Revisiting floating quantifiers: The syntax of the Modern Greek OLA

This work is a contribution to the long-standing debate on the floating quantifier phe- nomenon in syntax and semantics. It investigates the properties of the Modern Greek floating quantifier ola ‘all’, to determine whether it belongs to the nominal or the verbal domain, and to provide an answer to the enduring question of how floating questions are generated.

Regarding its categorial status, it is argued that ola is a quantifier that is part of the DP extended projection, based on evidence from its syntactic behavior. With respect to floating, the fundamental argument is that it is a product of split PF and LF privileg- ing of copies of the ola-phrase. Split privileging redefines the labor carried out by each component. Syntax is responsible for the movement of the QP, composed of ola and its DP restriction, and the interfaces are each tasked with activating either one or both QP copies. Consequently, LF-movement for scope assignment is dispensed with, and the PF rule pronounce higher copy now co-exists with additional spellout options.

There is a considerable amount of research dedicated to determining how syntax interacts with the interfaces. Bobaljik (2002) and Tsoulas and Yeo (2017) present arguments in favor of minimizing the labor of covert syntax, and Boskovic and Nunes (2007) argue for a computational mechanism where more than one chain link can be active at each interface. This study is aligned with these efforts, and extends this line of argument to capture the floating quantifier phenomenon involved in constructions with ola.