Dos construcciones cuantitativas: partitiva y de término terciario

Abstract

In Spanish, there are two quantitative constructions apparently very similar, but with specific semantic and syntactic properties which reveal two different forms of quantification: the so-called partitive and pseudopartitive constructions which, attending to the morphosyntactic characteristics of each of them, we will call partitive constructions and tertiary term-constructions. Following the principles of Functional Grammar to approach their analysis, some of the common topics about the issue in the literature are examined. The paper then focuses on those aspects which have customarily been treated as distinctive properties of both constructions: the nouns which may act as quantifiers and their syntactic possibilities, the scope of agreement phenomena, the functional value of the preposition de, as well as the different types of nouns which may follow the preposition and their capacity to topicalize.