Quantification: A Cross-Linguistic Investigation

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This is a three-year cross-linguistic project dealing specifically with the syntax and semantics of quantification. Questions addressed include: 1) Is the use of noun phrases as one means of expressing quantification universal? Are there languages with no "essentially quantificational" noun phrases? 2) What are the similarities and differences, within and across languages, in the structure and interpretation of quantification expressed with noun phrases and quantification expressed otherwise? 3) Is the basic distinction between noun phrases and verb phrases (or sentences) due to a semantically universal noun-verb distinction, or is it brought about by the distinction in their closed-class functor (specifier) categories DET (determiner) and AUX (auxiliary)? The languages to be investigated include English, German, Dutch, Italian, French, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and the Wakashan languages of British Columbia.