Vienna, June 2016.
This class will be concerned with recent developments regarding the semantics and pragmatics of interrogative sentences. Its goal will be a) to introduce students to basic semantics frameworks to understand interrogatives (see below), b) to discuss the pragmatics of question/answer pairs, c) to present recent work on the semantics of embedded interrogatives (including some experimental works), and d) time-permitting, to discuss the `internal' compositional semantics of interrogatives, in relation with functional readings and pair-list readings.
Here is what I hope to cover. It is likely that some of these points will not be covered, depending on how the course develops. [This is not a syllabus, but rather an overview of what will be discussed. Some of the questions discussed in class will overlap with several of these themes.]
1. Basics Types of questions (polar/constituent quesiton/altenrative questions)
Matrix questions and embedded questions
De re and de dicto readings
Some empirical generalizations
2. Three frameworks for interrogative semantics, and their relationships
Hamblin/Karttunen semantics
Partition Semantics (Groenendijk & Stokhof)
Inquisitive Semantics
3. Pragmatics of questions and answers
Mention some vs. exhaustive questions
Exhaustive and non-exhaustive readings of answers
The role of informativity in determining the presuppositions of questions (in relation with degree questions and alternative questions)
4. Semantics of Embedded questions
Typology of embedding verbs
Typology of accessible readings (weakly exhaustive readings, intermediate readings, strongly exhaustive readings)
Semantics properties of embedded questions
Challenges for a uniform approach
Recent theoretical work on embedded questions, including experimental work.
5. Case-studies
Interpretation of negative sentences which include embedded questions (`John doesn't know who came)?
The treatment of alternative questions in inquisitive semantics vs. Karttunen-type semantics, role of informativity.
Degree questions
Approaches to functional readings of questions (time-permitting)
SELECTED READINGS
Readings that are particularly recommended for this class are preceded by * These are readings which are likely to be general enough to serve as a good entry point to the topic.
*Paul Hagstrom, What questions mean, Glot International 7.7/8 (2003): 188-201.
Jeroen Groenendijk & Martin Stokhof, Partitioning Logical Space (Lecture Notes for ESSLLI 1990)
*Irene Heim, Interrogative Semantics and Karttunen's Semantics for `Know', Proceedings of IATL. Vol. 1. 1994.
Benjamin George, Mention-Some Readings, and NonReducibility, Thought: A Journal of Philosophy, 2013
*Spector & Egré, A Uniform Semantics for Embedded Interrogatives: An answer, not necesarily the answer. Synthese, doi: 10.1007/s11229-015-0722-4
*Nathan Klinedinst and Dan Rothschild, Exhaustivity in Questions with Non-Factives, Semantics and Pragmatics, 2011, doi:10.3765/sp.4.2
*Cremers & Chemla, A psycholinguistic study of the exhaustive readings of embedded questions, (prepublication version), Journal of Semantics (2014)
Sigrid Beck & Hotze Rullmann, A flexible approach to exhaustivity in questions, Natural Language Semantics 7.3 (1999): 249-298.
Yael Sharvit, Embedded Questions and `De Dicto' Readings, Natural Language Semantics 10.2 (2002): 97-123.
Ciardelli, Ivano, Jeroen Groenendijk, and Floris Roelofsen. Inquisitive semantics: a new notion of meaning. Language and Linguistics Compass7.9 (2013): 459-476.
Danny Fox & Martin Hackl, The Universal Density of Measurement
Márta Abrusán & Benjamin Spector, A Semantics for Degree Questions Based on Intervals: Negative Islands and their Obviation
Márta Abrusán, Presuppositional and Negative Islands: A Semantic Account