Discourse-linked DPs as covert partitives: Ellipsis and pro-form strategies in Italian and English
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Michelangelo Falco [1] ; Roberto Zamparelli
[2]
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[1] Zentrum für Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft
Zentrum für Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft
Berlin, Stadt, Alemania
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[2] University of Trento
University of Trento
Trento, Italia
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- Localización: Isogloss: Open Journal of Romance Linguistics, ISSN-e 2385-4138, Vol. 10, Vol. 3, 2024 (Ejemplar dedicado a: RLLT22, Selected papers from Going Romance 36, Barcelona)
- Idioma: inglés
- Enlaces
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Resumen
The paper studies the conditions that determine the Discourse-Linked or non-Discourse-Linked status of noun-less Determiner Phrases introduced by different determiners, in Italian and in English. For instance, given the sentence Ten bombs exploded yesterday, the continuation [Three] were cluster bombs tends to have a meaning equivalent to 'three of the bombs that exploded’ (D-Linked), while [Three] will explode today is understood as 'three (different) bombs’ (non D-Linked). Beside world-knowledge, the syntax of the determiners and their position with respect to the verb affect the availability of DL/non-DL readings. This and other facts undermine an analysis cast purely in terms of semantic domain restrictions, and suggest that DL readings are due to the presence of a covert partitive structure. While perhaps intuitive, this idea faces various issues in Italian, due to its interactions with the syntax of the pro-form ne. We show that an NP-based structure for numeral and proportion-based partitives (three/half of the bombs) is actually compatible with the facts, and offers a cue on the nature of sub-DP pro-forms and their uses.
