The quantifier-like adjectives of Brazilian Portuguese (BP)
adjetivos como determinantes plurais em português brasileiro (PB)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14393/DL45-v15n1a2021-1Keywords:
Determiners, Plural, Degree adjectives, Quantifying adjectives, Degree semanticsAbstract
This article addresses why some adjectives can work as plural determinants in Brazilian Portuguese (BP). When playing the role of a determinant, they select pluralities, displaying quantity information (‘Diferentes comidas foram preparadas para o jantar.’/ *‘Diferente comida foi preparada para o jantar.’). The plural morpheme is essential for the grammaticality of those determiners. However, the same adjective (p. egg. ‘diferente’ ‘different’) can appear in its singular form as a modifier without threatening the acceptability of the sentence (‘A cozinheira iniciou o dia fazendo uma diferente comida para o jantar.’). We propose that Q-Adjectives, or those adjectives showing this behavior in BP, are a subgroup of the class of Relative Gradual Adjectives (RGAs) (KENNEDY; MCNALLY, 2005). Since RGAs have special syntactic and semantic properties, we also propose that they can operate as plural determinants. We will also explain why not every RGA can behave as a determiner, by claiming that a special type of comparison is required for adjectives to become quantificational (Q-Adjectives).
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