The semantics of (not so) bare nominals in Rioplatense Spanish

Carolina Oggiani

Autores

Carolina Oggiani Universidad de la República

Palavras-chave:

Bare Singulars, Rioplatense Spanish, Weak Definites, Weak Indefinites, Strong Definites

Resumo

In this article we examine a group of bare singular count nominals (BNs) in Rioplatense Spanish (RPS) that appear in argument position, thus far not deeply addressed in the literature (MASULLO, 1996; LACA, 1999). Despite BNs in RPS are considered to be part of a lexically restricted phenomenon, we argue for their productivity and systematic behaviour. Considering that general Spanish has a rich determiner system, we build a semantic model to explain why these nouns appear bare in argument positions. To this end, we present semantic and syntactic evidence that aims to show that BNs in RPS have different behaviours. Specifically, we account for their three possible interpretations: a weak definite reading, a weak indefinite reading and a strong definite reading. We associate these three readings to different functional projections above the NP. Even though BNs are superficially bare, we argue that their differences lie in different types of bareness.

Downloads

Não há dados estatísticos.

Referências

AGUILAR-GUEVARA, Ana. Semantics, lexicon and pragmatics. Utrecht: LOT, 2014.

BARKER, Chris. Possessives and relational nouns. In: MAIENBORN, Claudia; VON HEUSINGER, Klaus; PORTNER, Paul (ed.). Semantics: An International Handbook of Natural Language Meaning. Berlin/Boston: Walter de Gruyter, 2011.

BORIK, Olga; ESPINAL, María Teresa. On definite kinds. Recherches linguistiques de Vincennes, França, v. 41, p. 123-146, 2012.

BOSQUE, Ignacio. El sustantivo sin determinación: la ausencia del determinante en la lengua española. Madrid: Visor, 1996.

CARLSON, Greg; SUSSMAN, Rachel. Seemingly indefinite definites. In: KESPER, Stephan; REIS, Marga (ed.). Linguistic evidence: Empirical, theoretical, and computational perspectives, v. 85. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2005. p. 71-86.

CARLSON, Greg; SUSSMAN, Rachel; KLEIN, Natalie; TANENHAUS, Michael. Weak Definite Noun Phrases. In: DAVIS, Christopher; ZABBAL, Youri (ed.). Nels 36: Proceedings of the 36th Annual Meeting of the North East Linguistic Society. Amherst: GLSA, 2006. p. 179-196.

ESPINAL, María Teresa. Bare nominals in Catalan and Spanish. Their structure and meaning. Lingua, v. 120, n. 4, p. 984-1009, 2010.

ESPINAL, María Teresa; MCNALLY, Louise. Bare nominals and incorporating verbs in Spanish and Catalan. Journal of Linguistics, v. 47, n. 1, p. 87-128, 2011.

DAYAL, Veneeta. A semantics for pseudo-incorporation. New Jersey: Ms. Rutgers University, 2003.

DAYAL, Veneeta. Hindi pseudo-incorporation. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory, v. 29, n. 1, p. 123-167, 2011.

DE SWART, Henriëtte. Constructions with and without articles. In: BORIK, Olga; GEHRKE, Berit (ed.). The Syntax and Semantics of Pseudo-Incorporation. Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2015. p. 126-156.

DOBROVIE-SORIN, Carmen; BLEAM, Tonia; ESPINAL, María Teresa. Bare nouns, number and types of incorporation. In: VOGELEER, Svetlana; TASMOVSKI, Liliane (ed.). Non-definiteness and Plurality. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2006. p. 51-79.

GHOMESHI, Jila; MASSAM, Diane. The proper D connection. In: GHOMESHI, Jila; PAUL, Ileana; WILTSCHKO, Martina (ed.). Determiners: Universals and variation, Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2009. p. 67-96.

LACA, Brenda. Presencia y ausencia de determinante. In: BOSQUE, Ignacio; DEMONTE, Violeta (ed.). Gramática descriptiva de la lengua española. Madrid: Espasa Calpe, 1999. p. 891-928.

LONGOBARDI, Giuseppe. Reference and proper names: A theory of n-movement in syntax and logical form. Linguistic Inquiry, Massachusetts, v. 25, n. 4, p. 609-665, 1994.

LONGOBARDI, Giuseppe. N-raising and place names. In: AMBROSINI, Riccardo; BOLOGNA, Maria Patrizia; MOTTA, Filippo; ORLANDI, Chatia. (ed.). Scríbthair a ainm n-ogaim. Scritti in memoria di Enrico Campanile. Pisa: Pacini, 1997.

LÖBNER, Sebastian. Concept types and determination. Journal of Semantics, v. 28, n. 3, p. 279-333, 2011.

MASULLO, Pascual. Los sintagmas nominales sin determinante: una propuesta incorporacionista. In: BOSQUE, Ignacio (ed.). El sustantivo sin determinación: la ausencia del determinante en la lengua española. Madrid: Visor, 1996. p. 169-200.

MATUSHANSKY, Ora. Why rose is the rose: On the use of definite articles in proper names. Empirical Issues in Syntax and Semantics, v. 6, p. 285-307, 2006.

STVAN, Laurel. Semantic incorporation as an account for some bare singular count noun uses in English. Lingua, v. 119, n. 2, p. 314-333, 2009.