Abstract
After presenting some basic genetic, historical and typological information about Basque this chapter outlines the quantification patterns it expresses. It illustrates various semantic types of quantifiers, such as generalized existential, generalized universal, proportional, definite and partitive which are defined in the Quantifier Questionnaire in Chapter 1. It partitions the expression of the semantic types into morpho-syntactic classes: Adverbial type quantifiers and Nominal (or Determiner) type quantifiers. For the various semantic and morpho-syntactic types of quantifiers it also distinguishes syntactically simple and syntactically complex quantifiers, as well as issues of distributivity and scope interaction, classifiers and measure expressions, and existential constructions. The chapter describes structural properties of determiners and quantified noun phrases in Basque, both in terms of internal structure (morphological or syntactic) and distribution.
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- 1.
- 2.
Basque, like Spanish (Luján 1981, Schmitt 1992, Fernández Leborans 1999), distinguishes between a locative copula and a characterizing one (Etxepare 2003a). Intuitively, the locative copula egon ascribes a temporary property to the subject of predication (ib), whereas the characterizing copula izan introduces an inherent property of the subject (ia).
(i)
a.
Jon oso
barregarria
da
Jon very
funny-D
is
‘Jon is a very funny guy’
b.
Jon oso
barregarri
dago
(mozorro
horrekin)
Jon very
funny
is-loc
costume
that-with
‘Jon is very funny (in that costume)’
- 3.
In the examples in (3), the subjects bear absolutive case and they are unmarked. However, when the word order is [NP+Q], the quantifier is the element that is case marked.
(i)
Ikasle
zenbait-e-k
goxoki-ak
jan zituzten.
student some-ep-erg candy-D.pl-abs eat aux.pl
‘Some students ate candies.’
- 4.
The ‘*’ in *zeren means that although the form that appears after it has not been documented it is taken to be the form from which the present-day form zein>zen derived.
- 5.
As is the case in Maori where they use an element meaning ‘yes’.
(i)
Ae he taniwha.
yes a taniwha
‘Yes, there are taniwhas.’ (from Bauer (1993), cited in McNally (to appear))
- 6.
Right now, I’m unable to tell where exactly the border of these two uses should be (or is) placed and I will leave this for future research.
- 7.
Eastern dialects do not use the locative copula egon and the copula izan ‘be’ is used to express what in western dialects is expressed by means of egon and izan.
- 8.
The affix -(r)ik is the Basque partitive marker (cf. Section 3.5.10; cf. Larramendi 1927, Azkue 1905, 1923; cf. de Rijk 1972 for historical references; cf. also Etxeberria 2010b). The partitive is a polarity item, and it occurs mostly in polarity contexts, in positions in which an absolutive would otherwise occur (see de Rijk 1972).
- 9.
In the most western dialect, i.e. in Bizkaia.
- 10.
Hainbat derives from the combination of the genitive forms *haren ‘of it’ and the numeral bat ‘one’.
- 11.
The prenominal use of these three quantifiers is almost exclusively limited to the eastern dialects.
- 12.
In older Basque, asko ‘many’ and franko ‘many’ could combine with a [NP+partitive case] construction:
(i)
a.
Jostailurik asko erosi zuten.
toy.part many buy aux
‘They bought many toys’
b.
Lagunik franko ikusi dut gaur kalean.
friend.part many see aux today street.in
‘I have seen many friends in the street today’
Although the partitive in quantifier constructions can be said to have been common to all Basque areas, in present day Basque, this use is almost exclusively restricted to one expression: eskerrik asko ‘lit.: thank-part many’; cf. de Rijk (1972).
- 13.
Both hainbat and hainbeste can be used in comparative structures. Honesbest e does not give rise to this comparative structure.
(i)
Zuk
hainbat/hainbeste diru
daukat nik.
You-erg as much as
money have
I-erg
‘I have as much money as you’
Thanks to an anonymous reviewer for pointing this out to me.
- 14.
However, when this happens their behavior is not that of quantifiers (except maybe for franko and gutxi). Cf. the discussion in examples (60–61).
- 15.
Aski ‘enough’ (which is not treated in this paper) can also be used in this kind of construction.
(i)
Gizon jator aski-a
da hori! (Euskaltzaindia 1994: 107)
man nice enough-D.sg
is that
‘That is quite a nice guy!’
Aski can also appear in preadjectival position.
(ii)
Aski polit-a
da opari
hori!
nice many-D.sg
is present
that
‘The present is very nice.’
Note that formerly asko meant ‘enough’ in the eastern dialects.
- 16.
Except for franko ‘many’ which accepts appearing with the D but only when this is combined with the nominal expression. See example (60).
- 17.
Although I don’t provide examples here, the singular form of the D (+singular agreement with the verb) does not improve the sentence at all.
- 18.
A reviewer points out that it is possible to find a few examples of ugari ‘abundant, copious’ and asko ‘many, much’ followed by a demonstrative (the examples below are taken from Ereduzko Prosa Gaur [Modern Exemplary of Prose in Basque], http://www.ehu.es/euskara-orria/euskara/ereduzkoa/):
(i)
Eta gaur, bera ezagutu zuten asko horien
ordezkari
moduan…
and today s/he know aux.pl many those.gen representative way.in
‘And today, as a representative of those many that got to know her/him…’
(Martin Ugalderen Ezagutza, Berria 2004/11/11).
(ii)
Ba, jaso hau: urteko gau oskarbi horietan botatako ihintzarekin…
well, take this year.gen night clear sky those.in thrown dew.with
‘Well, take this: with the dew fallen in those clear nights of the year…’
(P. Zabala, Naturaren Mintzoa, Alberdania 2000, p. 411).
Two comments are in order here: (i) most of the speakers that I have consulted (myself included) regarding this kind of example find them (at least) strange, or even ungrammatical; and (ii) both asko horien ‘of those many’ and gau oskarbi horietan ‘in those clear nights’ in the examples above are anaphoric in that they make reference to a previously mentioned set; note that they cannot be used with a deictic interpretation, that is, it is not possible to use ikasle asko hauek ‘lit.: student many these’ while pointing out a set of students; right now, I do not have an explanation of why this is so. Finally, the reader is referred to Etxeberria and Giannakidou (2010) for a possible syntactic and semantic analysis of this kind of constructions in languages where they are completely grammatical, e.g. Greek, English, Spanish, etc.
- 19.
Note that when franko combines with a plural DP as in (60b) it is interpreted as an adverbial; see below.
- 20.
The Basque Corpus of the XXth Century [http://www.euskaracorpusa.net/XXmendea/Konts_arrunta_fr.html] shows that the use of franko with a D, as in (60), is much more reduced statistically than that of franko with no D, as in (41b–b’). Thanks to Patxi Goenaga for pointing this out to me.
- 21.
Some speakers do not accept gutxi+ak but accept the construction if instead of the D a demonstrative is used.
- 22.
We could think that the D that appears with gutxi in sentences like (61) is the D related to the relative clause. But if this were the case other quantifiers should also allow the D when in relative clauses, and they do not.
(i)
*Helmuga gurutzatu zuten txirrindulari asko-ak
finish line cross
aux.pl cyclist
many-D.pl
leher eginda iritsi ziren.
burst done arrive aux.pl
‘The many cyclists that crossed the finish line did so completely exhausted (intended)’
Furthermore, the fact that gutxi appears with the D when in relative clauses is not a necessary condition since it can also appear without it.
(ii)
Helmuga
gurutzatu zuten
txirrindulari gutxi iritsi
ziren leher
eginda.
finish line
cross
aux.pl cyclist
few arrive
aux.pl burst done
‘A few cyclists that crossed the finish line were completely exhausted’
Another possibility is that gutxi, just like numerals, can be definite and referential (cf. Section 3.2.3). This could be correct since the denotation of [NP+gutxiak] seems to be indeed referential (cf. Etxeberria 2005 for discussion on this; cf. also Etxeberria in prep.).
- 23.
See Etxeberria (in prep.) for a possible analysis of the behavior of franko when combined with a singular DP.
- 24.
Sentence (62c) would be grammatical if franko was interpreted as a degree modifier meaning ‘very’ modifying the adjective itsusi ‘ugly’ that follows it (cf. example (54) above). However, this is not the interpretation that interests us here.
- 25.
Gutxi ‘few’ can also be combined with the comparative and the superlative suffixes as in (ia–b). The difference between asko and gutxi is that the quantifier reading we just described for gehi-en is not found with gutxi-en.
(i)
a. gutxi-ago
b. gutxi-en
few-comp
few-sup
‘less’
‘least’
- 26.
Numeral baino gutxiago ‘less than numeral’ shows exactly this same behavior, but due to lack of space this quantifier will not be treated extensively in this paper. For more on this quantifier (as well as quantifiers such as numeral baino gehiago ‘more than numeral’) the reader is referred to Etxeberria (2005, in prep.).
- 27.
Note that gutxi batzuk ‘a few’ does not share with gutxi the restriction of appearing in preverbal position as the SOV order of the following example clearly shows.
(i)
Tenis
jokalari
gutxi
batzuek
erraketa
hautsi
dute.
tennis
player
few
some-erg
racket
break
aux.pl
‘A few tennis players have broken the racket.’
It seems as though the necessity of appearing in preverbal position is a consequence of the negative nature of gutxi (and things like bost N baino gutxiago ‘less than five N’). Cf. Section 3.5.5; cf. also Etxeberria (in prep.).
- 28.
The classifier barra ‘loaf’ is borrowed from Spanish.
- 29.
Artalde ‘herd of sheep’ is a compound noun coming from the combination of ardi ‘sheep’ and talde ‘group’. The noun talde ‘group’ can be used as a classifier-like element with all animals, although artalde is the most typical one.
- 30.
The reader is referred to Etxeberria and Etxepare (in prep.) for extensive discussion on individuating expressions and measure expression as well as for a possible analysis.
- 31.
Two other frequency adverbs derived from pila batetan ‘many times’ are kristoren pilatan ‘lit. Christ-gen many-indef.loc’ which has the meaning ‘many many times’, and (derived from this last) we can also have Jesukristoren pilatan ‘lit. Jesus Christ-gen many-indef.loc’ which would get the meaning ‘many many many times’. Basically, both kristoren and Jesukristoren are used as degree modifiers.
- 32.
Thanks to Xabier Artiagoitia for pointing this out to me.
- 33.
Note the presence of the element ere, which means ‘even’ in behin ere. This probably relates behin ere to focused elements that in Basque need to appear in preverbal position (cf. end of Section 3.2.4). This element will not be treated in this paper and I will leave it for future research.
- 34.
Some Basque dialects possess overt morphological marker for yes/no questions: al is one of them.
- 35.
Guzti and den have different origins. Guzti historically derived from an adjective, -ti is a suffix that creates adjectives (see Etxeberria 2005). Den derived from the relative form den; dena, a free relative, would mean ‘what there is’, implying that we make reference to ‘everything there is’, probably due to the D. However, nowadays they are not considered adjectives, cf. Etxeberria (2005).
- 36.
- 37.
It is possible to find bakoitz ‘each’ combined with a demonstrative in the Basque literature tradition, a use that is lost in present-day Basque. However, in such contexts, its meaning is clearly not ‘each’, but ‘unique’, equal to the current bakar ‘unique’, which is an adjective.
(i)
Hasera-ko
hizkuntza
bakoitz
hura.
beginning-rel
language
unique
that
‘That initial unique language.’
Thus, bakoitz can be argued to have become a Q from an adjective (as is argued for guzti, den, gehien -cf. Etxeberria 2005); in fact, note that that was actually its original use as the following examples also corroborate.
(ii)
Jainko-a-ren
seme
bakoitz-a.
God-D.sg-gen
son
unique-D.sg
‘The unique son of God’
(iii)
Guk dugu sinhesten eta ezagutzen Iainko bat bera, eta hura dela esentia
bakoitz bat.
‘We believe in and know one God, who is a unique essence.’
Sentence (ii) would nowadays mean ‘each son of God’, but its real meaning is ‘the unique son of God’. In (iii) on the other hand – example taken from Leizarraga (1571) –, bakoitz ‘unique’ combines with bat ‘one’, a usage that is clearly ungrammatical in present-day Basque.
- 38.
There is another element in Basque that may be used to express the same meaning: oso ‘whole’, a qualifying adjective that is commonly used as a degree modifier meaning ‘very’ (see Section 3.2.4).
(i)
Jonek
etxe
oso-a
garbitu
du.
Jon-erg
house
entire-D.sg.abs
clean
aux.sg
‘Jon has cleaned the entire house.’
Despite the initial similarity, there’s a clear-cut distinction between the universal quantifiers and oso ‘whole’. While guzti ‘all’ and den ‘all’ can be combined with mass terms, this is not possible for oso ‘whole’.
(iia)
Mattinek
ron
guzti-a/den-a
edan
du.
Mattin-erg
rum
all-D.sg.abs/all-D.sg.abs
drink
aux.sg
‘Mattin has drunk all of the rum.’
(iib)
*Mattinek
ron
oso-a
edan
du.
Mattin-erg
rum
entire-D.sg.abs
drink
aux
- 39.
There is third operator that functions as almost that will not be treated in this paper: abantzu.
(i)
Hamabiak
abantzu
dira.
twelve-D.pl
almost
are
‘It’s almost twelve o’clock’
This operator is restricted to eastern dialects.
- 40.
Ia and kasik can combine with NPs, postpositional phrases, VPs, or even a full clause. Usually, the phrase initial position is the most common position (ia), but they can also appear in final position, in which case they seem to form an independent intonational unit (ib). The intermediate position is ungrammatical.
(i)
a.
ia/kasik mundu guztian
‘lit.: almost world all-D-in;
in almost the whole world’
b.
mundu guztian, ia/kasik
c.
*mundu ia/kasik guztian
- 41.
In the eastern dialects they used the unweakened form oro instead of the weakened suffix -ero: egunoro ‘every day, daily’, hiloro ‘every month, monthly’. In Souletin oro is used not as a suffix, but as a quantifier to which the instrumental case marker is attached: egun oroz ‘every day, daily’, hil oroz ‘every month, monthly’.
- 42.
Zuazo (2008) argues that the free choice universal edo+interrogative is a feature of western Basque.
- 43.
The suffix -ko is usually treated as a postposition due to the fact that it attaches to Postpositional Phrases (ia). It’s been described as locative genitive (ib).
(i)
a.
Laguneki-ko harremana
b.
Donostia-ko hondartza
friend-with-ko relationship-D
Donostia-ko beach-D
‘The relationship with the friend’
‘The beach from Donostia’
The suffix -(r)en on the other hand attaches to a DP. Note that (ib) with -(r)en would be ungrammatical.
(ii)
a.
Ama-ren etxea
b.
*Donostia-ren hondartza
mum-ren house-D
‘My mum’s house’
Cf. among many others Euskaltzaindia (1991), de Rijk (2008).
- 44.
According to some speakers, both the plural and the singular D are equally grammatical in (131a) with no change in meaning.
(i)
Ikasleen
erdi-a
berandu etorri zen.
student-D.pl.gen
half-D.sg
late come aux
‘Half of the students came late’
The construction in (i) parallels the construction of languages like Spanish (la mitad de los N ‘lit.: the.sg half of the N’) or French (la moitié des N ‘lit.: the half of the N’).
- 45.
In Basque, mass terms must appear with the D. Etxeberria (2005, 2010a) argue that mass terms are number neutral in that they do not bear number morphology at all and that the singular agreement with the verb and with other elements is the result of the default status of the singular (see Delfitto and Schroten 1991, Doetjes 1997, Dayal 2004, Krifka 2004 among others).
- 46.
Gehiengo-a ‘majority-D’ could replace gehienbat in (137).
(i)
Emakumeen
gehiengo-ak
Obamaren
alde
bozkatu
zuten.
women-D.pl-gen
majority-D.sg-erg
Obama-gen
side
vote
aux
‘Women voted mostly for Obama’
However, as we have already seen in the previous section, gehiengo is not an adverb.
- 47.
Eskuarki can also be used as the equivalent of English certainly or surely.
(i)
Futbolari
hau
ez
da
ligako
onena
izango
eskuarki.
football-player
this
no
is
league-rel
best-D.sg
be
surely/certainly
‘This football player will certainly/surely not be the best of the league’
- 48.
Some authors argue that the plural form of the Basque D [-ak] is a single element (cf. Goenaga 1978, 1991, Euskaltzaindia 1993, Artiagoitia 1997, 1998, 2002, 2003, 2004, Rodriguez 2003, Trask 2003). Etxeberria (2005, in prep.), on the other hand, defends that singular [-∅] and plural markers [-k] and D are base-generated in different syntactic positions; see also Eguren (2006b). Be that as it may, for ease of exposition, I will refer to [-a] and [-ak] as the singular and the plural D respectively.
- 49.
Although there is no proximate singular in modern Basque, -ori, -or, -au or o are attested in early texts; it is still possible to find -o in actual Bizkaian in hemen bert o n ‘right here’, along with hemen bert a n.
- 50.
It is important to note that the presence of an indefinite determiner or a value judgment cardinal or any other weak quantifier (cf. Section 3.2.4) also makes the sentence grammatical.
(i)
Mutil
bat/asko/batzuk berandu
iritsi zen.
boy
one/many/some late
arrive aux.past
‘A/Many/Some boy(s) arrived late’
- 51.
When Basque definite DPs (plurals and masses) fill the direct object slot, the definite DP can but need not make reference to a specific set and can obtain the so-called existential interpretation (i) (cf. the gloss in (143b)).
(i)
a.
Amaiak
goxoki-ak
jan
ditu
Amaia-erg
candy-D.pl-abs
eat
aux
‘Amaia has eaten (the) candies’
b.
Izarok
ardo-a
edan
du
Izaro-erg
wine-D.sg-abs
drink
aux
‘Izaro has drunk (the) wine’
The examples in (i) are ambiguous between a specific and an existential interpretation: (ia) ‘Amaia has eaten the candies’ or ‘Amaia has eaten candies’; (ib) ‘Izaro has drunk the wine’ or ‘Izaro has drink wine’. (Cf. Etxeberria (2005, 2010a, in prep.), for extensive discussion on this and a possible analysis)
- 52.
Note that in Souletin (most eastern Basque dialect) BNs can appear in object position (only).
(ii)
a.
Bortüan
ikusi
dut
behi,
ardi
eta
mando(Coyos 1999: 232)
mountain.D-in
see
aux
cow
sheep
and
mule
‘I’ve seen cows, sheeps, and mules in the mountain’
b.
Manexek
hur
edan
dizü.
Peiok
ogi
jan
dizü.
Manex-erg
water
drink
aux
Peio-erg
bread
eat
aux
‘Manex has drunk wine. Peio has eaten bread’
This paper will not consider this usage and will assume that the absence of the D makes the sentence ungrammatical; cf. Etxeberria (in prep.) for a possible analysis.
- 53.
Thanks to an anonymous reviewer for pointing this out to me.
- 54.
- 55.
Note that except for oro, the rest of Basque universal Qs need to appear with the D (cf. Section 3.3).
- 56.
The fraction word erdi ‘half’ can never appear by itself in Basque and it needs the presence of the D or of some other quantifier or numeral (cf. Section 3.4).
- 57.
Note that when hainbat is interpreted ‘as many/much as that’ can combine with mass terms; ex. from Sarasola (2007: 669).
(i)
Toki haietan ez zuten hainbat hotz, ezta piztien
beldurrik ere.
place those-in no aux hainbat cold either beast-gen afraid-part even
‘In those place they were not afraid neither of the cold, nor of beasts’
Thanks to an anonymous reviewer for pointing this out to me.
- 58.
The universal quantifiers den ‘all’ and oro ‘all’ could replace guzti in (162) with no change in meaning. Bakoitz ‘each’ gives an ungrammatical result.
- 59.
The sentence in (162c) becomes grammatical when the exceptive phrase is moved from the focus position (cf. fn. 1 and end of Section 3.2.4); in (i) the element that occupies the focus position is festara ‘to the party’.
(i)
Ikasle
guztiak
Jon
(izan)
ezik/salbu/kenduta,
festara
etorri
ziren.
student
all-D.pl
Jon
be
except
party-to
come
aux
I don’t have anything interesting to say about it right now and will leave it for future research.
- 60.
Thanks to an anonymous reviewer for pointing this out me.
- 61.
Etxeberria (2005, 2009), Etxeberria and Giannakidou (2010) argue that QP internal D is a contextual domain restrictor; partitives also behave as contextual restrictors. Now, the reason why (i) in Basque is ungrammatical is due to the fact that double contextual restriction yields ungrammaticality.
(i)
*Ikasleetatik
guztiak
berandu
iritsi
ziren.
student-D.pl-abl
all-D.pl
late
arrive
aux
The reason these sentences are ungrammatical is that domain restriction is already fulfilled by means of the D that composes with the Q and additional contextual restriction is redundant.
- 62.
Cf. Etxeberria (2005) for an extended explanation of these facts.
- 63.
Some Basque speakers accept Basque NPIs with a free choice reading, provided certain conditions are met: if the matrix verb is in the future, if modals are added, and also if the matrix verb is focalized (cf. Laka 1990: 206). Example from Laka 1990: (48)).
(i)
Lekukoek
ukatu
egingo
lukete
nik
esandako
ezer.
witness-D.pl-erg
deny
aux.fut
would
I-erg
say
anything
‘The witnesses would deny anything that I would say’
In general, however, most speakers would use other variants (see above) to express free choice.
- 64.
The same behaviour can be observed in languages such as English or Spanish as the following examples show.
English:
(i)
a.
The guests were many/few students.
b.
The guests were many/few.
(ii)
a.
The guests were some students.
b.
*The guests were some.
Spanish:
(iii)
a.
Los
invitados
eran
muchos/pocos
estudiantes.
the.pl
guest.pl
be.past
many/few
students
‘The guests were many/few students.’
b.
Los
invitados
eran
muchos/pocos.
the.pl
guest.pl
be.past
many/few
‘The guests were many/few.’
(iv)
a.
Los
invitados
eran
algunos/unos
estudiantes.64
the.pl
guest.pl
be.past
some/some
students
‘The guests were some students.’
b.
*Los
invitados
eran
algunos/unos.
the.pl
guest.pl
be.past
some/some
‘The guests were some.’
Cf. Etxeberria (2005, in prep.) for an extensive presentation of the data and for a possible analysis.
- 65.
It might seem at first sight that the sentences in (181) are grammatical since sentences with the same word order in the overt syntax can be grammatical.
(i)
Gonbidatuak,
batzuk/zenbait
ziren.
guest-D.pl
some/some
aux.past
‘Some were guests.’
Note however that for the sentence to be grammatical a pause after gonbidatua k is always necessary (as in the example in (i)), and on the other that in this kind of examples the element that is the predicate is gonbidatuak, and not batzuk. In fact, gonbidatuak in (i) has been moved to the front from sentence final position, and the natural word order is (ii).
(ii)
Batzuk/Zenbait
ziren
gonbidatuak.
some/some
aux.past
guest-D.pl
‘Some were the guests.’
- 66.
As the attentive reader will have already noticed, Basque does not have a universal D-quantifier parallel to English every, oro does not behave as such either. This, one may think, can have an effect on the unambiguous readings that we obtain in Basque, however, (and maybe unexpectedly) bakoitz, the equivalent of each also doesn’t force ambiguous interpretations; see below, cf. also Section 3.3.
- 67.
I will not talk about the scopal behaviour shown by the universal D-quantifier oro ‘all’ due to the fact that the data that I’ve collected are not conclusive. Thus, I’ll leave both the collection of more data as well as a possible conclusion about the scopal behaviour for future research. However, the first impression that I have is that [NP oro] – plus agreement with the verb in singular – behaves almost like bakoitz, i.e. like a distributive Q, and that [NP-D oro] – plus agreement with the verb in plural – behaves like guzti and den.
- 68.
According to some Basque speakers, the sentences in (192) are grammatical if bakoitz ‘each’ is interpreted as ‘each and every one of the students’. However, most Basque speakers agree with the judgement given for (192).
- 69.
According to some Basque speakers, the sentence in (i) – where the subject ikasle bate k ‘one student’ appears in (preverbal) focus position and liburu bakoitz ‘each book’ is part of the ‘theme’ (cf. Vallduví 1993 and references therein) – makes the sentence in (192b) grammatical and gives us a OWS reading.
(i)
Ikasle
batek
irakurri
zuen
liburu
bakoitz-a.
student
one-erg
read
aux.sg
book
each-D.sg.abs
‘One student read each book.’
I don’t have anything interesting to add right now; the reader is referred to Etxeberria and Irurtzun (in prep.).
- 70.
According to some Basque speakers (the author included), this question becomes grammatical when the object galdera bakoitza ‘each question’ appears in topic position (left dislocated), as in (i). The only possible reading for (i) is OWS.
(i)
Galdera
bakoitza,
zein
ikaslek
erantzun
zuen?
question
each-D.sg
which
student.erg
answer
aux
‘Each question, which student answered?’
- 71.
When the ergative marker attaches to the plural D -ak, the resulting form is -ek.
- 72.
The interrogative zenbat loses its mass interpretation ‘how much’ due to the fact that -na is a distributive suffix and as a consequence can only attach to count term.
- 73.
Artiagoitia (2003) claims that there are a few non-standard uses of floating asko ‘many, much’.
(i)
Perretxikoak
mendian
asko
ikusi
ditut.
mushroom-D.pl
mountain-in
many
see
aux
‘I have seen many mushrooms in the mountain’
I fully agree with the data offered by Artiagoitia, however, the ‘floating’ use of asko is restricted to some syntactic positions, a restriction that does not affect oro’s floated use.
(ii)
a.
*Ikasleek
askok
ikusi
dute
hori.
student-D.pl-erg
many-erg
see aux that
b.
*Ikasleek
hori
askok
ikusi
dute.
student-D.pl-erg
that
many-erg see
aux
c.
*Ikasleek
hori
ikusi
dute
askok.
student-D.pl-erg
that
see
aux many-erg
I do not have anything interesting to say about these cases right now, and I will leave it for future research.
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Acknowledgments
The research conducing to this paper has benefited from the Basque Government projects GIC07/144-IT-210-07 and Hm-2008-1-10, from the projects FR2559 Fèderation Typologie et Universaux Linguistiques, from the project TSABL (ANR-07-CORP-033) and ISQI (ANR-2011-JSH2-004-1) from ANR as well as from the project FFI2008-00240 from MCE. Many thanks to Ricardo Etxepare, Beñat Oyharçabal, Xarles Bidegain, Aurelia Arcocha, Jasone Salaberria, Irantzu Epelde, Aritz Irurtzun, Maia Duguine, Javi Ormazabal, Patxi Goenaga, and Xabier Artigoitia for help with the data. Thanks also to the anonymous reviewer for useful comments. I’m very grateful to Edward Keenan and Denis Paperno for inviting me to write this paper. Usual disclaimers apply.
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Etxeberria, U. (2012). Quantification in Basque. In: Keenan, E., Paperno, D. (eds) Handbook of Quantifiers in Natural Language. Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy, vol 90. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2681-9_3
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