Type shifting and the number system in Persian

The present article examines the structure of number phrase in Persian. It is also aimed at explaining the apparent lack of agreement between numerals and nouns in this language. In other words, it presents an answer to the question of why nouns appear in singular forms in a noun phrase even if they are premodified by a number bigger than one. To put it differently, it is to put forth the inquiry that why numbers and the plural markers "ha"/"an" in Persian are in complementary distribution in noun phrases. If we assume that some sorts of formal (morpho-syntactic) agreement must hold between numerals and the nouns they modify cross-linguistically, as in the Germanic and Romance languages, then, what is to be answered is how this agreement is established between the two elements in question in the number system of Persian. In this study, we adopt a lexico-semantic approach inspired by formal semanticist within the Minimalist Program to investigate the syntax of number phrase in Persian that involves numbers, classifiers and the head nouns. As we proceed, we introduce type shifting and three functional categories within the determiner phrase as Measure Phrase, Numeral Quantifier Phrase, and Agreement Phrase (AgrP). We shall also show that the agreement between the numeral and the head noun is also held in Persian both syntactically and semantically, the same as other languages. Finally, treating the Persian plural markers as adjuncts in construction where this marker accompanies a numeral and a classifier, we argue that in such contexts, the plural markers "ha"/"an" are adjoined to the noun.