LingLunch : Paolo Morosi

Paolo Morosi (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)
On Italian di+ART nominals. Cross-linguistic and Cross-categorial explorations

In this talk we compare Italian di+ART nominals – usually called ‘Partitive Articles’ in the literature – with French des-phrases and bare plural/mass nouns (BNs) in those languages that allow them in argumental position (e.g., Spanish, Catalan, and Italian). Due to several striking differences among the three forms, we argue that di+ART nominals, on a par with des-phrases, are referentially stronger than BNs, in that they can introduce stable discourse referents. Yet, in contrast to BNs and des-phrases, they are also referentially bounded since they can specify the spatial limits of their referents. We defend that the above differences, and the resulting contrasts these nominals are involved in derive from a unique account: they are due to the specific, referentially-anchored readings – for which di+ART specializes due to the coexistence of BNs in the same language – contributed by choice functions CH(f).