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This article analyses a phenomenon not frequently dealt with in the grammar of Romance languages, namely, closest conjunct (number) agreement (CCA) between determiners, adjectives and nouns in Spanish structures containing conjoined singular Ns: [DP D (A) [N1 y N2] (A)]. Using new corpus data, we apply statistical tests to assess the theoretical and empirical claims of the analysis. We first offer a description of the plural semantics of these structures. Regarding syntax, we show that, despite the plural semantics of the DP, determiners and prenominal adjectives agree with the closest conjunct (N1) (e.g. Una.F.SG. fuerte. SG lluvia.F.SG y viento. M.SG azotaron. PL la ciudad ‘A heavy rain and wind battered the city’). As for postnominal adjectives, CCA with N2 alternates with full (plural) agreement (e.g. Una. F.SG. lluvia. F.SG y viento. M.SG {inoportuno. M.SG / inoportunos. M.PL} azotaron. PL la ciudad ‘An inopportune rain and wind battered the city’). Within a generative framework, we analyse CCA in the prenominal field and full agreement of postnominal adjectives as syntactically derived from the interaction of the Agree operation and a reformulated theory of phi-features. CCA of postnominal adjectives is analysed to be the result of post-syntactic relations, that is, linear adjacency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article approaches common topics in the diachronic literature on modal categories from the perspective of adjectives. It thus expands on what has been found for the better studied category of modal auxiliaries as regards sources of modal meaning and pathways of change. Most importantly, it proposes two new pathways from premodal to (dynamic) modal meaning, one followed by essential and vital, and one followed by crucial and critical. It also shows that in the four cases the development of dynamic meaning depends on the emergence of two semantic properties, viz. relationality and potentiality. Finally, this study makes it clear that the mechanisms driving the various semantic changes are not new, but rather have proved useful in explaining a varied set of developments. For the final semantic extension of the adjectives from dynamic to deontic meaning, for instance, the process of subjectification (Traugott, Language 65: 31–55, 1989) will be invoked. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Differences between languages in count (e.g., cup) and mass (e.g., rice) nouns have been shown to impact cognition, but few studies have directly examined how the morphology associated with count and mass constructions is acquired and linked to differences in meaning. Two experiments examined the relation between English and Spanish plural morphology and the interpretation of nouns as individuated objects. In Experiment 1, English- and Spanish-speaking children and adults participated in two tasks. One task examined how participants produced plurals for nouns. Results from this task indicated that both language groups make a distinction in their use of plural morphology for count and mass nouns between 5 and 7 years of age. However, that morphological distinction was stronger and occurred earlier among English speakers. A second task examined whether the count (but not the mass) nouns in each language denoted individuated objects. Speakers of both languages tended to treat all nouns as referring to individuated objects at 5 years of age. Beginning at 7 years of age, English speakers made a reliable distinction between the referents of mass and count nouns. Speakers of Spanish however, treated both types of nouns as referring to individuated objects in this task throughout development. Experiment 2 examined the interpretation of nouns by adult speakers of both languages using a different task, and the results offer converging evidence that Spanish speakers are more likely than English speakers to interpret nouns as referring to individuated objects. The reason for the difference between English and Spanish is discussed in terms of the proportion of count and mass nouns acquired early in development and as a function of developing concepts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]