Searching for a universal constraint on the possible denotations of clause-embedding predicates

Floris Roelofsen, Wataru Uegaki

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract / Description of output

We propose a new universal constraint on the relationship between the meaning of a clause-embedding predicate when it takes an interrogative complement and its meaning when it takes a declarative complement. According to this proposal, every clause-embedding predicate V satisfies a constraint that we refer to as P-to-Q Entailment. That is, for any exhaustivity-neutral interrogative complement Q, if there is an answer p to Q such that "x Vs p" is true, then it follows that "x Vs Q" is true as well. We discuss empirical advantages of this proposal over existing proposals and explore potential counterexamples to P-to-Q Entailment.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of SALT 30
EditorsJoseph Rhyne, Kaelyn Lamp, Nicole Dreier, Chloe Kwon
PublisherLinguistic Society of America
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2021

Publication series

NameProceedings from Semantics and Linguistic Theory
PublisherLSA
ISSN (Electronic)2163-5951

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • clause-embedding predicates
  • cross-linguistic semantics
  • linguistic universals

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