ROMANIAN UNEXPECTED RELATIVES

This paper addresses the syntactic-semantic analysis of an apparently sui generis construction that has so far been detected in Romanian only. The construction, called the "R(omanian) U(nexpected) R(elative construction)") has the superficial appearance of a degree-denoting complex DP, except that it lacks the definite article that is typically found in the latter. Despite its indefinite appearance, an RUR has definite semantics and differs semantically from a minimally difference DP that possesses the definite article in that the relative-external NP fails to be presupposed. The analysis proposed in this paper locates the difference between RURs and comparable definite DPs in a formal feature [EQ] that is found in RURs only, and which triggers the interpretation of CP as a function from degrees to restricted intensional generalized quantifiers of degrees.