“Exclusivity” and quantifier float in bakari

This paper presents a descriptive study that analyzes the semantic meaning of Toritate focus particle bakari. Previous studies reported that, although bakari expresses exclusivity, it is characterized by the fact that it permits non-applicable cases, thereby drawing the conclusion that the meaning of bakari is not exclusivity. This paper argues that bakari does indeed denote “exclusivity” as bakari is supported by the phenomenon that non-applicable cases are unacceptable when bakari co-occurs with floating quantifiers. Considering existing research on this subject, the following was observed. Even though the subjective set, as established by the speaker’s past experiences to interpret the meaning of bakari, may not be consistent with the real world, the number of events that form the said set match the number of real-world events when bakari co-occurs with floating quantifiers due to the characteristics of floating quantifiers. In such cases, bakari does not permit non-applicable cases. The interpretation that permits non-applicable cases applies to situations where the set established by the speaker is fixed at a narrower range than the real world, and the non-applicable cases exist outside the set. We thus conclude that bakari denotes “exclusivity” that does not permit non-applicable cases.

On finite subject-to-object raising in Spanish

In this paper, we analyze inflected complements of perceptive, causative and permissive verbs in which the null subject is obligatorily co-referent with the matrix object antecedent. Even though these configurations have mostly received a control or a ‘pseudo-relative’ analysis in Spanish, we argue that the structure is best explained by means of finite ‘subject-to-object’ raising, which has been proposed for languages like Greek, Romanian, Japanese or Korean. The analysis will be argued to capture several intriguing properties of this configuration which have been noted in the literature, such as temporal anaphoricity, direct perception readings, obligatory co-reference, floating quantifiers, emphatic pronouns, and resumptive pronoun strategies. We argue that left-peripheral as well as temporal deficiency of the embedded clause has the consequence that the CP is not a strong phase and cannot legitimate structural nominative case, making A-movement out of the inflected complement possible. Finally, we discuss some related structures that point to the conclusion that ‘finite raising’ exists in the full-fledged pro-drop language Spanish.

Zande

The morphology of Zande (Ubangi) has been known since the earliest descriptions of the 1920s by Gore and Lagae. This chapter focuses on recently discovered syntactic features. The first are the functions of three copulas, the functions of the two series of personal pronouns in possessive constructions, and the functions of secondary predicates. There are also intransitive copy pronouns which mark substantivized adjectives, floating quantifiers and numerals which follow the entire noun phrase, and the functions of the preposition be ‘from, because of’ which is derived from the denotation for ‘hand’. The verb ya ‘say’ has undergone multiple grammaticalizations and functions as a complementizer, and in serial verb constructions it marks immediate anteriority or ineffective attempt.

Oblique control in Russian

This paper seeks to investigate some properties of oblique control in Russian. It is demonstrated that oblique control is a subtype of obligatory control, but has some peculiar properties of its own, distinguishing it from object control: Floating quantifiers in oblique control structures necessarily surface in dative case, and the controller DP cannot take narrow scope limited to the embedded clause only.

Predicative Possessives, Relational Nouns, and Floating Quantifiers

Green (1971) notes the apparent unacceptability of certain quantificational expressions as possessors of singular head nouns. We provide data from a range of English dialects to show that such constructions are not straightforwardly unacceptable, but there are a number of restrictions on their use. We build on Kayne’s ( 1993 , 1994 ) analysis of English possessives in conjunction with considerations on floating quantifiers to explain both the types of possessive that are permitted in the relevant dialects and their distribution, which is restricted to predicative position.

Floating quantifiers in Japanese passives and beyond

This work attempts to defend the so-called Uniform Hypothesis for passives in Japanese by re-examining the empirical phenomena involving quantifier float (Q-float). We will attempt to reinforce the following main tenets of the Uniform Hypothesis — (i) that all ni-passive sentences in Japanese involve complementation and the theta-marking of their subjects, and (ii) that they crucially lack NP movement. We will also closely examine the syntactic, semantic, pragmatic and prosodic properties of Q-float in general.

Opaque Intervention

In this article, we illustrate that arguments in German and Czech differ in their ability to function as antecedents for certain associates (floating quantifiers, parasitic gaps, and predicate nominals). While some of the differences can be explained in terms of surface intervention, others cannot. We propose that this is accounted for if the association abilities are determined early in the derivation—namely, at the edge of the vP phase, where the arguments’ base order is still preserved. While later operations may alter the relative order of the arguments, they come too late to have any effect on the arguments’ licensing abilities, thus rendering intervention effects opaque.