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The semantics of plural indefinite noun phrases in Spanish and Portuguese

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Abstract

In this paper I provide a decompositional analysis of three kinds of plural indefinites in two related languages, European Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese. The three indefinites studied are bare plurals, the unos (Spanish)/uns (Portuguese) type, and the algunos (Spanish)/alguns (Portuguese) type. The paper concentrates on four properties: semantic plurality, positive polarity, partitivity, and event distribution. The logic underlying the analysis is that of compositionality, applied at the subword level: as items become bigger in form (with the addition of morphemes), they also acquire more semantic properties. The paper proposes the “indefinite hierarchy", which establishes a set of components for languages to build their indefinites with, in a particular order.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Advanced Study in Theoretical Linguistics, Faculty of Humanities, University of Tromsø, 9037, Tromso, Norway

    Luisa Martí

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  1. Luisa Martí
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Correspondence to Luisa Martí.

Additional information

Many thanks to my informants: Ana Paula Quadros, Cilene Rodrigues, Elaine Grolla, Fernanda Pratas, Isabel Pérez, Silvia Gumiel, Pilar Pérez, and Antonio Fábregas. Many thanks to Isabel and Ana Paula for discussing many aspects of this material with me. Thanks to Urtzi Etxeberria, Anastasia Giannakidou, and Arnim von Stechow for comments on an earlier version of the paper. Klaus Abels has spent many hours with me discussing the contents of this paper and providing not only very valuable feedback but also some needed encouragement. Thanks to audiences at the 16th Colloquium on Generative Grammar (especially Luis Eguren and Carlos Piera), Sinn und Bedeutung XI (especially Malte Zimmermann and Sigrid Beck), Universität Leipzig (especially Olav Müller-Reichau and Tanja Zybatow), and Universitetet i Tromsø (especially Gillian Ramchand and Bruce Morén) for comments, questions, and discussion. Thanks also to two anonymous reviewers, who provided very useful and detailed feedback. All errors are of course my own. This research was carried out with the support of Norwegian Research Council postdoctoral fellowship nr. 171984/V20, which I gratefully acknowledge.

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Martí, L. The semantics of plural indefinite noun phrases in Spanish and Portuguese. Nat Lang Semantics 16, 1–37 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11050-007-9023-x

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