The syntax and semantics of indefinite determiner doubling constructions in varieties of German

Abstract

This article investigates the syntax and semantics of a construction attested in several varieties of German, in which an indefinite determiner occurs twice (e.g., ein so ein Kerl ‘a such a guy’). It is argued that this phenomenon, which we refer to as indefinite determiner doubling, is restricted to structures containing a quantificational element, i.e., the elements appearing between the two determiners are quantifiers, providing additional evidence for Matthewson’s (Natural Language Semantics, 9: 145–189, 2001) analysis of quantification, according to which a generalized quantifier is created in two steps, crucially involving a DP complement. The top, or ‘doubling,’ determiner operates on this quantificational structure, functioning as a cardinality element. The analysis is extended to indefinite determiner doubling constructions in varieties of English (e.g., a such a man) and to constructions with definite determiner doubling in (some varieties of) German. The micro-variation observed across German (and English) dialects with respect to the presence versus absence of the doubling determiner is confined to the PF-component, whose different properties across the two systems impose a preference, or a choice, for one or the other spell-out form (phonetically overt or phonetically silent). The variation observed with respect to the elements between the two determiners within and across different varieties of German is due to the (re-)analysis of these closed-class elements within different (functional) layers of DP-structure.