Triviality and interrogative embedding: context sensitivity, factivity, and neg-raising

Why do predicates like know embed both declarative and interrogative clauses, whereas closely related ones like believe only embed the former? The standard approach following Grimshaw (Linguist Inq 10:279–326, 1979) to this issue has been to specify lexically for each predicate which type of complement clause it can combine with. This view is challenged by predicates such as be certain, which embed interrogative clauses only in certain contexts. To deal with this issue, this paper proposes (i) a novel, unified semantics for declarative and interrogative embedding and (ii) a theory where embedding is constrained by semantic considerations. The reason for the apparent unembeddability of an interrogative clause under a given predicate is the resulting trivial meaning of the sentence. Such triviality manifests itself in unacceptability. Crucially, it is affected by both the lexical meaning of the predicate and the polarity of the sentence as a whole.

[1]  Jeroen Groenendijk,et al.  Semantic analysis of wh-complements , 1982 .

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[9]  Emmanuel Chemla,et al.  An Epistemic Step for Anti-Presuppositions , 2007, J. Semant..

[10]  H. Rullmann,et al.  A Flexible Approach to Exhaustivity in Questions , 1999 .

[11]  C. L. Baker.  Indirect questions in English , 1974 .

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

[13]  M. Dalrymple,et al.  Reciprocal Expressions and the Concept of Reciprocity , 1998 .

[14]  G. Chierchia,et al.  Logic in Grammar: Polarity, Free Choice, and Intervention , 2013 .

[15]  Ivano Caponigro,et al.  Embedding polar interrogative clauses in American Sign Language , 2014 .

[16]  Bernhard Schwarz,et al.  Consistency preservation in Quantity implicature: The case of at least , 2016 .

[17]  Kerstin Schwabe,et al.  Semantic Characterizations of German Question-Embedding Predicates , 2007, TbiLLC.

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

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

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

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

[22]  Association Focus , 1999 .

[23]  Lauri Karttunen,et al.  Some observations on factivity , 1971 .

[24]  L. Nathan,et al.  On the interpretation of concealed questions , 2006 .

[25]  Roderick M. Chisholm,et al.  Identity through Possible Worlds: Some Questions , 1967 .

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

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

[28]  Corien Bary,et al.  Temporal anaphora across and inside sentences: The function of participles , 2011 .

[29]  Emmanuel Chemla,et al.  A Psycholinguistic Study of the Exhaustive Readings of Embedded Questions , 2014, J. Semant..

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

[31]  Manuel Kriz,et al.  Aspects of homogeneity in the semantics of natural language , 2015 .

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

[33]  Reinhard Blutner,et al.  Some Aspects of Optimality in Natural Language Interpretation , 2000, J. Semant..

[34]  Clemens Mayr.  From Grammar to Meaning: Implicatures of modified numerals , 2013 .

[35]  Jeffrey Lidz,et al.  Semantic Information and the Syntax of Propositional Attitude Verbs , 2018, Cogn. Sci..

[36]  Francis Jeffry Pelletier,et al.  The Generic book , 1997 .

[37]  Giorgio Magri.  A theory of individual-level predicates based on blind mandatory scalar implicatures , 2009 .

[38]  LAURI KARTTUNEN,et al.  PRESUPPOSITION AND LINGUISTIC CONTEXT , 1974 .

[39]  Yael Sharvit,et al.  Pluralities of Questions , 2002, J. Semant..

[40]  Jacopo Romoli,et al.  A scalar implicature-based approach to neg-raising , 2012 .

[41]  Guillermo Del Pinal,et al.  The Logicality of Language: A new take on Triviality, “Ungrammaticality”, and Logical Form* , 2019 .

[42]  Peter Öhl.  Unselected embedded interrogatives in German and English: s-selection as dependency formation , 2007 .

[43]  Jeroen Groenendijk,et al.  On the semantics of questions and the pragmatics of answers , 1984 .

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

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

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

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

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

[49]  Gerald Gazdar,et al.  Pragmatics: Implicature, Presupposition, and Logical Form , 1978 .

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

[51]  Godehard Link.  The Logical Analysis of Plurals and Mass Terms: A Lattice‐theoretical Approach , 2008 .

[52]  Yael Sharvit,et al.  Emedded Questions and ‘De Dicto’ Readings , 2002 .

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

[54]  Benjamin Russell,et al.  Against Grammatical Computation of Scalar Implicatures , 2006, J. Semant..

[55]  L. Karttunen.  Syntax and Semantics of Questions , 1977 .

[56]  Stephen Robert Berman,et al.  On the semantics and logical form of {\it wh\/} -clauses , 1991 .

[57]  A. Kratzer.  The Notional Category of Modality , 2008 .

[58]  Benjamin Spector.  10: Scalar Implicatures: Exhaustivity and Gricean Reasoning , 2007 .

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

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

[61]  Patrick D. Elliott,et al.  Predicates of Relevance and Theories of Question Embedding , 2017, J. Semant..

[62]  A. Kratzer.  Conditional Necessity and Possibility , 1979 .

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

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

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

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

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

[68]  Laurence R. Horn,et al.  Classical NEG Raising: An Essay on the Syntax of Negation , 2014 .

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

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

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

[72]  Valentina Bianchi,et al.  Focus fronting, unexpectedness, and evaluative implicatures , 2016 .

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

[74]  Steven E. Boër.  ‘Who’ and ‘whether’: Towards a theory of indirect question clauses , 1978 .

[75]  Roni Katzir,et al.  Structurally-defined alternatives , 2007 .