Quantification support with indeterminate pronouns

Abstract

This paper is concerned with one possible way of having quantification in a language without determiners, taking Japanese as a case study. After starting with data that suggests deep connections between the morphosyntax employed for constituent questions and for quantification, we present a formal account that initially considers sentences without any quantification to see how argument linking is nevertheless achieved when case marking is added to noun phrases. We then look at how quantification can subsequently be added to the system with the aid of indeterminate pronouns (e.g., dare, nani, dono) and particles (ka and mo). We end by considering the kinds of grammatical effects that arise from this integration.