The discourse function of floated quantifiers

English floated quantifiers (FQs) all, both, and each, although associated with a subject nominal, occur after modals, have, and be. This paper argues that these expressions serve as exhaustive discourse partitives, evoking a universal representation of an accessible discourse group, usually central...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of pragmatics Vol. 42; no. 6; pp. 1737 - 1761
Main Author Reed, Ann M.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01.06.2010
Elsevier
Subjects
Descriptive studies and applied theories
Discourse partitivity
Discourse Structure
English
Floated quantifiers
Linguistics
Modal Verbs
Quantifier float
Quantifiers
Semantics and pragmatics
Discourse partitivity
Quantifier float
Floated quantifiers
English
Discourse function
Floating quantifier
Pragmatics
Online AccessGet full text
ISSN0378-2166
1879-1387
DOI10.1016/j.pragma.2009.10.004

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Summary:English floated quantifiers (FQs) all, both, and each, although associated with a subject nominal, occur after modals, have, and be. This paper argues that these expressions serve as exhaustive discourse partitives, evoking a universal representation of an accessible discourse group, usually central to the discussion, and that in FQ position, this function is localized to the predicate. Evidence includes: distributional parallels with overt partitives and intensive reflexives and interpretive patterns for nonfloated and floated all and the interpretation of FQs with indefinite conjoined hosts, etc. The localized interpretation of FQs, triggering a re-evaluation of the subject with respect to the predicate, is shared by overt partitives and intensive reflexives in float position.
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ISSN:0378-2166
1879-1387
DOI:10.1016/j.pragma.2009.10.004