Introduction

Abstract

Partee (1987, 1991, 1995) proposes a basic dichotomy between D- and A-quantifications for English. Under such a dichotomy, D stands for “determiner” and D-quantifiers refer to quantificational expressions that function to build arguments (NPs, DPs) of predicates such as “every” in “every student”. On the other hand, A-quantifiers refer to adverbial type quantifiers that combine with verbs to form verb phrases, such as “often” and “usually” in English, with A standing for the cluster of adverbs, auxiliaries, affixes and argument-structure adjusters. It is thus clear that unlike D-quantification, A-quantification is not homogeneous and morpho-syntactically it is more diverse than D-quantification. Examples for Mayali, Straits Salish, Passamaquoddy and Northern Sotho have been given in Evans (1995), Jelinek (1995), Bruening (2008), and Zerbian and Krifka (2008), respectively and it is found that A-quantifiers might surface as verbal affixes, incorporated roots, preverbs, auxiliary verbs, as well as independent adverbs and PPs. Some of their examples are given below for illustration.