Exceptional Scope as Discourse Reference to Quantificational Dependencies

The paper proposes a novel solution to the problem of exceptional scope (ES) of (in)definites, exemplified by the widest and intermediate scope readings of the sentence Every student of mine read every poem that a famous Romanian poet wrote . We propose that the ES readings have two sources: (i ) discourse anaphora to particular sets of entities and quantificational dependencies between these entities that restrict the domain of quantification of the two universal determiners and the indefinite article; (ii ) non-local accommodation of the discourse referent that restricts the quantificational domain of the indefinite article. Our account, formulated within a compositional dynamic system couched in classical type logic, relies on two independently motivated assumptions: (a ) the discourse context stores not only (sets of) individuals, but also quantificational dependencies between them, and (b ) quantifier domains are always contextually restricted. Under this analysis, (in)definites are unambiguous and there is no need for special choice-functional variables to derive exceptional scope readings.