Supplements within a Unidimensional Semantics I: Scope

13 years 2 months ago

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Potts (2005, 2007) claims that Grice's `conventional implicatures' offer a powerful argument in favor of a multidimensional semantics, one in which certain expressions fail to interact scopally with various operators because their meaning is located in a separate dimension. Focusing on NonRestrictive Relative Clauses (= NRRs), we explore an alternative to Potts's bidimensional account. In our analysis, (1) NRRs can be syntactically attached with matrix scope, despite their appearance in embedded positions; (2) NRRs can in some cases be syntactically attached within the scope of other operators (whether attitudinal or not), in which case they semantically interact with them; (3) NRRs are semantically conjoined with the rest of the sentence, but (4) they are subject to a pragmatic rule that requires that their content be relatively easy to accommodate

Philippe Schlenker

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