Exhaustiveness in embedded questions across languages
Final Report Abstract
Our project investigated the exhaustivity properties of embedded questions and contributed empirically, theoretically and methodologically to closing an important research gap in the area of semantics and pragmatics. Empirically, we experimentally investigated five different verbs of embedding, know, correctly predict, surprise, agree and forget. For know, correctly predict, surprise and agree, we could determine both for English and German which exhaustive interpretations are available and which are optimal. Moreover, in a series of experiments, which compared know, surprise and forget in German, Ulster English and Dutch, we showed that the question-internal universal quantifier w-all can be made at-issue and collapse homogeneity in embedded contexts. Theoretically, we proposed two diagnostics for assessing the exhaustivity level of German wh-interrogatives embedded under the predicates wissen ‘know’ and überraschen ‘surprise’, a theoretical analysis based on a Hamblin 1973-style semantics of questions, which models the difference between the internal and external interpretation of embedded questions under know, a fact- or situation-based reanalysis of cognitive-emotive attitude verbs like überraschen ‘surprise’ as well as an account of all as a domain restrictor. Methodologically, we developed two experimental paradigms. Paradigm I is an interactive experiment that targets optimal interpretations from a communication-oriented perspective. In paradigm II, participants have to judge the contradictoriness of sentence pairs. These designs proved to be well-suited for research on exhaustivity of embedded question but can also be employed for research on other phenomena. Moreover, we tested a range of prompts and two response options for their sensitivity to truth of the target sentence, prior evidence, and the interaction between these two factors. Our results confirm that prompts vary wildly in their sensitivity to pragmatic factors, and should allow researchers to make an informed choice depending on what they want to test.
Publications
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An experimental investigation of (non-)exhaustivity in es-clefts. In Rob Truswell (ed.), Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 21, Vol. 1, 347–366. University of Edinburgh
DeVeaugh-Geiss, Joseph P.; Swantje Tönnis; Edgar Onea & Malte Zimmermann
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Embedded Questions and Concealed Relative Questions in Hausa and Akan. In E. Bogdal-Albritten & E. Coppock (eds.), Proceedings of TripleA 4, Gothenburg
Zimmermann, Malte
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On the interpretation and processing of exhaustivity: Evidence of variation in English and French clefts. Journal of Pragmatics, 138(c(2018, 12)), 1-16.
Destruel, Emilie & DeVeaugh-Geiss, Joseph
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That’s not quite it: An experimental investigation of (non‑)exhaustivity in clefts. Semantics and Pragmatics, 11(3), 1-49.
De Veaugh-Geiss, Joseph P.; Tönnis, Swantje; Onea, Edgar & Zimmermann, Malte
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(Non-)Exhaustivity in French c’est-Clefts. In Christopher Piñon (ed.), Empirical Issues in Syntax and Semantics 12 (Selected papers from CSSP 2017)
Destruel, Emilie & Joseph P. DeVeaugh-Geiss
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Experimental studies on it-clefts and predicate interpretation. Semantics and Pragmatics, 12(11), 1-56.
Renans, Agata & De Veaugh-Geiss, Joseph P.
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German es-Clefts in Discourse. A Question-Based Analysis Involving Expectedness. PhD thesis. Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz
Tönnis, Swantje
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The interaction of question particles and negation in embedded contexts: the case of alles. Semantics and Linguistic Theory, 30(c(2021, 3, 2)), 185.
Chark, Jordan
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Embedded Questions are Exhaustive Alright, but…. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (2022), 173-194. Springer International Publishing.
Zimmermann, Malte; Fricke, Lea & Onea, Edgar
