Grammaticalized elative adjectives: the case of manso

Abstract

In this paper, we will study the syntactic and semantic behavior of the adjective manso when it functions with an elative value (i.e., superlative value), used in different regions of Argentina, as in ¡Manso frío hace! (‘It is very cold!’), ¡Mansos mates me voy a tomar! (‘I'm going to have very tasty mates!’), ¡Mansa piña le pegó! (‘She gave him a very ugly/strong punch!’). Here we specifically study its distribution in the province of Entre Ríos. Firstly, we will show that the elative use of manso is grammaticalized (following Resnik 2013) and that it inherently possesses quantificational properties. Secondly, we observe two readings available with manso depending on the class or subclass of the word it combines with: a “quality” reading in which a property related to the modified noun is intensified (e.g., manso auto, ‘very good/expensive car’); and a “quantity” reading in which an inherent property of the noun is intensified (e.g., manso frío, ‘very cold’). Based on this characteristics, we propose a unified analysis in which manso always functions as a degree quantifier and encodes two grammatical features: one exclamatory and one of extreme degree.