LingLunch: Beatrice Pahontu Serafino (Inalco, LLF) & Carmen Dobrovie-Sorin (CNRS-LLF, Université Paris Cité)

Testing the boundaries of fel ‘kind’: A corpus-based study of Romanian taxonomic nouns 

This study presents a corpus-based investigation of the syntax and interpretation of Romanian taxonomic nouns (Ntax), focusing on fel ‘kind’ and tip ‘type’ in binominal constructions of the form [Det fel/tip of NP]. Building on Dobrovie-Sorin’s (2024) proposal that fel allows an existential but not a sub-kind reading, the study tests the hypothesis that fel can only occur in a pseudo-partitive configuration (structurally parallel to quantity phrases such as three glasses/kilos of sugar), in contrast to tip, which behaves as a canonical nominal head. Using data from the RoTenTen corpus, we examine the distribution of fel and tip with definite and indefinite articles. The results show a categorical contrast: fel never combines with the definite article and appears in indefinite contexts only under an idiomatic hedge interpretation, whereas tip freely combines with the definite article and displays no hedge reading. These findings provide strong empirical support for the proposed structural distinction and contribute to a broader understanding of taxonomic nouns and kind reference.