[Lingtyp] R: The type "la bellezza di cento euro"

[Raffaele Simone]

Dear colleagues and friends,

thank you very much for your comments, suggestions and biblio indications.
The data I'm gathering up about this phenomenon will become a section of a larger paper on "Light Words", a concept that extends and generalizes the notion "Light Verbs" and "Light Nouns", trying to explain this phenomenon in a unified way.
When finished, my paper will be circulated on this list for comments.
Best,

Raffaele

==============
Emeritus Professor, Università Roma Tre
Hon C Lund University
Membre de l'Académie Royale de Belgique
Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres de France
Accademico (corrispondente) della Crusca
Prix de l'Institut de France-Fondation Bonnefous 2022
===============
Attività e pubblicazioni // Activity and publications http://uniroma3.academia.edu/RaffaeleSimone

Da: Malcolm Ross <malcolmross42 at gmail.com>
Inviato: mercoledì 5 giugno 2024 02:04
A: Raffaele Simone <raffaele.simone at uniroma3.it>
Cc: lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
Oggetto: Re: [Lingtyp] The type "la bellezza di cento euro"

Dear Raffaele,

Constructions of this kind have played a role in the histories of some Oceanic Austronesian languages. See the attached paper.

-Malcolm

Emeritus Professor Malcolm Ross FAHA | Linguistics, School of Culture, History and Language, College of Asia & the Pacific | HC Coombs Building #9 | The Australian National University | Canberra ACT 0200 | Australia | CRICOS Provider #00120C



On 31 May 2024, at 18:39, Raffaele Simone via Lingtyp <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org<mailto:lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>> wrote:

Dear colleagues and friends,

in Italian and other Romance languages there is a binominal NP structure as in the following examples:

italian

  1.  Ho speso la bellezza di cento euro
I have spent the beauty of one hundred euros
"I spent a good one hundred euros"

  1.  Ho pagato questa casa la miseria di centomila euro
I have paid this house the misery of one hundred thousand euros.
"I paid a paltry one hundred thousand euros for this house"

  1.  Ha sposato un tesoro di ragazzo
She has married a treasure of boy
"She married a darling boy"

  1.  Faccio uno schifo di lavoro
I do a crap of job
"I have a crap job"

            The NP is structured as follows:

A specifier + N1, a sort of "Light Noun" indicating a positive or negative property (bellezza,tesoro, schifo ecc.) of N2 + di + N2, a noun representing the "semantic phrase head", which the property indicated by N1 refers to.

>From the predicative point of view, the quality attributed to N2 is not encoded by an adjective or sim. but is transferred to N1.
Other constraints:
a. the list of the possible N1 is very limited;
b. some N1 (as bellezza in 1, miseria in 2) don't indicate a property but refer to an amount, so working as indefinite quantifiers.

Could you indicate to me similar NP structures in other languages?
Thanks.

Raffaele (Simone)

PS For Light Words, See Simone, R. & F. Masini. 2014. "On Light Nouns". In Simone, R. & F. Masini (eds). Word Classes. 51-74. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

==============
Emeritus Professor, Università Roma Tre
Hon C Lund University
Membre de l'Académie Royale de Belgique
Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres de France
Accademico (corrispondente) della Crusca
Prix de l'Institut de France-Fondation Bonnefous 2022
===============
Attività e pubblicazioni // Activity and publicationshttp://uniroma3.academia.edu/RaffaeleSimone

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