The Role of Focus in Affixal Quantification – Does Quantification in Natural Language Involve One Process or Two?

Despite the differences concerning the relative syntacticization of the relevant domain of restriction and focus effects in D-quantification and A-quantification, as suggested in Hajićová et al. (1998), what D-quantifiers like “most” and A-quantifiers like “always” have in common is that at some semantic level, they can be described as operators taking two set-type arguments and participating in tripartite structures. As mentioned in Chap. 2, Partee’s (1987, 1991) twofold classification of D- and A-quantification further distinguishes different roles played by syntax and focus in determining the mappings of these quantifiers to their tripartite structures. The distinction between A- and D-quantifiers thus represents different mechanisms of how surface syntax is mapped to semantic representation. In the case of D-quantification, syntax makes it visible which constituent is selected and mapped to the restrictor and the matrix: the determiner (D) as the operator, the common noun phrase (CNP), the restrictor and the verb phrase (VP), the matrix. Focus influences neither the selection nor the mapping of D-quantifiers and the insensitivity of D-quantifiers toward focus demonstrates their highly syntacticized nature, with focus failing to override the relevant syntactic partition. In contrast, A-quantification is less syntacticized, with grammatical relations or syntax not playing the determining role, except in some explicitly structured cases where there exists an explicit operator or marking to indicate a division into the restrictor and the matrix, e.g., if-clause. In simple clauses, it is obvious that a positional variability in focus will affect the partition of the tripartite structure. Focal mapping will be triggered, with the non-focused part selected to be the domain of quantification and the focus, mapped to the matrix. In other words, focus influences both the selection and mapping of A-quantifiers, with focal mapping overriding syntactic partition.