Some three students: Towards a unified account of some
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3765/salt.v28i0.4436Abstract
This paper investigates the semantics of the some+numeral construction (e.g. Some 20 cars were involved in the accident). Contra previous analyses, we demonstrate that some+numeral is not inherently approximating, but instead can be aligned to the canonical use of some as an indefinite determiner. Drawing on established theories of the semantics of degree expressions and epistemic indefinites, we propose that on all of its uses, some encodes a domain-shifting function, which operates on sets of pluralities of some sort. We demonstrate that this analysis accounts for both the variable presence of an approximating effect as well as constraints on the distribution of some+numeral, and discuss some consequences for the semantics of number and degree, and for the treatment of some more generally.Downloads
Published
2018-11-05
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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.