Introduction Partitive Constructions and Partitive Elements

Abstract

Whereas most languages have proper partitive constructions and pseudo-partitive constructions, not all languages have partitive elements like partitive determiners, partitive pronouns and partitive case. This Introduction serves to introduce these partitive constructions and elements, to briefly discuss their diachronic evolution, their morphological and syntactic expression and their occurrence in various languages and dialects. After the presentation of this background information, the papers that are part of the volume are introduced.