Predicting polar question embedding

This paper shows that it is fully predictable whether a polar interrogative clause can appear under a declarative embedding predicate. The idea in a nutshell is as follows: whenever a predicate appears to not embed polar interrogatives, the interpretative component independently derives a trivial meaning for the sentence. Such trivial meanings manifest themselves in unacceptability. A crucial property of this proposal is that interrogative embedding is polaritysensitive, which is shown to be empirically supported. As a consequence, one must not stipulate in the lexical entry of a given predicate whether or not it embeds polar interrogative clauses.

[1]  Jonathan Ginzburg,et al.  Resolving questions, II , 1995 .

[2]  Floris Roelofsen,et al.  A Uniform Semantics for Declarative and Interrogative Complements , 2018, J. Semant..

[3]  Wataru Uegaki,et al.  Content Nouns and the Semantics of Question-Embedding , 2015, J. Semant..

[4]  Kjell Johan Sæbø.  A Whether Forecast , 2005, TbiLLC.

[5]  Katrin Schulz,et al.  Exhaustive Interpretation of Complex Sentences , 2004, J. Log. Lang. Inf..

[6]  Jon Gajewski,et al.  Neg-Raising and Polarity , 2007 .

[7]  Danny Fox,et al.  The universal density of measurement , 2007 .

[8]  Marcia C. Linebarger,et al.  Negative polarity and grammatical representation , 1987 .

[9]  Gilles Fauconnier,et al.  Implication Reversal in a Natural Language , 1978 .

[10]  D. Adger,et al.  The Syntax and Semantics of Unselected Embedded Questions , 2001 .

[11]  Jonathan Ginzburg,et al.  Resolving questions, I , 1995 .

[12]  Noam Chomsky,et al.  वाक्यविन्यास का सैद्धान्तिक पक्ष = Aspects of the theory of syntax , 1965 .

[13]  Edmund L. Gettier.  Is Justified True Belief Knowledge? , 1963, Arguing About Knowledge.

[14]  Sebastian Löbner,et al.  Polarity in Natural Language: Predication, Quantification and Negation in Particular and Characterizing Sentences , 2000 .

[15]  Luka Crnič,et al.  Non-monotonicity in NPI licensing , 2014 .

[16]  J. Gajewski.  On Analyticity in Natural Language , 2004 .

[17]  Nathan Klinedinst,et al.  Exhaustivity in questions with non-factives , 2011 .

[18]  Michael Bennett,et al.  Questions in Montague grammar , 1979 .

[19]  Benjamin Spector,et al.  A uniform semantics for embedded interrogatives: an answer, not necessarily the answer , 2015, Synthese.

[20]  Irene Heim,et al.  Presupposition Projection and the Semantics of Attitude Verbs , 1992, J. Semant..

[21]  M. Krifka,et al.  The Semantics and Pragmatics of Polarity Items , 2003 .

[22]  Irene Heim,et al.  Semantics in generative grammar , 1998 .

[23]  V. Hacquard,et al.  Epistemics and attitudes , 2013 .

[24]  Aynat Rubinstein,et al.  Roots of modality , 2012 .

[25]  Benjamin Spector.  Scalar Implicatures: Exhaustivity and Gricean Reasoning , 2004 .

[26]  Kai von Fintel,et al.  NPI Licensing, Strawson Entailment, and Context Dependency , 1999, J. Semant..

[27]  A. Giannakidou.  Affective Dependencies , 1999 .

[28]  William A. Ladusaw.  Polarity sensitivity as inherent scope relations , 1980 .

[29]  Floris Roelofsen,et al.  The *whether Puzzle , 2019, Questions in Discourse.

[30]  Robin Cooper,et al.  The syntax and semantics of when-questions , 1982 .

[31]  Maribel Romero.  Surprise-predicates, strong exhaustivity and alternative questions , 2015 .

[32]  Jaakko Hintikka,et al.  Different Constructions in Terms of the Basic Epistemological Verbs , 1975 .

[33]  Márta Abrusán,et al.  Weak Island Semantics , 2014 .

[34]  G. Chierchia,et al.  Broaden Your Views: Implicatures of Domain Widening and the Logicality of Language , 2006, Linguistic Inquiry.

[35]  Elena Guerzoni.  Weak Exhaustivity and 'Whether': A Pragmatic Approach , 2007 .

[36]  Nicholas Asher,et al.  A typology for attitude verbs and their anaphoric properties , 1987 .

[37]  D. Fox.  Free Choice and the Theory of Scalar Implicatures , 2007 .

[38]  Daniel Lassiter.  Measurement and Modality: The Scalar Basis of Modal Semantics. , 2011 .

[39]  Andreea Cristina Nicolae,et al.  Any Questions? Polarity as a Window into the Structure of Questions , 2013 .

[40]  R. Eckardt.  The syntax and pragmatics of embedded yes/no questions , 2007 .

[41]  Paul Egré,et al.  QUESTION-EMBEDDING AND FACTIVITY , 2008 .

[42]  Utpal Lahiri,et al.  Questions and Answers in Embedded Contexts , 2002 .

[43]  Laurence R. Horn.  Remarks on Neg Raising , 1978 .

[44]  J. Hintikka.  Semantics for Propositional Attitudes , 1969 .

[45]  E. Villalta.  Mood and gradability: an investigation of the subjunctive mood in Spanish , 2008 .