Quexistentials and Focus

Bibliographic Data

ID4318641
AuthorsKees Hengeveld (Amsterdam Center for Language and Communication University of Amsterdam, [email protected], corresponding author), Sabine Iatridou (0000-0001-8914-9212, Department of Linguistics and Philosophy MIT, [email protected], corresponding author), Floris Roelofsen (0000-0002-3224-5251, ILLC, University of Amsterdam, [email protected], corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume54
Issue3
Pages571-624
Publication date2023-06-23
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLinguistic Inquiry (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0024-3892 • E-ISSN: 1530-9150
PublisherThe MIT Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1162/ling_a_00441
OpenAlexW3209457972
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited44

Many languages have words that can be interpreted either as question words or as existentials. We call such words quexistentials. It has been claimed in the literature (e.g., Haida 2007) that, across languages, quexistentials are (a) always focused on their interrogative interpretation and (b) never focused on their existential interpretation. We refer to this as the quexistential-focus biconditional. The article makes two contributions. The first is that we offer a possible explanation for one direction of the biconditional: the fact that quexistentials are generally contrastively focused on their interrogative use. We argue that this should be seen as a particular instance of an even more general fact-namely, that interrogative words (quexistential or not) are always contrastively focused-and propose an account for this fact. The second contribution of the article concerns the other direction of the biconditional. We present evidence that, at least at face value, suggests that focus on a quexistential does not necessarily preclude an existential interpretation. Specifically, we show that it is possible for Dutch wat to be interpreted existentially even when it is focused. We attempt to explain this phenomenon

Epistemology · Existentialism · Face (sociological concept · Focus (optics · Interpretation (philosophy · Interrogative · Linguistics · Phenomenon · Computer Science · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Linguistics and Discourse Analysis · Philosophy · Psychology · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation

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