive contexts.

theorem MitrovicSauerland2016.j_is_universal (sys : Syntax.Coordination.ConjunctionSystem) : sys ∈ Haspelmath2007.msLanguages → sys.hasStrategy Syntax.Coordination.ConjunctionStrategy.jOnly

J is universal in the M&S focus sample. Every M&S-classified language has at least the J-only strategy ([MS16] §3).

theorem MitrovicSauerland2016.all_three_is_rare (sys : Syntax.Coordination.ConjunctionSystem) : sys ∈ Haspelmath2007.allLanguages → (hasAllThreeStrategies sys ↔ sys.iso = "kat" ∨ sys.iso = "hun")

Triadic exponency is rare. Within the 19-language sample, the only languages exhibiting all three M&S strategies (J, MU, J-MU) are Hungarian and Georgian (iso codes "hun", "kat"). The biconditional pins which languages have the rare pattern and which do not.

theorem MitrovicSauerland2016.mu_boundness_asymmetry : Haspelmath2007.georgian.muBoundness = some Boundness.bound ∧ Haspelmath2007.hungarian.muBoundness = some Boundness.free

MU boundness asymmetry. Georgian MU (-c) is bound; Hungarian MU (is) is free. [BGD+25] (with [Mit21]) propose this morphological difference may explain the acquisition asymmetry: bound morphemes are harder to segment.