Romanian free choice free relatives: A comparison with subtrigged free choice sentences
Romanian free choice free relatives: A comparison with subtrigged free choice sentences

Summary/Abstract: The present study focuses on the semantic and pragmatic properties of Romanian free choice free relatives (FC-FRs), with the following conclusions: the quantificational force of FC-FRs in Romanian is definite; the apparent universal force is the outcome of an evaluation constraint of the free choice particle: the syntax of FC-FRs in Romanian is the same as that of English -ever FRs; Romanian FC-FRs most closely resemble the semantics and pragmatics of subtrigged free choice determiners. The distribution and interpretation of Romanian FC-FRs is assumed to be of three main kinds: auto-licensing, on a par with subtrigging; licensing by a modal operator in a non-generic/non-habitual context on a par with FCI determiners licensed in the same environments; licensing by a generic or habitual operator (also on a par with determiner FCIs). As shown in Panaitescu (2022), the three types of contexts differ in the type of universality they display: serial universality, parallel universality (the apparent existential reading) and atemporal universality.

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