"Algún" indefinite is not bound by adverbs of quantification

• López, Luis ^[1]
  1. [1] University of Illinois at Chicago

     University of Illinois at Chicago

     City of Chicago, Estados Unidos

     
• Localización: Isogloss: Open Journal of Romance Linguistics, ISSN-e 2385-4138, Vol. 7, 2021
• Idioma: inglés
• Enlaces
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• Resumen

  • Some indefinites cannot be bound by adverbs of quantification or the generic operator. I argue that this datum follows from the internal syntax of indefinites: only those indefinites consisting of a minimal structure can be bound, bigger indefinites cannot. I present evidence from Spanish, Russian and English to support this claim. Two theoretical consequences follow. The first one is about wh-dependencies: I argue that wh-phrases cannot be regarded as noun phrases with an extra [wh] feature, but rather as very small indefinites without additional features. The second one involves exceptional scope: choice function approaches seem to run into a paradox that alternative approaches, such as Schwarszchild’s Singleton Indefinite approach, avoid. I also argue that an alternative semantic approach to binding resistance yields no fruit. Finally, I show that only small indefinites can be used as predicates, thus bolstering the approach taken in these pages.