Definiteness and number ambiguity in the superlative construction in Arabic

This paper highlights and accounts for some interesting properties of the superlative construction in Modern Standard Arabic that have not been addressed by previous research on Arabic. One property that is focused on in this paper is the interaction between number and definiteness in this construction. It is shown that superlative adjectives have properties that are different from those of the abstract adjectives, and similar to those of quantifiers and nouns. Superlatives are similar to nouns and quantifiers in that they can host clitics, modify or quantify over noun phrases, and that these noun phrases should always be assigned the genitive case. Given these similarities, it is argued that the superlative construction behaves like a Construct State (CS), which is a nominal construction in Arabic that roughly corresponds to the English genitive construction. On a par with other elements that can head the CS (i.e., numerals, quantifiers, and nouns), the superlative adjective has nominal head properties and is the head of the superlative construction. However, it is shown that there is number ambiguity in the superlative construction that is not present in regular CS constructions, with a noun or a quantifier head. Number ambiguity shows in this construction only when the noun phrase modified by the superlative adjective is definite and plural. In this case, the superlative construction can be either singular or plural. This paper attributes this ambiguity to the quantificational nature of superlative adjectives and its interaction with definiteness within the superlative construction. Superlatives in Arabic, thus, are established as quantifiers, and the superlative construction as a Quantifier Phrase.