Non-conservative construals with proportional quantifiers: Theoretical and experimental considerations
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| Year of publication | 2023 |
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| Description | In this talk, we investigate constructions with proportional quantifiers that give rise to conservative as well as non-conservative readings. We show that previous accounts based on focus sensitivity make incorrect predictions with respect to non-conservative readings. Our observations are based on theoretical considerations, which we then aim to tease apart in a series of experiments. We argue against ascribing a crucial role to focus for the non-conservative reading to arise, in taking focus to merely be derivative from the requirement of non-conservative quantifiers to appear low, paired with a general rule for sentential stress placement. We argue that the non-conservative effect comes about due to semantic incorporation and, in the case of intransitives, the structure is essentially a kind of existential construction. |