Un huevo: subjetivación, cuantificación y negación

Abstract

This paper deals with two types of quantitative constructions in which un huevo occurs: (a) In certain contexts, it functions as a quantifier noun ―that is, an inherently relational noun quantifying a nominal phrase in pseudo-partitive constructions: el libro tiene un huevo de paginas [‘the book has a hell of a lot of pages’]. The value of un huevo as a quantifier is evaluative, and the quantitative assessment is based on pragmatically or contextually established criteria. (b) In other contexts, the construction un huevo can be considered an example of minimizer, and more specifically, a vulgar or taboo minimizer. The minimizers are scalar elements which seems potentially sensitive to negative polarity, and become quantifiers after a grammaticalization process: under the scope of the negation, they can be reanalyzed as negative emphatic markers (no le importo a nadie un huevo [‘Nobody gives a toss about me’]). From the examples provided by the corpora of the RAE, the functional characteristics of the two constructions will be analyzed, and their origins will be explained. More generally, it will be shown that these two types of constructions constitute two examples of subjectification, a process by which the pragmatic meaning can become grammaticalized and become a conventional construction.