The Romance of modal superlatives as degree descriptions

Syntax, 2008

The standard view of superlatives treats them as a subkind of adjectives. However, in many languages, superlatives require the presence of a determiner, even in the predicate position. This leads to an apparent contradiction, since it is independently known that determiners syntactically combine with extended NP projections and are excluded with APs. This issue is resolved if superlative adjectives always appear in an attributive (modificational) position. Superlative phrases without an overt noun (e.g., in the predicative position) modify a null head noun. I show that this hypothesis immediately explains the restrictions on the distribution of superlatives in languages as diverse as Russian, French, German, Dutch, Breton, Spanish and Portuguese. I propose that the modificational nature of superlative adjectives can be derived from their semantics, and I argue that such a proposal yields a natural explanation of the behavior of superlatives in Hebrew and Persian. Finally, I discuss the interaction between this theory and the standard, movement-based analyses of comparatives and superlatives and provide an explanation for apparent counterexamples.

This paper investigates non-finite verbal constituents that qualify as modal nonfinite relatives in Romanian, French, and Italian. We show that these constructions are reduced relatives based on the relativization of the object. The analysis extends to reduced relatives in general, and argues for a different head edge in these clauses: i.e., PredP versus CP (as assumed in the literature); the Pred head attracts the closest active nominal, which is not Case-marked. Consequently, Romance modal non-finite relatives qualify as passive structures dominated by a functional head that selects a non-finite (deficient) TP in Western Romance and a vP in Romanian. We extend this analysis to tough-constructions; crucially, the difference between predicative and argumental infinitives in Romance is that between full and reduced clauses: the former have a subject position and an EPP-feature satisfied (qualifying as strong phases), whereas raising, object-gap infinitives do not have these properties, and behave as weak phases.

Isogloss, 2022

Mainly based on data from Old Spanish and Modern Francoprovençal, this paper discusses a hitherto underresearched use of the Romance definite article that cannot straightforwardly be explained by recurring to any of the standard analyses of semantic definiteness, i.e., maximality and/or familiarity. We show that such weakly referential definites are definites with representative object interpretations licensed by the kindoriented mode of talk and not short weak definites. They denote inherently non-specific, semantically number neutral regular objects whose only co(n)textual relevance is their being typical instantiations of their corresponding kind. Representative object definites are shown to be favored by 'habitual' readings of the predicate (and text genres like recipes, treatises, narratives about what people used to do in former times, etc.). In Francoprovençal, this is the case especially in the scope of non-perfective verb tenses in prepositional or presentational complements and sometimes in direct objects. In Old Spanish, non-maximal definites often occur in the scope of non-assertive mood (imperative/subjunctive, due to the genre of recipes), while, at the same time, introducing important discourse referents. In addition, in the latter language such definites are demonstrated to be positively susceptible to priming by preceding non-maximal definites.

Language

This paper reports on the results of a broad cross-linguistic study on the semantics of quantity words such as many in the superlative (e.g. most). While some languages use such a form to express both a relative reading (as in Gloria has visited the most continents) and a proportional reading (as in Gloria has visited most continents), the vast majority do not allow the latter, though all allow the former. Absolute readings for the superlatives of ordinary gradable adjectives, in contrast, are universal. We offer an explanation for this cross-linguistic generalization, centered around two core assumptions: quantity words denote gradable predicates of degrees, while proportional readings involve a comparison class of individuals. We argue that proportional readings arise in rare cases when the former assumption is violated.

The paper proposes a parametric hierarchy for the micro-variation found in the use of predicative gerunds and prepositional infinitives in Romance languages.

Lingua, 2008

Talk given at the Linguistic Seminars of the Centre de Lingüística Teòrica of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 2016

2017

The second article in this section "Towards a Unified Treatment of Spanish Copulas", by Arche, Fábregas, and Marín adds to the ongoing debate of the distribution of the Spanish copulas ser and estar by accounting for their alternation in adjectival and passive clauses in a unified way. They propose that the properties of passive clauses are due to the properties of the copulas and not the participles, and further argue that only estar has an additional component of central coincidence with a stative nature. Charnavel analyzes French scalar particles même, quand même, ne serait-ce que, and seulement and compares them to English particles even and only. Her article, "How French Sheds New Light on Scalar Particles" proposes a new theory based on specific characteristics such as scalarity, additivity, and exclusivity and provides new empirical evidence about these French particles, which, despite widespread assumptions, behave differently from their English counterparts. The last article of the Syntax-Semantics section is by Donazzan and Tovena and investigates the semantics of semelfactive predicates in Italian. In "Pluralities of Events: Semelfactives and a Case of 'Single Event' Nominalisation", the authors analyze the notion of plurality and unity of events by looking at the two possible readings that ata-nominalisations, i.e.: nuotata, ombrellata, receive in instrument semelfactive verbs. They conclude that semelfactives, in their processive readings, have to considered activity predicates. The second section of the volume includes articles on Morphosyntax, beginning with "Laísmo and 'le-for-les': To Agree or not to Agree?", by Adolfo Ausín and Francisco J. Fernández-Rubiera, a novel exploration of an old problem in nonstandard Spanish pronominal paradigms. They propose a unified account for three apparently unrelated phenomena: the presence of the accusative clitic, the presence/ absence of number agreement in the dative clitic ('le-for-les'), and the presence/absence of gender agreement in the dative clitic in laísta dialects ('le-for-la'). They propose that agreement in these two nonstandard dative clitic constructions is related

Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory, 2017

The second article in this section "Towards a Unified Treatment of Spanish Copulas", by Arche, Fábregas, and Marín adds to the ongoing debate of the distribution of the Spanish copulas ser and estar by accounting for their alternation in adjectival and passive clauses in a unified way. They propose that the properties of passive clauses are due to the properties of the copulas and not the participles, and further argue that only estar has an additional component of central coincidence with a stative nature. Charnavel analyzes French scalar particles même, quand même, ne serait-ce que, and seulement and compares them to English particles even and only. Her article, "How French Sheds New Light on Scalar Particles" proposes a new theory based on specific characteristics such as scalarity, additivity, and exclusivity and provides new empirical evidence about these French particles, which, despite widespread assumptions, behave differently from their English counterparts. The last article of the Syntax-Semantics section is by Donazzan and Tovena and investigates the semantics of semelfactive predicates in Italian. In "Pluralities of Events: Semelfactives and a Case of 'Single Event' Nominalisation", the authors analyze the notion of plurality and unity of events by looking at the two possible readings that ata-nominalisations, i.e.: nuotata, ombrellata, receive in instrument semelfactive verbs. They conclude that semelfactives, in their processive readings, have to considered activity predicates. The second section of the volume includes articles on Morphosyntax, beginning with "Laísmo and 'le-for-les': To Agree or not to Agree?", by Adolfo Ausín and Francisco J. Fernández-Rubiera, a novel exploration of an old problem in nonstandard Spanish pronominal paradigms. They propose a unified account for three apparently unrelated phenomena: the presence of the accusative clitic, the presence/ absence of number agreement in the dative clitic ('le-for-les'), and the presence/absence of gender agreement in the dative clitic in laísta dialects ('le-for-la'). They propose that agreement in these two nonstandard dative clitic constructions is related

Manual of Romance Sociolinguistics, 2018

Building on studies seeking to position the Romance languages on the cline of grammaticalization, this study targets the evolution of subjunctive into subordination marker in speech corpora of French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. By considering the conditioning of variation between subjunctive and indicative in complement clauses, we operationalize parameters of late-stage grammaticalization, and establish measures of productivity. Results show that, with the exception of Spanish, subjunctive selection is constrained neither by contextual elements consistent with its oft-ascribed meanings nor by semantic classes of governors harmonic with such meanings. Instead, in all four languages, lexical bias is the major predictor of subjunctive selection, abetted by structural elements of the linguistic context. The overriding processes are lexical routinization, which is language-particular, with cognate governors displaying idiosyncratic associations with the subjunctive, and structural conventionalization, which is cross-linguistically parallel, with languages differing merely in degree.