Two types of quantifier particles: Quantifier-phrase internal vs. heads on the clausal spine

• Main Author: Anna Szabolcsi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Open Library of Humanities 2018-06-01
• Series: Glossa
• Subjects: particle; reiteration; Junction Phrase; propositional quantification; Hungarian
• Online Access: https://www.glossa-journal.org/articles/538

The paper discusses two types of quantifier particles in Hungarian that both participate in reiterated constructions. One type follows and the other precedes its host, which makes it easy to compare them. The particles that follow their hosts are argued to be heads on the clausal spines of independent propositions. 'Host+particle 'does, but need not, occur in reiterations, and the particles do not build quantifier words. In contrast, the particles that precede their hosts are argued to be quantifier-phrase internal. 'Particle+host 'must occur in reiterations, and the particles build quantifier words. The two types of reiterated constructions also differ in having their own distinctive internal “connectives” and in forming strict vs. non-strict negative concord expressions. The paper focuses on syntax, with some attention to semantics. It argues for propositional coordination for both types, and propositional quantification for the second type. Constituent-size reiterations are derivable via ellipsis, raising the question whether they are necessarily so derived. The paper concludes with data from Bosnian, French, Japanese, Malayalam, Mandarin, Persian, Russian, Sinhala, Telugu, and Turkish, which indicate the cross-linguistic interest of recognizing the two types of particle constructions.