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Partitive
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===Partitive prepositional phrase approach=== Advocates of the ''partitive prepositional phrase (partitive PP)'' approach claim that the partitive meaning is integrated into a PP. Structurally, a quantifier is followed by a noun, and a preposition in between denotes the quantifier is a subset of the following noun. Within a partitive PP construct, the preposition "of" contains lexical content similar to ‘out of’ and always projects to a PP, hence the name partitive PP. Supporters of partitive PP often assume the presence of an empty noun following the quantifier in order to specify the two sets in relation and the preposition introduces the bigger set. [[Catalan language|Catalan]] provides evidence for this underlying structure:<ref name=syntax /> {{interlinear|number=9. a) |[tres [<sub>N</sub> '''e'''][<sub>PP</sub> d’aquells [<sub>N</sub> homes] d’allà] |three {} {} of-those {} men over-there |}} {{interlinear|number={{hidden text|9.}} b) |tres homes d’aquells homes d’allà |three men of-those men over-there |}} {{interlinear|number={{hidden text|9.}} c) |tres homes d’aquells '''e''' d’allà |three men of-those {} over-there |}} In the first example, the notion denotes the set of "three men" is a subset of "those men". The second example has an overt noun inserted between the quantifier and the partitive PP and is still considered grammatical, albeit odd and redundant to a native speaker of [[Catalan language|Catalan]]. The third sentence has an empty noun holding the final noun position. Altogether this is taken as strong evidence that an empty noun category should be posited to license a partitive meaning. Alternatively, some linguists argued an empty noun placement is unnecessary if one considers the quantifier’s role to be quantifying a subset. The noun following the partitive PP automatically becomes the bigger set and the whole nominal represents a subset-set relation.
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