The comparative syntax of nominal quantifiers
Peter Jenks
November 2023
 

This is a survey article reviewing the various ways that nominal quantifiers—those which take noun phrases as their restriction—are syntactically realized across natural languages. The paper first introduces quantification as a fundamentally semantic category with a heterogeneous syntactic realization across languages. The distinction between D-quantifier vs. A-quantifier is reviewed, along with subtypes within both larger categories of nominal quantifiers are identified. In the context of this discussion, the paper examines the proposed (non)-universality of D- vs. A- quantification, arguing that conclusions in earlier work that D-quantifiers are not universal may have been premature. Finally, the article examines the phenomenon of quantifier float, connecting the realization of floated quantifiers to the D-quantifier vs. A-quantifier distinction. The chapter concludes, with much recent literature on this topic, that floating quantifiers are also typologically diverse. Some floating quantifiers are D-quantifiers associated with their nominal restriction by movement, while other floating quantifiers seem to pattern as A-quantifiers.
Format: [ pdf ]
Reference: lingbuzz/008256
(please use that when you cite this article)
Published in: To appear in the Cambridge Handbook of Comparative Syntax
keywords: quantifier, quantification, quantifier float, dp, np, d-quantifier, a-quantifier, typology, semantics, syntax
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