120 Julia Horvath
higher have a distribution similar to the above indeclinable loan words (female
names) (cf. (4)–(5)).^3
(4) a. [Mnogo srpskih pisaca] je otišlo.
many Serbian.pl.gen wr iter.pl.gen aux.3sg leave.ptcp.sg.n
‘Many Serbian writers have left.’
b. Kupili smo pet knjiga.
buy.ptcp.pl aux.1pl five book.pl.gen
‘We bought five books.’
(5) a. (Ova) Miki je došla iz Amerike.
this.sg.nom.f Miki aux.3sg came.ptcp.sg.f from Amerika
‘(This) Miki came from America.’
b. Poznajem (jednu) Miki.
k n ow. 1sg. one.sg.acc Miki
‘I know (someone named) Miki.’
Quantifiers differ from ordinary nouns and uninflected female names only in that the
determiners and modifiers occurring in their phrase do not show the case assigned to
the QNP as a whole, but appear invariably in genitive plural (6); ordinary nouns as well
as the undeclined female names in contrast “transmit” their case value to determiners
and modifiers (see (1) and (5) above, and W&Z 2001 for discussion).
(6) ovih pet knjiga
this.pl.gen five book.pl.gen
‘these five books’2.2 Oblique case and a case realization requirement
A striking generalization regarding indeclinable nominals in Serbian/Croatian
involves their behavior in oblique case positions: female loan names as well as inde-
clinable quantifiers yield ungrammaticality when they appear as complements of a
verb or noun that governs oblique case, namely, dative or instrumental; this is dem-
onstrated by the indeclinable name Miki in (7), vs. the ordinary declinable Larisa.
Structural cases in contrast (specifically, nominative, accusative and genitive) manifest
no such effect (see W&Z 2001).- W&Z claim, following earlier work, that the quantifier is of category N, hence the entire
QNP it heads is categorially an NP. This assumption can explain why the quantifier governs
genitive case on its direct NP complement (e.g. srpskih pisaca ‘Serbian.pl.gen writer.pl.gen’
in (4), and also why QNPs have the same distribution as ordinary nominals (modulo consid-
erations of case-marking).