Complex quantifiers with genitive and concord in Old English and beyond

Abstract

In this paper, we establish the empirical correlation that in Old English, the morphology on the quantified element is related to the morpho-syntactic status of the quantifier. While quantified DPs are always in the genitive, quantified non-DPs vary between genitive and concord based on the status of the quantifier. The quantifiers that take only genitive dependents contain uninflected particles and cannot be modified; those that occur with non-DP-size dependents in concord are inflected as adjectives and can be modified by degree words. We propose that particle-like quantifiers are in a head position but that quantifiers with adjectival properties are in a specifier position. The quantified dependents are also argued to be in different positions: all DP dependents are in the genitive and proposed to be the complement of N; in contrast, non-DP dependents are either in a specifier position (if genitive) or part of the nominal projection line (if concord). We wind up with the proposal that head-like quantifiers assign genitive case to their specifiers but adjective-like quantifiers do not. This proposal is confirmed in two related languages: most quantifiers in Old High German are of the head type and thus occur with genitive dependents, while all Old Icelandic quantifiers under investigation are adjective-like and take non-DP dependents in concord.