Meanings
- uncountablehuman sciencesThe phenomenon whereby free-choice items, which are normally ungrammatical in non-negative episodic sentences, become licensed in the presence of a modifier.
Cualquiera occurs in precisely those cases where we have identified English any as FC [free choice]. They are acceptable in characterizing sentences, in modal contexts including partitives and with subtrigging in affirmative episodic contexts.
1998, Veneeta Dayal, “"Any" as Inherently Modal”, in Linguistics and Philosophy, volume 21, number 5, →DOI, →JSTOR, page 469
Origin
Coined by linguist Jean Ehrenkranz LeGrand in 1975 in her PhD thesis Or and Any: The Semantics and Syntax of Two Logical Operators.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
subtrigging. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/subtrigging
“subtrigging.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/subtrigging. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “subtrigging,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/subtrigging.
Source: subtrigging on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.