Abstract / Description of output
English headed wh-relatives developed from Old English free hw-relatives, but many descriptive grammars associate free hw-relatives primarily with generalizing interpretations quite unlike the standard semantics for headed relatives. We demonstrate that these generalizing inter- pretations are reducible to factors external to the free relative itself, and that these external factors are less common with clause-final free hw-relatives. Clause-final free hw-relatives are more likely to be interpreted as definite, which brings them closer to typical interpretation of headed relatives.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 19 |
| Editors | Eva Csipak, Hedde Zeijlstra |
| Place of Publication | Göttingen |
| Publisher | LinG (Linguistics in Gottingen) |
| Pages | 639-656 |
| Number of pages | 18 |
| ISBN (Print) | 0000000000 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2 Oct 2015 |
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Dive into the research topics of 'Quantificational variability and the genesis of English headed wh-relatives'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Profiles
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Nikolas Gisborne
- School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences - Chair of Linguistics
Person: Academic: Research Active
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Robert Truswell
- School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences - Personal Chair of Syntax and Semantics
Person: Academic: Research Active