The scope of alternatives: indefiniteness and islands

Charlow, Simon

doi:10.1007/s10988-019-09278-3

Cited by 25 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 63 publications

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“…Following Charlow (2014Charlow ( , 2019, the crucial compositional device includes two polymorphic shifters, as in (44), which actually generalize Karttunen's (1977) compositional theory. Specifically, η can shift any element to a singleton set containing it, as in (44-a), while a wh-expression is decomposed into an alternative set m and a scope-taking operator , as in (44-b).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The basic question composition is borrowed from Karttunen (1977) and the basic dynamic composition from Charlow (to appear). The two semantics are synthesized with help of the compositional device proposed by Charlow's (2014Charlow's ( , 2019. The outcome is a dynamic compositional semantics of questions in the H/K tradition.…”

Section: A Dynamic Semantics For Wh-questionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Deriving short answers from Hamblin sets: A case study of Mandarin wh-conditionals

2019

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A short answer to a wh-question cannot be directly derived from the latter’s Hamblin–Karttunen denotation, which is a set of propositions. However, I argue that such a derivation is possible when the Hamblin-Karttunen denotation is dynamicized. In particular, wh-expressions have dynamic discourse contributions in the sense of introducing discourse referents (drefs), as evidenced by cross-sentential binding. Drefs introduced by wh-expressions not only provide a way to model short answers to wh-questions, but are also useful for modeling a non-canonical wh-construction known as wh-conditionals in Mandarin.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: A Dynamic Semantics For Wh-questionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Deriving short answers from Hamblin sets: A case study of Mandarin wh-conditionals

2019

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“…Rawlins uses pointwise Hamblinian composition both in building the adjunct and in combining the adjunct with the main clause. In contrast, we use a scope taking mechanism in both cases, following Karttunen 1977 andCharlow 2018. Over and beyond other advantages, thinking about universal free choice and unconditionals in terms of scope makes it easy to see the central parallelism: AKÁR expressions scope over a possibility modal in the former case, and over "if" in the latter.…”

Section: More On Fluctuationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Charlow 2018 shows how the island-free scope of in-situ indefinites that often motivates the use of Hamblin semantics can be replicated employing type-shifters with a Karttunen-style semantics.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Unconditionals and free choice unified

Szabolcsi

2019

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Rawlins (2013: 160) observes that both unconditionals and more classical free choice can be meta-characterized using orthogonality, but does not actually unify the two. One reason may be that in English, different expressions serve in these roles. By contrast, in Hungarian, AKÁR expressions serve as NPIs, FCIs, and unconditional adjuncts, but not as interrogatives or free relatives. This paper offers a unified account of the Hungarian data, extending Chierchia 2013 and Dayal 2013. The account produces the same unconditional meanings that Rawlins derives from an interrogative basis. This result highlights the fact that sets of alternatives arise from different morpho-syntactic sources and are utilized by the grammar in different ways, but the results may fully converge.

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“…Note that this operator is similar to the operator proposed in, e.g Charlow (2019),. in that it allows us to compose sets.…”

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confidence: 92%

The role of focus marking in disjunctive questions: A QUD-based approach

Hoeks

2021

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Disjunctive questions are ambiguous: they can either be interpreted as polar questions (PolQs), as open disjunctive questions (OpenQs), or as closed alternative questions (ClosedQ). The goal of this paper is to show that the difference in interpretation between these questions can be derived via effects of focus marking directly. In doing so, the proposal brings out the striking parallel between the prosody of questions with foci/contrastive topics on the one hand and that of alternative questions on the other. Unlike previous approaches, this proposal does not rely on structural differences between AltQs and PolQs derived via ellipsis or syntactic movement. To show how this works out, an account of focus and contrastive topic marking in questions is put forward in which f-marking in questions determines what constitutes a possible answer by signaling what the speaker's QUD is like. By imposing a congruence condition between f-marked questions and their answers that requires answers to resolve the question itself as well as its signaled QUD, we predict the right answerhood conditions for disjunctive questions.

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The scope of alternatives: indefiniteness and islands

Cited by 25 publications

References 63 publications

Deriving short answers from Hamblin sets: A case study of Mandarin wh-conditionals

Deriving short answers from Hamblin sets: A case study of Mandarin wh-conditionals

Unconditionals and free choice unified

The role of focus marking in disjunctive questions: A QUD-based approach

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