Ignorance and attenuation

Abstract

We introduce the existential modifier cumva in Romanian, which is ambiguous between a manner adverbial and an attenuating modifier. We describe its distribution and interpretation in declaratives and show that cumva has two possible meaning contributions, depending on the element it modifies: (i) ignorance, when it acts as a manner adverb, and (ii) attenuation, when it combines with a gradable predicate.