An overview of Basque measure phrases

This paper presents a description of Basque measure phrases and the various structures in which they occur. This paper first examines Noun Phrase internal measure phrases and it will consider their features, positions in which they can appear and their restrictions. The second aim of this paper is to analyse Adjective Phrase internal measure expressions. The possibility to combine measures with simple adjectives is very restricted. However, comparatives are different and elements resembling these measure phrases may occur with these comparative adjectives. Comparatives imply the existence of a differential between the two terms that are being compared. This differential or ‘gap’ may be completely unspecified or specified by means of a quantifier phrase. This paper will try to provide a syntactic analysis of this kind of construction.