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

To many of-these today not them-have-I seen
2. Molts d'aquests (avui) no han vingut
Many of-these today not have come
0 n. 1. A dos amics meus (avui) els han arrestat
To two friends mine (today) them-have arrested
2. Dos amics meus (avui) han tingut un accident
Two friends mine today have had an accident
o. 1. Alguns amics (al casament) no els hi convido
Some friends to-the wedding not them-there-invite-I
2. Alguns amics (al casament) no hi vindran
Some friends to-the wedding not there-will-come
p. 1. A un meu amic (l'altre dia) el van arrestar
To one my friend the other day him-arrested-they
2. Un meu amic (l'altre dia) va venir a veure'm
One my friend the other day came to see-me
Examples from a. to d. are unacceptable as preverbal (and even worse if not adjacent to
the verb): they are all 'strong' quantifiers hardly interpretable as D-linked or 'referential'. They are
all [-human]. From e. to j., they are acceptable only if adjacent to the verb (with various degrees
of ill-formedness if they are not). The rest of the examples are fully acceptable even if there is
not adjacency to the verb. The gradation can be clearly related to the 'strength'/'weakness'
distinction. The more a quantifier is likely to be interpreted as D-linked or 'referential', the more
it is acceptable as dislocated. I think that in fact the intermediate degrees of ill-formedness are
actually not 'intermediate' in grammatical status, but rather in pragmatic acceptability: what is
intermediate is the chances for the speaker to imagine a likely pragmatic context where D-linking
or 'referentiality' are plausible. So for instance the 'referential' use of algú 'somebody' implies that
the speaker is wanting to be enigmatic or unexplicit in referring to a person. It is more usual that,
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