Abstract
This article addresses an as yet unnoticed Spanish superlative construction attested in the mid area of Northern Spain. This construction features two striking properties: (i) it contains a relative pronoun which, at first glance, does not seem to introduce a TP (there is no overt verb to its right), which raises the question how the relative pronoun can obtain its Case/theta role; (ii) even if it were true that the relative pronoun actually introduces a TP and heads a full subordinate clause (presumably a free relative), the latter would arise in an anomalous position which disrupts the natural word order of the main clause and where it seems to lack any obvious licensor (as an adjunct, argument or predicate). A simultaneous answer to both problems will be obtained from the proposal that the construction at issue is a “syntactic amalgam” (Lakoff 1974): (i) assuming Kluck’s (2011) approach to amalgams, the relative pronoun of the construction can unproblematically be considered to introduce a sluiced TP, so it heads a full relative clause and does have a (covert) Case/theta-role licensor; (ii) the disruptive position of the relative clause and the opacity for licensing from the main clause are now expected as they are the defining properties of the so-called “interrupting clauses” in Horn-/Andrews-amalgams. As in Kluck (2011), such properties will be assumed to result from the operation “par-merge” giving rise to paratactical configurations (de Vries 2007).
Highlights
The non-standard superlative construction illustrated in (1) is attested in the mid area of Northern Spain.(1) Ellai marca la quei más goles.she scores who.fem.sg most goals “She scores the most goals.”(“comparative” reading; Szabolcsi 1985)Data like these are found in Spanish provinces like Huesca, Zaragoza, Álava, Burgos, Palencia, or Navarra ((2)) yet remain unnoticed in descriptive grammars.(2) a
The P a preceding relative pronoun (RP) in (36a) is the accusative Case manifestation of [+human] direct objects in Spanish. The presence of such P can be hardly understood if la que has just become part of a complex quantifier la que más, but it is if the underlying configuration for (36a) is (37); here, the [+human] PP a la que is base-generated as the direct object of the V quiere ‘loves’ in IC, and raises to Spec-ForceP: (37) [CP=HC [TP1 ella te quiere a ti [ParP [QP ej ] [Par’ Par [IC=relative clause (RC)=ForceP [PP a la que]i [Force' Force [FocusP [Superlative Quantifier Phrase (SQP) más]j [Focus’ Focus [TP2 ella quiere ti tj]]]]]]]]
Summary and conclusions This paper dealt with a dialectal Spanish superlative construction attested in the mid area of Northern Spain
Summary
The non-standard superlative construction illustrated in (1) is attested in the mid area of Northern Spain.(1) Ellai marca la quei más goles.she scores who.fem.sg most goals “She scores the most goals.”(“comparative” reading; Szabolcsi 1985)Data like these are found in Spanish provinces like Huesca, Zaragoza, Álava, Burgos, Palencia, or Navarra ((2)) yet remain unnoticed in descriptive grammars.(2) a.
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