Abstract
Abstract This paper compares two interrogative terms—ʔaddēʃ and kam—in Syrian Arabic. Both of these form questions about quantity. I argue, though, that ʔaddēʃ and kam are fundamentally different both syntactically and semantically. ʔaddēʃ can be separated from the term that contributes the scale it asks about, which is typical of degree operators in Syrian Arabic. Various scales are compatible with ʔaddēʃ. This makes ʔaddēʃ similar to English how as in how high, how fast, how much, etc. Kam, on the other hand, combines only with a singular count noun and asks how many instances of the count noun denotation have the property the remnant sentence denotes. This, and syntactic and morphological parallels between kam and numerals in Syrian Arabic, point to the conclusion that kam is an interrogative numeral.
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