Another Quantificational Variability Effect: The indefinite pronoun neemen ‘no one’ as a floating quantifier and as a negative adverb in Fering–Öömrang (North Frisian)

•New data on the use of neemen ‘no one’ in Fering–Öömrang (North Frisian) are presented.•Neemen can be ambiguous between a floating quantifier and a negative adverb reading.•I argue that neemen in this use shows a Quantificational Variability Effect.•The case of neemen links up the analyses of Quantificational Variability Effects and Quantifier Float.•The analysis of neemen provides evidence for the adverbial approach towards floating quantifiers.

In this paper some special uses of the indefinite pronoun neemen in Fering–Öömrang (North Frisian) are discussed. Alongside its normal use as a negative personal quantifier (‘no one’) this element can be employed as a floating quantifier (‘none of us/you/them) and as a negative adverb (‘never’ or ‘not (at all)’). In most cases, it is in fact ambiguous between a floating quantifier and an adverbial reading, whereby the latter seems to be contingent on the former. It will be argued that this ambiguity is an instance of Quantificational Variability. The case of Fering–Öömrang neemen thus links up the analyses of Quantificational Variability Effects and Quantifier Float and provides some evidence that both of these phenomena involve predicate modification.