ABSTRACT
Consider, for example, the phrase many too many marbles. Suppose we are ignorant of the syntax of the language, but we know that many and too many are quantity expressions, the latter signifying excessive amount, and that marbles is a count noun. Then one of the few ways of taking the phrase semantically will be to take the first many as qualifying too many, and many too many as qualifying marbles. About
The following rule skeletons are then specified:
(seeFiengo(1974)formorediscussionofthishypotethicalnullarticle).[Spec,Q1 ]istakentocomprisethe degreeparticles,er,too,as,so,etc;morebeingderived fromermuchandlessandfehlerfromerlittleanderfehl, respectively.
