Questions and Answers in a Context-Dependent Montague Grammar

A successful formal reconstruction of a fragment of a natural language like the one presented in Montague (1973)1 calls for extensions in various directions. Two of the most challenging ones among them are the inclusion of non-declarative sentence moods and a treatment of context-dependency beyond the interpretation of tense. The present paper advances some steps in both directions since we believe that dealing with context-dependency is a prerequisite for a satisfactory treatment of interrogatives. While transformationalists tend to regard interrogatives in isolation,2 scholars interested in the semantics of natural language, both outside the Montague school (e.g., Keenan and Hull, 1973) and inside (e.g., Hamblin, 1973), have noted the relation that links up questions with their possible answers. Montague himself suggests3 that a syntax and semantics of interrogatives should provide a characterization of the semantic content of a correct answer. Whether a certain expression counts as a correct answer, however, depends on the context in which it is uttered. An appropriate context has to contain an utterance of a corresponding interrogative expression. Therefore we shall tackle the problem from the rear. First we ask: What are the expressions that may serve as answers when uttered in an appropriate context and how are they interpreted?