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Lexical Variation in Degree wh‐questions in Spanish and the Internal Structure of wh‐phrases 1
Author(s) -
Eguren Luis
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
studia linguistica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.187
H-Index - 28
eISSN - 1467-9582
pISSN - 0039-3193
DOI - 10.1111/stul.12141
Subject(s) - variation (astronomy) , degree (music) , linguistics , interrogative , covert , expression (computer science) , quantifier (linguistics) , variable (mathematics) , mathematics , computer science , philosophy , physics , mathematical analysis , astrophysics , acoustics , programming language
This paper provides a formal account of the pattern of lexical variation found in adjectival degree wh‐questions in current Spanish. It is proposed that Spanish degree wh‐forms heading an interrogative clause ( cuán ‘how much’, qué tan ‘what so’, cómo de ‘how of’, and cuánto de ‘how much of’) share an internal structure including (at least) two components, a wh‐operator and a (degree) variable, which are both phonetically realized in the Old and American Spanish degree wh‐expression qué tan . This analysis is extended to the American Spanish nominal wh‐form qué tanto(s) ‘what so much/many’ and to the general Spanish manner wh‐expression qué tal ‘what such’. It is further argued that all interrogative wh‐forms in Spanish comprise a wh‐quantifier and an overt or covert variable ranging over different types of entities (individuals, amounts, manners, degrees, etc.), also tentatively suggesting that this could apply across languages.