Cascadilla Proceedings Project: Paper 1677


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Proceedings of the 26th West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics
edited by Charles B. Chang and Hannah J. Haynie

ISBN 978-1-57473-423-2 library binding
vii+524 pages
publication date: 2008
published by Cascadilla Proceedings Project, Somerville, MA, USA

Table of contents



Abstract

Simona Herdan
A Superlative Theory of Amount Relatives
234-242 (complete pdf)

This paper argues against a uniform treatment of amount relatives. Specifically, it claims that not all types of relatives that have been included in the class of amount relatives actually involve quantification over degrees. A new semantics which involves a covert superlative morpheme is proposed for there-relatives. The function of the superlative morpheme is to absorb the degree variable contained in the degree relative and yield a set of individuals. ACD relatives with amount readings, on the other hand, do not involve degree quantification, but owe their specific amount readings to a special E-type restrictive relative interpretation. This distinction in the semantics can account both for the distribution of the amount readings and for various restrictions on the two classes of relatives.


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