quantitative / partitive pronouns and full nominal expressions

What is it about?

This chapter provides a discussion of the major issues raised by the syntax of quantified expressions and quantitative clitics, starting from the very early stages of the Extended Standard Theory up to recent developments in generative grammar. It addresses the issue of the categorial status of the quantity items and quantified phrases, some of which occur with quantitative clitics, showing how the literature has accounted for such possible and impossible co‐occurrence facts. It then offers an overview of a number of PPs that induce “partitive” interpretation in a broad sense, showing how they relate to quantified and referential expressions, and whether they can co‐occur with quantitative clitics. Finally, it addresses the issue of the categorial status of quantitative clitics, what portion of the quantitative expression they resume, how they are different to other DP‐ and PP‐clitics, and how they relate to the null portions of nominal expressions known as nominal ellipsis.

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Why is it important?

The internal structure of quantified nominal expressions and the constructions that arise with so-called partitive or quantitative clitics are of crucial importance in the study of nominal syntax.

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