Indefinites in Comparatives
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3765/salt.v21i0.2602Keywords:
Indefinites, comparatives, intonational meaningAbstract
The goal of this paper is to explain the meaning and distribution of indefinites in comparatives, focusing on the case of English 'some' and 'any' and German 'irgend'-indefinites. We combine three competing theories of comparatives with an alternative semantics of 'some' and 'any', and a novel account of stressed 'irgend'-indefinites. One of the resulting theories, based on Heim's (2006) analysis of comparatives, predicts all the relevant differences in quantificational force, and explains why free choice indefinites are licensed in comparatives.Downloads
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2011-09-03
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Articles appearing in SALT are published under an author agreement with the Linguistic Society of America and are made available to readers under a Creative Commons Attribution License.