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Interpreting Questions with Non-exhaustive Answers A dissertation presented by Yimei Xiang to The Department of Linguistics in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the subject of Linguistics Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts May 2016 © 2016 – Yimei Xiang All rights reserved. iii Dissertation Advisor: Prof. Gennaro Chierchia Yimei Xiang Interpreting Questions with Non-exhaustive Answers Abstract This dissertation investigates the semantics of questions, with a focus on phenomena that challenge the standard views of the related core issues, as well as those that are technically difficult to capture under standard compositional semantics. It begins by re-examining several fundamental issues, such as what a question denotes, how a question is composed, and what a wh-item denotes. It then tackles questions with complex structures, including mention-some questions, multi-wh questions, and questions with quantifiers. It also explores several popular issues, such as variations of exhaustivity, sensitivity to false answers, and quantificational variability effects. Chapter 1 discusses some fundamental issues on question semantics. I pursue a hybrid categorial approach and define question roots as topical properties, which can supply propositional answers as well as nominal short answers. But different from traditional categorial approaches, I treat wh- items as existential quantifiers, which can be shifted into domain restrictors via a BeDom-operator. Moreover, I argue that the live-on set of a plural or number-neutral wh-item is polymorphic: it consists of not only individuals but also generalized conjunctions and disjunctions. Chapter 2 and 3 are centered on mention-some questions. Showing that the availability of mention-some should be grammatically restricted, I attribute the mention-some/mention-all ambi- guity of 3-questions to structural variations within the question nucleus. The variations include the scope ambiguity of the higher-order wh-trace and the absence/presence of a null dou. Further, I solve the dilemma between uniqueness and mention-some by allowing the short answers to be interpreted with wide scope. Chapter 4 investigates the role of false answers (FAs) in interpreting indirect questions. I focus on the following two facts: first, FA-sensitivity is involved in interpreting mention-some questions; second, FA-sensitivity is concerned with all types of false answers, not just those that are potentially complete. These facts challenge the current dominant analysis that derives FA-sensitivity by exhaustifications. In Chapter 5 and 6, I turn to multiple-wh questions and questions with quantifiers. Crucially, contra the current dominant view, I argue that pair-list readings of multi-wh questions are not subject to domain exhaustivity, unlike those of questions with a universal quantifier. Chapter 6 explores two approaches to composing quantifying-into question readings, including a higher-order question approach and a function-based approach. Both approaches manage to treat quantifying-into question as regular quantification. Chapter 7 presents a uniform treatment for the seemingly diverse functions of the Mandarin particle dou. I argue that dou is an exhaustifier that operates on pre-exhaustified sub-alternatives. This chapter provides a baseline theory for the derivation of disjunctive mention-all answers to mention-some questions. Contents 1 Introducing a hybrid categorial approach1 1.1 Introduction...........................................1 1.2 The starting point: Caponigro’s Generalization.......................2 1.3 Comparing canonical approaches of question semantics.................4 1.3.1 Categorial approaches.................................4 1.3.2 Hamblin-Karttunen Semantics............................5 1.3.3 Partition Semantics...................................9 1.3.4 Comparing lambda abstracts, Hamblin sets, and partitions........... 11 1.3.5 Summing up...................................... 13 1.4 A hybrid categorial approach................................. 13 1.4.1 Topical property.................................... 14 1.4.2 Answerhood....................................... 17 1.4.3 Question coordinations................................ 19 1.5 Applications of the hybrid categorial approach....................... 23 1.5.1 Getting Caponigro’s Generalization: Free relatives................ 23 1.5.2 Quantificational variability effects.......................... 25 1.5.3 Wh-conditionals in Mandarin............................. 27 1.6 Live-on sets of wh-items.................................... 29 1.6.1 The traditional view.................................. 29 1.6.2 Disjunctions....................................... 30 1.6.3 Conjunctions...................................... 31 1.6.4 Analysis......................................... 33 1.7 Summary............................................. 35 2 Mention-some questions 37 2.1 Introduction........................................... 37 2.2 What is a mention-some reading?.............................. 38 2.3 What is not a mention-some reading?............................ 41 2.3.1 Ex-questions with partial readings.......................... 42 2.3.2 9-questions with choice readings........................... 43 2.4 Earlier approaches of mention-some............................. 44 iv CONTENTS v 2.4.1 The pragmatic line................................... 45 2.4.2 The post-structural line................................ 46 2.5 A structural approach: Fox(2013).............................. 48 2.5.1 Completeness and answerhood............................ 49 2.5.2 Deriving the ambiguity................................ 50 2.5.3 Advantages and remaining issues.......................... 52 2.6 Proposal............................................. 53 2.6.1 Deriving mention-some................................ 54 2.6.2 Conjunctive mention-all................................ 58 2.6.3 Disjunctive mention-all................................ 58 2.7 Comparing the exhaustifiers in deriving free choice.................... 65 2.8 Summary............................................. 70 3 The dilemma 71 3.1 Dayal’s presupposition..................................... 72 3.1.1 Uniqueness effects................................... 72 3.1.2 Questions with collective predicates......................... 74 3.2 The dilemma........................................... 76 3.3 Fox(2013) on uniqueness................................... 78 3.4 Proposal............................................. 80 3.4.1 Scope ambiguity and type-lifting........................... 81 3.4.2 Preserving mention-some............................... 82 3.4.3 Preserving the merits of Dayal’s presupposition.................. 84 3.4.4 Weak island effects................................... 86 3.5 Anti-presuppositions of plural questions.......................... 87 3.6 Summary............................................. 88 4 Variation of exhaustivity and FA-sensitivity 89 4.1 Introduction........................................... 89 4.2 Background........................................... 90 4.2.1 Interrogative-embedding predicates......................... 90 4.2.2 Forms of exhaustivity................................. 92 4.3 Two facts on FA-sensitivity.................................. 94 4.3.1 FA-sensitivity under mention-some......................... 94 4.3.2 FA-sensitivity to partial answers........................... 95 4.4 The exhaustification-based approach and its problems.................. 96 4.4.1 The exhaustification-based approach........................ 96 4.4.2 Extending the exhaustification-based account to mention-some......... 98 4.4.3 Problems with the exhaustification-based account................. 99 4.5 Proposal............................................. 102 4.5.1 Characterizing Completeness............................. 102 CONTENTS vi 4.5.2 Characterizing FA-sensitivity............................. 103 4.6 Other issues........................................... 106 4.6.1 FA-sensitivity and factivity.............................. 106 4.6.2 MS-collapsing under agree: Opinionatedness.................... 109 4.7 Over-denying and asymmetries of FA-sensitivity: Experimental evidence..................................... 112 4.7.1 Design.......................................... 112 4.7.2 Results and discussions................................ 113 4.7.3 Asymmetries of FA-sensitivity............................ 115 4.8 Lines of approaches to the WE/SE distinction....................... 117 4.8.1 The answerhood-based approaches......................... 117 4.8.2 The strengthener-based approaches......................... 118 4.8.3 The neg-raising based approach........................... 121 4.9 Summary............................................. 122 5 Pair-list readings of multi-wh questions 123 5.1 Introduction........................................... 123 5.2 The phenomenon: Domain exhaustivity?.......................... 124 5.3 Previous accounts and their problems............................ 126 5.3.1 Function-based approaches.............................. 126 5.3.2 Higher-order question approaches.......................... 130 5.4 Proposal: a non-crazy function-based approach...................... 132 5.4.1 Adding functions to the live-on sets of wh-items.................. 133 5.4.2 Deriving pair-list readings.............................. 135 5.4.3 Functional mention-some and pair-list mention-some............... 137 5.4.4 Quantificational variability effects.........................
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