Epistemic numbers

Epistemic numbers are syntactically complex numbers formed by some combination of number and (non-numerical) indefinite expressions that convey uncertainty, vagueness or ignorance. I examine these constructions in a number of languages and provide an analysis that capitalizes on independently motivated properties of their two sub-components: epistemic indefinites and complex numerals. I argue that variability in these two components explain the cross-linguistics variability in the nature and interpretation of epistemic numbers across languages.

Amount Relatives Redux

This dissertation provides a novel analysis of Amount Relatives (Carlson 1977, Heim 1987, Grosu & Landman 1998, Herdan 2008, Meier 2015, a.o). Amount Relatives are a form of non-intersective relative clause that is usually associated with amount interpretations . For example, the sentence it will take us the rest of our lives to drink the champagne they spilled that evening is most naturally interpreted as referring to an amount of champagne, and not any particular champagne. Previous accounts of Amount Relatives have converged in appealing to degree semantics in order to extract an amount from the relative clause, suggesting that the embedded CP denotes a property of degrees. This dissertation advocates a more nuanced view of Amount Relatives across languages. I propose that natural languages allow two different strategies for deriving amount interpretations of relative clauses: a degree-based strategy and a degree-less strategy, where degree semantics does not come into play at all. It is argued that while some languages employ both strategies, as is the case with Spanish, languages like English only have the degree-less strategy, contra much of the previous literature. Evidence for this division comes from the fact that Amount Relatives in Spanish, but not English, pass independently-motivated diagnostics of degree-related operations (e.g. degree-quantification and degree-abstraction). In the first part of the dissertation, I propose a novel means of arriving at amount interpretations for relative clauses in languages like English, which lack the degree-based strategy to derive such meanings. The account exploits the correlation between kind and amount readings of relative clauses in English, first noted by Carlson 1977. Amount Relatives in English will be argued to be a sub-case of kind-referring relative clauses and an analysis that derives amounts from (sub)kinds is presented. The second, more sizable portion of the dissertation examines Amount Relatives in Spanish, which can be shown to make use of a degree-based strategy for deriving amount readings, as they do show all the hallmarks of degree constructions. Moreover, the language allows amount interpretations more readily, in more environments and with more diverse forms than languages like English. I will provide a compositional analysis of Spanish Amount Relatives in their various forms, with the goal of understanding (i) what syntactic and semantic pieces are implicated in extracting an amount from a relative clause structure and (ii) how different permutations of these pieces could result in semantic variation within and across languages

Reasoning with Partial Orders: Restrictions on Ignorance Inferences of Superlative Modifiers

The present study is concerned with Ignorance Inferences associated with Superlative Modifiers (SMs) like at least and at most. Experimental evidence will be presented showing that the Ignorance Inferences associated with SMs depend on their associate: when the associate of an SM is a totally ordered set (e.g. a numeral), the exhaustive interpretation of the prejacent must necessarily constitute an epistemic possibility for the speaker. However, when the associate of the SM is partially ordered, the exhaustive interpretation of the prejacent can, but need not constitute an epistemic possibility for the speaker

Spurious NPI licensing and exhaustification

Under certain circumstances, speakers are subject to so-called spurious NPI licensing effects, whereby they perceive that NPIs without a c–commanding licensor are in fact licensed and grammatical. Previous studies have all involved the presence of a licensor in a position that linearly precedes, but does not c–command the NPI. In this paper, we show that spurious NPI licensing can occur in the outright absence of a licensor, in contexts that force an exhaustive parse. We reason that at least these instances of spurious NPI licensing might be reduced to the E XH operator pragmatically “rescuing” the NPI, in the sense of Giannakidou (1998, 2006)

Some kind of relative clause

Amount Relatives (ARs) differ from restrictive relative clauses in that they do not refer to a particular object denoted by the head of the relative clause, but to an amount of such objects (Carlson, 1977a; Heim, 1987). Traditionally, ARs have been regarded as degree expressions. In this paper I argue against this view and propose instead that amount interpretations of relative clauses are in fact a special case of kind interpretation

Degree Neuter Relative constructions

This paper presents a syntax and semantics for Degree Neuter Relatives (DNRs) in Spanish, an unusual construction involving a relative clause seemingly headed by a gradable predicate and the neuter determiner lo. I propose an analysis of DNRs that avoids compositionality problems derived from sortal mismatches between degrees and entities. In addition, I suggest that despite the cross-linguistic rarity of DNRs, it is no coincidence that they are available in Spanish: the proposed analysis relies on aspects of the morphological inventory of Spanish that allows the language to construct degreedenoting Free Relatives headed by a definite article, and so DNRs should not be expected in languages lacking this ability

Interpreting quantifiers in subject position

In this paper we argue that collective readings of quanti!ed NPs in subject position involve a form of hidden distributivity (Dowty 1987). We argue that there are two different types of collective predicates, and that the best way to model this contrast is by means of two separate syntactic structures corresponding to different aktionsarten (Taub 1989, Brisson 1998). Borrowing the basic mechanism to exploit this idea from Brisson (2003), we argue instead that a semantics without covers (Schwarzschild 1996) is both empirically more adequate and conceptually more appealing