On superlatives and «Minimum» Quantities
Keywords:
Ssuperlatives; quantification; degree; scales; modalityAbstract
This article offers an exhaustive description of the grammatical and semantic properties of minimum-quantity superlatives, namely superlative expressions, generally formed with the lexical superlative mínimo ‘minimum’, which denote a minimum quantity or degree. In addition to their quantitative meaning, these constructions have a modal flavor that distinguishes two classes: those formed with a restrictive complement of teleological modality (las condiciones mínimas necesarias ‘the minimum necessary conditions’) and those in which the restrictive complement is a dynamic modal of possibility (los mínimos errores posibles ‘the least possible mistakes). Based on the syntactic and semantic differences between the two types of superlatives, we propose a different analysis for each: while the teleological mínimo is a restrictive modifier, the dynamic mínimo is a true quantifier.
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