Cover not available
Part of
Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory 13: Selected papers from ‘Going Romance’ 29, Nijmegen
Edited by Janine Berns, Haike Jacobs and Dominique Nouveau
[Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory 13] 2018
► pp. 225–244

From completely free to complete freedom

Spanish adjectives of completeness as maximizers of property concept nouns

| Universidad Complutense de Madrid

Maximizers (completely, fully) are degree modifiers sensitive to the scale structure of the adjective they combine with. Spanish adjectives of completeness (completo ‘complete’, total ‘total’) show a distribution similar to that of their adverbial counterparts when modifying property concept [PC] nouns (libertad ‘freedom’, sabiduría ‘wisdom’). This paper argues that adjectives of completeness are degree modifiers in the nominal domain. It adopts a semantics of PC nouns according to which they denote substances, following Francez & Koontz-Garboden (2015). These substances can be bounded or unbounded, just like their related adjectives (libre ‘free’, etc.). By establishing a strict parallelism between adverbs and adjectives of completeness, this paper contributes to the understanding of completeness contributes to the understanding of scalarity across categories and the relation between degrees and measurements.

Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Maximality modifiers in the adjectival domain
  • 3.Adjectives of completeness modifying property concept nouns
  • 4.The semantics of property concept nouns
    • 4.1Properties of property concept nouns
    • 4.2Property concept nouns as predicates of portions of a substance
    • 4.3Source of gradability and collapse between amount and intensity
  • 5.Adjectives of completeness as maximizers of property concept nouns
    • 5.1Introducing degrees in the semantics of PC nouns
    • 5.2Adjectives of completeness are maximizers
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 13 July 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/rllt.13.14mas
References
Abney, Steven
1987 The English Noun Phrase in its Sentential Aspect. Ph.D. dissertation, MIT.Google Scholar
Arche, María J., and Rafael Marín
2015 “On the Edge: Nominalizations from Evaluative Adjectives”. In Romance Linguistics 2012: Selected Papers from the 42nd Linguistic Symposium of Romance Languages, ed. by J. Smith and T. Ihsane, 261–274. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Barker, Chris
1995 Possessive Descriptions. Stanford: CSLI Publications.Google Scholar
Bartsch, Renate, and Theo Vennemann
1973 Semantic structures: A Study in the Relation between Semantics and Syntax. Frankfurt: Athenäum.Google Scholar
Beauseroy, Delphine & Marie Laurence Knittel
2007 “Nombre et détermination: le cas des noms abstraits de qualité”. Rivista di Linguistica 19 (2): 231–262.Google Scholar
Bochnak, M. Ryan
2013 Cross-linguistic Variation in the Semantics of Comparatives. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Bresnan, Joan
1973 “Syntax of the Comparative Clause Construction in English”. Linguistic Inquiry 4 (3): 275–343.Google Scholar
Brucart, Josep Maria, and Gemma Rigau
2002 “La Quantificació”. In Gramàtica Del Català Contemporani, ed. by Joan Solà, Maria-Rosa Lloret, Joan Mascaró and Manuel Pérez Saldanya, III:1517–1589. Barcelona: Empúries.Google Scholar
Carlson, Greg
1977 Reference to Kinds in English. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Massachussetts Amherst.Google Scholar
Cinque, Guglielmo
2010 The Syntax of Adjectives: A Comparative Study. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Constantinescu, Camelia
2011 Gradability in the Nominal Domain. Ph.D. dissertation, Universiteit Leiden.Google Scholar
Cresswell, Max J.
1977 “The Semantics of Degree”. In Montague Grammar, ed. by B. H. Partee, 261–292. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Demonte, Violeta
2008 “Meaning-Form Correlations and Adjective Position in Spanish”. In Adjectives and Adverbs: Syntax, Semantics, and Discourse, ed. by Louise McNally and Christopher Kennedy, 71–100. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Dixon, Robert M. W.
1977 “Where Have All the Adjectives Gone?” Studies in Language 1 (1): 19–80. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Doetjes, Jenny
1997 Quantifiers and Selection. On the Distribution of Quantifying Expressions in French, Dutch and English. Ph.D. dissertation, Universiteit Leiden.Google Scholar
Fábregas, Antonio
2015 “Una nota sobre las lecturas de los adverbios de grado”. Lenguaje 43 (2): 247–269.Google Scholar
2016 Las nominalizaciones. Madrid: Visor.Google Scholar
Francez, Itamar, and Andrew Koontz-Garboden
2015 “Semantic Variation and the Grammar of Property Concepts”. Language 91 (3): 533–563. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kennedy, Christopher, and Louise McNally
2005 “Scale Structure and the Semantic Typology of Gradable Predicates”. Language 81 (2): 345–381. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Krifka, Manfred
1989 “Nominal Reference, Temporal Constitution and Quantification in Event Semantics.” In Semantics and Contextual Expression, ed. by Renate Bartsch, Johan van Benthem, and Peter von Emde Boas, 75–115. Dordrecht: Foris.Google Scholar
Levinson, Jerrold
1978 “Properties and Related Entities”. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 39 (1): 1–22. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Link, Godehard
1983 “The Logical Analysis of Plurals and Mass Terms: A Lattice-Theoretical Approach”. In Meaning, Use and Interpretation of Language, ed. by Rainer Bäuerle, Christoph Schwarze and Amim von Stechow, 303–323. Berlin: De Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Moltmann, Friederike
2004 “Properties and Kinds of Tropes: New Linguistic Facts and Old Philosophical Insights”. Mind 113: 1–41. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2009 “Degree Structure as Trope Structure: A Trope-Based Analysis of Positive and Comparative Adjectives”. Linguistics and Philosophy 32 (1): 51–94. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nicolas, David
2004 “The Semantics of Nouns Derived from Gradable Adjectives”. In Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 8, 197–208. Universität Konstanz.Google Scholar
2010 “Towards a Semantics for Mass Expressions Derived from Gradable Expressions”. Recherches Linguistiques de Vincennes 1: 163–198. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Partee, Barbara H., & Vladimir Borschev
2003 “Genitives, Relational Nouns and Argument-Modifier Ambiguity”. In Modifying Adjuncts, ed. by Ewald Lang, Claudia Maienborn and Cathrine Fabricius-Hansen, 67–112. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rotstein, Carmen, and Yoad Winter
2004 “Total Adjectives vs. Partial Adjectives: Scale Structure and Higher-Order Modifiers”. Natural Language Semantics 12(3): 259–288. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Roy, Isabelle
2010 “Deadjectival Nominalizations and the Structure of the Adjective”. In The Syntax of Nominalizations across Languages and Frameworks, ed. by Artemis Alexiadou and Monika Rathert, 129–158. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sassoon, Galit W.
2013 Vagueness, Gradability and Typicality. The Interpretation of Adjectives and Nouns. Brill: Leiden. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schwarzschild, Roger
2006 “The Role of Dimensions in the Syntax of Noun Phrases”. Syntax 9 (1): 67–110. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schwarzchild, Roger, and Karina Wilkinson
2002 “Quantifiers in Comparatives: A Semantics of Degree Based on Intervals”. Natural Language Semantics 10 (1): 1–41. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Solt, Stephanie
2015 “Q-Adjectives and the Semantics of Quantity”. Journal of Semantics 32 (2): 221–273. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Storto, Gianluca
2003 Possessives in Context: Issues in the Semantics of Possessive Constructions. Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Tovena, Lucia
2001 “Between Mass and Count”. In Proceedings of the 20th West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics, 565–578. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
Villalba, Xavier
2013 “Eventualities under Deadjectival Nominalizations”. Borealis. An International Journal of Hispanic Linguistics 2 (2): 241. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wellwood, Alexis
2014 Measuring Predicates. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Maryland, College Park.Google Scholar
Zamparelli, Roberto
1996 Layers in the Determiner Phrase. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Rochester.Google Scholar