Individual Concepts and Attitude Reports

This paper argues that de dicto reports of the form 'x believes [that ....[DetP the [NP...]] . . . . . ]' are de re reports where the res is the individual concept which corresponds to '[DetP the [NP . . . ]'. This claim is based on the observation that definite descriptions project existence from complement clauses of attitude reports, even in those cases where the reporter and the bearer of the attitude do not have the same description "in mind.

Revisiting Connectivity in Copular Sentences

No abstract

Embedded Quantifiers in 'Which'- and 'Whether'-Questions

No abstract

Functional Dependencies and Indirect Binding

The functional analysis of wh-expressions (Engdahl (1986), Groenendijk & Stokhof (1984), Chierchia (1991, 1993)) provides a basis for explaining cases of Indirect Binding, where a quantified expression inside a relative clause triggers a bound interpretation of a variable which is outside its s-structure scope. I show that in these cases the variable is not bound by the quantified expression itself, and argue that Indirect Binding in copular vs. non-copular sentences mirrors the distinction between functional vs. pair-list questions

Free Indirect Discourse and 'De Re' Pronouns

No abstract

Fragment Functional Answers

There are usually two grammatical ways to provide an answer to a question: a full clause reply and a fragment reply. Some fragment replies are well-formed as answers to some types of questions but not to others, and some full clause replies are well-formed as answers to some types of questions but not to others. We account for this fact with a variant of a theory of questions according to which fragment replies are basic semantic answers, and full-clause replies are parasitic on them