Work

Ignorance and attenuation

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: We introduce the existential modifier cumva in Romanian, which is ambiguous between a manner adverbial and an attenuating modifier. We describe its distribution and interpretation in declaratives and show that cumva has two possible meaning contributions, depending on the element it modifies: (i) ignorance, when it acts as a manner adverb, and (ii) attenuation, when it combines with a gradable predicate.

Source: Proceedings of the Amsterdam Colloquium

DOI: 10.53437/s7zsew04

Authors: Anamaria Fălăus, Andreea C. Nicolae

Institutions: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Nantes Université, Leibniz-Centre General Linguistics

Language: English

Topic: Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation

Subfield: Language and Linguistics

Field: Arts and Humanities

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Funders: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, H2020 European Research Council

Award: Realizing Leibniz’s Dream: Child Languages as a Mirror of the Mind