Inquisitive Semantics

Cover......Page 1
Inquisitive Semantics......Page 4
Copyright......Page 5
Contents......Page 6
General preface......Page 8
Acknowledgments......Page 10
Sources......Page 12
1: Introduction......Page 14
Reason 1: To represent the content of interrogative sentences......Page 15
Reason 2: To model conversational contexts......Page 17
1.1.2 Declaratives and interrogatives cannot be treated separately......Page 19
Reason 2: Interpretational dependencies......Page 20
Reason 1: Common building blocks......Page 21
Reason 2: Entailment......Page 22
Reason 3: Logical operations......Page 23
1.2 Main aims and outline of the book......Page 24
2.1 The standard picture......Page 26
2.2 Information states......Page 28
2.3 Issues......Page 30
2.4 Propositions......Page 33
2.4.1 Truth and support......Page 35
2.4.2 Informative and inquisitive propositions......Page 36
2.4.3 Entailment......Page 39
2.4.4 Some linguistic examples......Page 41
2.5 Contexts......Page 43
2.5.1 Informed and inquisitive contexts......Page 46
2.5.2 Context extension......Page 47
2.5.3 Updating contexts......Page 48
2.6 Summary and pointers to possible refinements......Page 51
Exercise 2.2 Propositions......Page 53
Exercise 2.4 Informational and inquisitive triviality......Page 54
3: Basic operations on propositions......Page 56
3.1.1 The algebraic perspective on classical logic......Page 57
3.1.2 Algebraic operations on inquisitive propositions......Page 61
3.2 Projection operators......Page 65
Exercise 3.1 Working through some examples......Page 69
Exercise 3.6 Division......Page 70
4.1 Logical language and models......Page 72
4.2 Semantics......Page 74
4.3 Semantic categories and projection operators......Page 76
4.4 Examples......Page 78
4.5 Informative content, truth, and support......Page 83
4.6 Syntactic properties of non-hybrid sentences......Page 84
4.7 Sources of inquisitiveness......Page 85
4.8 Comparison with alternative semantics......Page 86
Exercise 4.2 DeMorgan’s laws......Page 87
Exercise 4.3 The law of double negation......Page 88
5.1 Polar questions......Page 90
5.2 Alternative questions......Page 91
5.3 Open disjunctive questions......Page 92
5.4 Wh-questions......Page 93
5.4.2 Mention-some wh-questions......Page 94
5.4.4 Questions with multiple wh-phrases......Page 96
5.4.5 Explicit domain restriction......Page 97
5.5.1 Conjoined questions......Page 98
5.5.3 Conditional questions......Page 99
5.6 Limitations and extensions......Page 100
5.6.1 Beyond resolution conditions: anaphora and bias......Page 101
5.6.2 Contextual parameters......Page 102
Exercise 5.2 Quantifying into questions......Page 104
Exercise 5.3 Which questions......Page 105
6: Disjunction, clause typing, and intonation......Page 106
6.1 List structures......Page 109
6.2 Logical forms......Page 112
6.3 Interpreting logical forms......Page 113
6.4 Unmarked cases......Page 118
6.5 Marked cases......Page 121
Exercise 6.2......Page 125
7: Conditionals......Page 128
7.1.1 The experiment......Page 129
7.1.2 A problem for the truth-conditional view on meaning......Page 130
7.1.3 Ruling out alternative explanations......Page 131
7.2.1 Breaking de Morgan’s law in inquisitive semantics......Page 133
7.2.2 Lifting conditionals to inquisitive semantics......Page 134
7.2.3 Background semantics for counterfactuals......Page 136
7.3 Further benefits......Page 143
7.3.1 Simplification of disjunctive antecedents......Page 144
7.3.2 Unconditionals......Page 147
7.3.3 Conditional questions......Page 150
7.4 Summary......Page 153
Exercise 7.2 Background semantics......Page 154
Exercise 7.4 Conditional questions with disjunctive antecedents......Page 155
8: Propositional attitudes......Page 156
8.1 Propositional attitudes: the standard account......Page 157
8.2.1 Inquisitive epistemic models......Page 162
8.2.2 Knowledge......Page 164
8.2.3 Wondering......Page 168
8.3 Beyond know and wonder......Page 172
8.4 Pointers to further work......Page 173
Exercise 8.1 Truth conditions of knowledge and wonder attributions......Page 174
Exercise 8.4 Ignorance......Page 175
9: Comparison to alternative approaches......Page 176
9.1 Alternative semantics......Page 177
9.1.1 First problem: Possible answers......Page 178
9.1.2 Second problem: Entailment......Page 181
9.1.3 Third problem: Overgeneration......Page 183
9.2.1 Problem: Undergeneration......Page 186
9.2.2 A possible concern: disjunctions of questions......Page 188
9.2.3 Dynamic partition semantics......Page 192
9.3 Inquisitive indifference semantics......Page 193
9.4.1 The received view......Page 197
9.4.2 The inquisitive perspective......Page 201
Exercise 9.2 Conjunction in alternative semantics......Page 204
Exercise 9.5 Inquisitive semantics versus indifference semantics......Page 205
10.1 Overview of main concepts......Page 206
10.2 Mission accomplished?......Page 208
References......Page 210
Generalizations and refinements of InqB......Page 224
Applications in linguistics......Page 225
Related frameworks......Page 226
Index......Page 228