Friday, February 15, 3:30 PM, 460-126

Uniqueness Effects in Correlatives

Adrian Brasoveanu

Stanford University

This talk discusses the interpretation of Hindi and Romanian correlatives and argues that the variability of the uniqueness effects exhibited by these constructions is due to their mixed referential and quantificational nature. The account involves an articulated notion of quantification, independently motivated by donkey anaphora and quantificational subordination and consisting of both (discourse) referential components and non-referential components (dynamic operators over plural info states). The variable uniqueness effects emerge out of the interaction between: (i) the semantics of wh-indefinites, singular anaphors and habitual morphology and (ii) the pragmatics of quantification, which allows for the selection of different levels of 'zoom-in' on the quantified-over objects.