Jaume Solà i Pujols - Departament de Filologia Catalana ...

(13) He enviat tres exemplars a quatre editorials
Have-I sent three copies to four publishing-houses .
'I've sent three copies to four publishing houses'
In 0 both numerals are inside the VP, and we have the two relative scope readings ('3
copies and possibly 12 publishing houses' and '4 publishing houses and possibly 12 copies'), and
in addition we have the non-scope reading, with 'just 3 copies and 4 publishing houses'. If,
however, one of the numerals is a preverbal subject, as in the following example:
(14) Tres directors han dirigit quatre films
Three directors have directed four films
we have the scopeless reading and only one of the scope readings, namely the one with the
preverbal subject having wide scope. As I said, even in English the wide scope reading has been
reported to be preferred, but it is simply the only option in Catalan. 153
Negative quantifiers 154 cannot either have narrow scope when allowed as preverbal
subjects or CLLD elements:
153 There are actually some speakers who admit it, but most
people steadily exclude it. My Italian reports are also less
clear-cut.
154 I use the term 'negative quantifier' for convenience.
Zanuttini (1991) argues these elements in some Romance languages
are negative universal quantifiers involving negative concord,
and argues against a negative polarity item analysis. I cannot
address the question here. Only recall that in Romance NSLs
these elements do not cooccur with the sentence negation
particle when they are preverbal.
1