Some comments on Aguiar & Rodrigues’s article ‘Quando Expressões Nominais Quantificadas podem ser topicalizadas’

Abstract

Some comments on Aguiar & Rodrigues’s paper are offered.
Aguiar & Rodrigues argue that quantified DPs with an explicit modifier as well as bare quantifiers with implicit modifiers
may be topics. They assume a larsonian DP structure in which
D takes the modifier as its complement and the noun as the
restrictor. Based on some tests on topicality (KATO, 1998), I
show that partitive DPs with explicit modifiers may be topics
but not bare quantifiers with implicit modifiers, which I suggest
are an instance of identificational focus (KISS, 1998). I argue
for the need of assuming specificity as the accurate notion
concerning the kind of semantic restriction imposed on topics.
Based on that, I suggest that Aguiar & Rodrigues should define
how the specific restriction on topics would be achieved for
partitive DPs with quantifiers from a compositional calculus
on the larsonian structure or whether additional assumptions
would have to be made in relation to the larsonian
configuration.