Bare singulars and relative measures in Brazilian Portuguese

Abstract

Brazilian Portuguese has received much attention in the typology of noun phrases for being a language with a fully-fledged determiner system that also allows generalized bare singular nominals. This paper investigates the use of bare singulars in relative measure constructions, such as um terço de mulher (literally, ‘one third of woman’). We show that Ahn & Sauerland’s (2015, 2017) and Pasternak & Sauerland’s (2020) analysis of relative measure constructions, combined with existing theories of bare singulars, predicts that bare singulars should be attested in relative measure constructions and derives their range of attested interpretations in these constructions. At the same time, we argue that these combined analyses predict that bare singulars should be attested in relative measure constructions in other Romance languages. This prediction is problematic and highlights the need for further research on the interaction of bare singulars and relative measures.