Chapter published in:
Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory 16: Selected papers from the 47th Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages (LSRL), Newark, Delaware
Edited by Irene Vogel
[Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory 16] 2020
► pp. 78–92

Number as an adjunct in Romance

| University of Campinas
| Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
In this paper, we argue that Spanish (and other Romance languages such as Catalan), contrary to what has been believed up to now, patterns with languages such as Brazilian Portuguese and French. We present several different arguments to support our proposal that in the Romance languages we investigate plural marking is specified and interpreted on functional categories, namely on Determiners. We propose that in these languages plural marking is a syntactic adjunct to D (i.e., a categorized d root) by default, and to a categorized n root in marked cases. Manifestations of (plural) Number on other constituents within the nominal domain are to be considered solely as the output of morphophonological agreement or concord.
Keywords: pluralizer, adjunct, determiner, nominalizer, Romance
Published online: 21 August 2020
https://doi.org/10.1075/rllt.16.06cyr
References

References

Alexiadou, Artemis
2016 “The Syntax of Number.” Talk given at the Workshop on the Semantic Contribution of Det and Num: (In)definiteness, Genericity and Referentiality . Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, May 27–28.
Bartsch, Renate
1973 “The Semantics and Syntax of Number and Numbers.” In Syntax and Semantics 2, ed. by John Kimball, 51–93. New York: Seminar Press.Google Scholar
Bennett, Michael Ruisdael
1975 Some Extensions of a Montague Fragment of English. Los Angeles, CA: University of California at Los Angeles dissertation, distributed by Indiana University Linguistics Club.Google Scholar
Borer, Hagit
2005 Structuring Sense. Vol I: In Name Only. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Bouchard, Denis
2002 Adjectives, Number and Interfaces. Why Languages Vary. Amsterdam: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Butler, Lindsay K.
2012 “The DP-Adjoined Plural in Yucatec Maya and the Syntax of Plural Marking.” Ms., University of Rochester, Rochester, NY.Google Scholar
Caponigro, Ivano
2002 “Free Relatives as DPs with a Silent D and a CP Complement.” In Proceedings of WECOL 2000, ed. by Vida Samiian, 140–150. Fresno: California State University, Department of Linguistics.Google Scholar
Cavirani, Edoardo
2018 “The Distribution of Gender and Number in Lunigiana Nominal Expressions.” In Advances in Italian dialectology: Sketches of Italo-Romance Grammars, ed. by Roberta D’Alessandro, and Diego Pescarini, 13–51. Leiden: Brill. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Chomsky, Noam
2001 “Derivation by Phase.” In Ken Hale: A Life in Language, Michael Kenstowicz ed. by, 1–52. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Cyrino, Sonia, and M. Teresa Espinal
2015 “Bare Nominals in Brazilian Portuguese: More on the DP/NP Analysis.” Natural Language and Linguistics Theory 33: 471–521. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Déchaine, Rose-Marie, and Martina Wiltschko
2002 “Decomposing Pronouns.” Linguistic Inquiry 33: 409–442. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Delfitto, Denis, and Jan Schroten
1991 “Bare Plurals and the Number Affix in DP.” Probus 3: 155–185. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Delicado-Cantero, Manuel, and Sandro Sessarego
2011 “Variation and Syntax in Number Expression in Afro-Bolivian Spanish.” In Proceedings of the 13th Hispanic Linguistic Symposium, ed. by Luis A. Ortiz-López, 42–53. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla.Google Scholar
Déprez, Viviane
2005 “Morphological Number, Semantic Number and Bare Nouns.” Lingua 115: 857–883. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2006 “On the Conceptual Role of Number.” In New Perspectives on Romance Linguistics: Vol. I: Morphology, Syntax, Semantics, and Pragmatics, ed. by Chiyo Nishida, and Jean-Pierre Y. Montreuil, 67–82. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Despić, Miloje
2015 “Phases, Reflexives and Definiteness.” Syntax 18: 201–234. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Dobrovie-Sorin, Carmen
2012 “Number as a Feature.” In Functional Heads, ed. by Laura Brugè, Anna Cardinaletti, Giuliana Giusti, Nicola Munaro, and Cecilia Poletto, 304–324. Oxford: Oxford University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Etxeberria, Urtzi
2014 “Basque Nominals: From a System with Bare Nouns to a System Without.” HAL Id: artxibo-01071708 https://​artxiker​.ccsd​.cnrs​.fr​/artxibo​-01071708. Crossref
Harley, Heidi
2009 “Compounding in Distributed Morphology.” In The Oxford Handbook of Compounding, ed. by Rochelle Lieber, and Pavol Stekauer, 129–144. Oxford, OUP Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Hausser, Roland
1974 Quantification in Extended Montague Grammar. Austin, TX: University of Texas dissertation.Google Scholar
Heycock, Caroline, and Roberto Zamparelli
2005 “Friends and Colleagues: Plurality, Coordination, and the Structure of DP.” Natural Language Semantics 13: 201–270. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Kayne, Richard
1994 The Antisymmetry of Syntax. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Kornfeld, Laura, and Andrés Saab
2004 “Nominal Ellipsis and Morphological Structure in Spanish.” In Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory 2002, ed. by Reineke Bok-Bennema, Bart Hollebrandse, B. Kampers-Manhe, and Petra Sleeman, 183–198. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Lekakou, Marika, and Kriszta Szendrői
2012 “Polydefinites in Greek: Ellipsis, Close Apposition and Expletive Determiners.” Journal of Linguistics 48 (1): 107–149. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Longobardi, Giuseppe
1994 “Reference and Proper Names.” Linguistic Inquiry 25: 609–665. https://​www​.jstor​.org​/stable​/4178880Google Scholar
Lopes, Ruth
2006 “Bare Nouns and DP Number Agreement in the Acquisition of Brazilian Portuguese.” In Selected Proceedings of the 9th Hispanic Linguistics Symposium, ed. by Nuria Sagarra, and Almeida Jacqueline Toribio, 252–262. Somerville: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.Google Scholar
Manzini, Maria Rita, and Leonardo Maria Savoia
2005 I dialetti italiani e romanzi. Alessandria: Edizioni Dell'Orso.Google Scholar
Mathieu, Eric
2009 “From Local Blocking to Cyclic Agree.” In Determiners: Universals and Variations, ed. by Jila Ghomeshi, Ileana Paul, and Martina Wiltschko, 123–158. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2014 “Many a Plural.” In Weak Referentiality, ed. by Ana Aguilar-Guevara, Bert Le Bruyn, and Joost Zwarts, 157–181. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Pomino, Natascha
2012 Partial or complete lack of plural agreement. In Inflection and Word Formation in Romance Languages, ed. by Sascha Gaglia and Marc-Olivier Hinzelin, 201–229. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Real Academia Española (RAE)
2009 Nueva Gramática de la Lengua Española. Madrid: Espasa.Google Scholar
Ribeiro, Ilza, and Sonia Cyrino
2012 “A estrutura do DP no crioulo de Cabo Verde e no PB de afro-descendentes.” Revista Letras UFPR 84: 169–195.Google Scholar
Ritter, Elizabeth
1991 “Two Functional Categories in Noun Phrases.” Syntax and Semantics 25: 37–62.Google Scholar
1992 “Cross-Linguistic Evidence for Number Phrase.” Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue Canadienne de Linguistique 37: 197–218. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Sauerland, Uli
2003 “A New Semantics for Number.” In SALT XIII, ed. by R. Young, and Y. Zhou, 258–275. Ithaca: Cornell University. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Schwarzschild, Roger
1996 Pluralities. Vol. 61 (Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy). Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Scherre, Maria Marta Pereira
1994 “Aspectos da concordância de número no português do Brasil.” Revista Internacional de Língua Portuguesa 12: 37–49.Google Scholar
Scherre, Maria Marta Pereira, and Anthony Julius Naro
1998 “Restrições sintáticas e semânticas no controle da concordância verbal em português.” Fórum Linguístico 1: 45–71.Google Scholar
Szabolcsi, Anna
1983 “The Possessor that Ran Away from Home.” The Linguistic Review 3: 89–102. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Torrego, Esther
1987 “On Empty Categories in Nominals”. Ms., UMass. Boston.Google Scholar
de Vries, Mark
2000 “Appositive Relative Clauses.” Linguistics in the Netherlands 17: 221–231. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Wiltschko, Martina
2008 “The Syntax of Non-Inflectional Plural Marking.” Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 26: 639–694. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 1 other publications

Guy, Gregory R.
2020.  In Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory 16 [Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory, 16], ► pp. 134 ff. Crossref logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 28 december 2021. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.