The distributive ignorance puzzle

Wataru Uegaki; Floris Roelofsen

The distributive ignorance puzzle

School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

Abstract / Description of output

We observe that verbs like wonder do not just imply that their subject does not know the answer to the embedded question, but a stronger form of ignorance, which we call distribu-tive ignorance. This is not predicted by existing work on the semantics of wonder, and we argue that it cannot be straightforwardly derived as a pragmatic inference either. We consider two possible semantic accounts, and conclude in favor of one on which the lexical semantics of wonder involves exhaustiﬁcation w.r.t. structural alternatives as well as sub-domain alternatives of its complement.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 21
Editors	Robert Truswell, Chris Cummins, Caroline Heycock, Brian Rabern, Hannah Rohde
Place of Publication	Edinburgh
Publisher	University of Edinburgh
Pages	999-1016
Publication status	Published - 3 Oct 2018

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

wonder
ignorance
inquisitive semantics
exhaustivity

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RoelofsenUegaki2018TheDistributiveIgnorancePuzzleFinal published version, 350 KBLicence: Creative Commons: Attribution (CC-BY)

https://semanticsarchive.net/Archive/DRjNjViN/RoelofsenUegaki.pdfLicence: Creative Commons: Attribution (CC-BY)

1 Anthology
1 Conference contribution

Japanese alternative questions and a unified in-situ semantics for ka
Uegaki, W., 3 Oct 2018, Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 21. Truswell, R., Cummins, C., Heycock, C., Rabern, B. & Rohde, H. (eds.). Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh, p. 1253-1270
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

Open Access
Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 21
Truswell, R. (ed.), Cummins, C. (ed.), Heycock, C. (ed.), Rabern, B. (ed.) & Rohde, H. (ed.), 2018
Research output: Book/Report › Anthology

Open Access
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Cite this

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title = "The distributive ignorance puzzle",

abstract = "We observe that verbs like wonder do not just imply that their subject does not know the answer to the embedded question, but a stronger form of ignorance, which we call distribu-tive ignorance. This is not predicted by existing work on the semantics of wonder, and we argue that it cannot be straightforwardly derived as a pragmatic inference either. We consider two possible semantic accounts, and conclude in favor of one on which the lexical semantics of wonder involves exhaustiﬁcation w.r.t. structural alternatives as well as sub-domain alternatives of its complement.",

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AU - Roelofsen, Floris

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AB - We observe that verbs like wonder do not just imply that their subject does not know the answer to the embedded question, but a stronger form of ignorance, which we call distribu-tive ignorance. This is not predicted by existing work on the semantics of wonder, and we argue that it cannot be straightforwardly derived as a pragmatic inference either. We consider two possible semantic accounts, and conclude in favor of one on which the lexical semantics of wonder involves exhaustiﬁcation w.r.t. structural alternatives as well as sub-domain alternatives of its complement.

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KW - inquisitive semantics

KW - exhaustivity

M3 - Conference contribution

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BT - Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 21

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A2 - Rabern, Brian

A2 - Rohde, Hannah

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ER -

The distributive ignorance puzzle

Abstract / Description of output

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

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Research output

Japanese alternative questions and a unified in-situ semantics for ka

Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 21

Cite this