Quanti?cational and modal interveners in degree constructions  

Oleh:

Lassiter, Daniel

Jenis: Article from Proceeding
Dalam koleksi: Proceedings of the 22nd Semantics and Linguistic Theory Conference, held at University of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois, May 18-20, 2012, page 565–583.
Topik: Intervention effects; weak islands; quanti?cation; modality; scalar semantics
Fulltext: 3513-7385-1-PB.pdf (170.98KB)

Isi artikel

Heim (2001)points out that the relational semantics for degrees predicts ambiguities in sentences with comparatives and quanti?ers such as every girl that are not observed. She also notes that the same ambiguities do appear with strong modals such as must and have to, but not with weaker modals such as should, ought, and want. The problem is to explain why these classes of expressions would behave differently, given that they are all standardly treated as universal quanti?ers. I present several counter-examples to Heim’s account of this data and then argue that the puzzle involving 8-DPs is the same as the puzzle of weak islands in amount wh-expressions, and that it yields to the analysis of weak islands due to Szabolcsi&Zwarts 1993, who argue that degree expressions are restricted in their interaction with the semantic operation meet. This accounts for 8-DPs but leaves to be explained the possibility of modal intervention with strong modals. I argue that the split between 8-DPs and strong modals supports recent work proposing that modals are not quanti?ers over worlds but scalar expressions. An independently motivated scalar semantics for strong modals generates the ambiguity in a way that is compatible with Szabolcsi & Zwarts's theory, and that the predicted truth-conditions are correct for both readings with strong modals. The corresponding account of mid-strength modals explains their lack of ambiguity as merely apparent, due to the fact that the truth-conditions of the two readings are virtually indistinguishable, and neither embodies the missing reading that the quanti?cational theory leads us to look for. These results support both the scalar semantics for modality and Szabolcsi Zwarts's semantic approach to intervention constraints.

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