The syntax and semantics of approximate indefi nites in Spanish

Authors

  • Fernando Martín Carranza Conicet & Instituto de Filología y Literaturas Hispánicas “Dr. Amado Alonso”. Universidad de Buenos Aires
  • Carlos Muñoz Pérez Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Santiago

Keywords:

cardinal numbers, indefi nites, approximatives, Spanish

Abstract

In Spanish, combining an indefi nite plural article and a cardinal number leads to an approximative interpretation similar to that provided by approximators like ‘approximately’. In this paper, we advance a syntactic and semantic analysis of these structures. We show that the construction shares a number of properties with structures containing explicit approximative elements, so it justifi ed to assume that a particular constituent contributes the approximative meaning. We propose that an approximative morpheme APPROX is combined with the cardinal number; the morphological realization of this morpheme is as the plural affi x on the indefi nite article. We advance a denotation for APPROX, and elaborate the necessary assumptions on the functioning of numerals for our analysis to work at a general level.

Published

2021-02-08

How to Cite

Carranza, F. M., & Pérez, C. M. (2021). The syntax and semantics of approximate indefi nites in Spanish. DELTA: Documentação E Estudos Em Linguística Teórica E Aplicada, 36(1). Retrieved from https://revistas.pucsp.br/index.php/delta/article/view/52301

Issue

Section

Articles