Interpreting questions under attitudes
Name
923025570-MIT.pdf
Description
Full printable version
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20.16 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
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aab2976ed3504b989e6c1911a5357430
Author(s)
Uegaki, Wataru, Ph. D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Advisor(s)
Irene Heim.
Date Issued
2015
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
Abstract This dissertation concerns three kinds of variability that pose challenges for the compositional semantics of question-embedding sentences: (i) lexical variation among clause-embedding predicates with respect to the selection of complement types, (ii) variability in the exhaustivity of embedded questions and (iii) variability in the veridicality of embedded questions. Based on the proposal that declarative complements of question-embedding predicates are limiting cases of embedded questions, this dissertation presents a compositional-semantic analysis of question embedding sentences that can correctly predict the three kinds of variability above. According to the proposal, the complement selection is determined solely by the semantic type of the embedding predicate. The variability in exhaustivity and veridicality of embedded questions follows from a unified semantic derivation, namely one involving exhaustification at the matrix level once the lexical semantics of the embedding predicate is taken into account.
Description
Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, 2015.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 215-221).
Subjects
Linguistics and Philosophy.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Linguistics and Philosophy
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