Implicatures in the DP domain

Abstract

In this thesis, I investigate a set of apparently disparate phenomena that relate, more or less closely, to the interpretation of Determiner Phrases (DPs): the restrictiveness effects associated with NP modification, the proper partitivity effects associated with the use of partitive of, the disjoint reference 'i-within-i' effects and finally anti-presuppositions. In the previous literature, these interpretative effects have been subsumed under different generalizations and accounted for by means of different primitive principles (e.g., Minimize Restrictors!, The 'i-within-i' Condition, Maximize Presupposition!). The claim that I put forward in this thesis is twofold. First of all, I show that, upon closer examination, all these phenomena are reducible to the theory of implicatures. Second, I argue that an implicature-based approach to these phenomena offers a better empirical coverage of the relevant effects than previously achieved. Capitalizing on Magri (2009, 2011, 2014, and subsequent works), I will offer a conceptualization of implicature computation on which assertive and pre-suppositional implicatures are derived in grammar, allowing a uniform account of the phenomena of interest.