Quantification, Definiteness, and Nominalization

This book addresses recent developments in the study of quantifier phrases, nominalizations, and the linking definite determiner. It reflects the intense reconsideration of the nature of quantification, and of fundamental aspects of the syntax and semantics of quantifier phrases. Leading international scholars explore novel and challenging ideas at the interfaces between syntax and morphology, syntax and semantics, morphology and the lexicon. They examine core issues in the field, such as kind reference, number marking, partitivity, context dependence and the way presuppositions are built into the meanings of quantifiers. They also consider how in this context definiteness and the definite determiner D play a central role, and the way in which D is also instrumental in nominalizations. With nominalization, the lexical semantic contribution of verbs and their arguments becomes central, and within the perspective of this book the question is asked whether syntactic nominalizations share with noun phrases the same external layer, namely the functional projection DP. If so, what exactly is the contribution of D in this case, and how much of the lexical correspondence between nouns and verbs is preserved? This book presents the latest thinking on cross-paradigm and cross-linguistic approaches in three of the most vibrant and productive research areas in linguistics. It paves the way towards a more comprehensive understanding of how quantification, definiteness, and nominalizations are encoded in the grammar.

Anastasia Giannakidou is Associate Professor of Linguistics at the University of Chicago. She has studied philosophy of language and linguistics, and is the author of many articles in natural language semantics and syntax on topics such as negative polarity, free choice, quantification, ellipsis, focus, tense, and mood. Her previous book Polarity Sensitivity as (Non)Veridical Dependency appeared with John Benjamins in 1998.
Monika Rathert is Assistant Professor at the Institute of Cognitive Linguistics, University of Frankfurt/Main. She studied German, English and Theoretical Linguistics in Tubingen, and her research interests include morphosyntax (nominalizations, argumentlinking), semantics (tense, adverbs), and language and the law. Her PhD thesis Textures of Time was published 2004 in the Studia Grammatica series at Akademie Publishers, Berlin.