PRESUPPOSITIONS, IMPLICATURES AND THE SCOPE OF EXHAUSTIFICATION

Abstract

Exh is a covert grammatical operator posited to be responsible for generating scalar implicatures. However, the syntactic constraints on the distribution of Exh remain an open problem. In this thesis, I build on the work of Marty & Romoli (2021) (M&R), who study the interaction of Exh with disjunction and additive particles in accounting for the problem of presupposed ignorance first introduced by Spector & Sudo (2017). While M&R assume that additive particles may scope at the matrix level, I argue that also takes scope in its surface position below the subject. I show how this provides an argument against Meyer’s (2013) Matrix K theory and in favour of a theory where ignorance implicatures may be generated in embedded positions. I further extend the empirical coverage considered by M&R by examining the interaction of various logical operators with various presupposition triggers. I argue for a syntactic constraint which requires an instance of Exh to associate with disjunction, unstressed some and bare numerals as low as possible, and discuss the distribution of Exh with respect to other operators including stressed some, superlative modified numerals and scalar adjectives. I further show that global application of Exh makes incorrect predictions when disjunction is embedded under factive predicates. I hence argue in favour of adopting the pex operator proposed by Bassi et al. (2021), which can be embedded under factive predicates.