Discourse-Linked DPs as Covert Partitives: Ellipsis and pro-form strategies in Italian and English

Michelangelo Falco; Roberto  Zamparelli

doi:10.5565/rev/isogloss.345

Discourse-Linked DPs as Covert Partitives

Ellipsis and pro-form strategies in Italian and English

Authors

Michelangelo Falco Leibniz-Zentrum Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft (ZAS)
Roberto Zamparelli https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6890-8723

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Abstract

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.

Keywords

partitives, proportions, quantifiers, ellipsis, pronouns

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