Do modals take propositions or sets of propositions? Evidence from Japanese darou

Open Access
Authors
Publication date 2018
Journal Proceedings from Semantics and Linguistic Theory
Event 28th Semantics and Linguistic Theory Conference
Volume | Issue number 28
Pages (from-to) 809-829
Organisations
  • Interfacultary Research - Institute for Logic, Language and Computation (ILLC)
Abstract The Japanese modal particle darou can take either a declarative or an interrogative prejacent (Hara 2006; Hara & Davis 2013). We point out, however, that its interrogative-embedding use cannot be reduced to its declarative-embedding use. This is problematic under the standard assumption that modal operators always apply to propositions, but not under more recent proposals which take modal op- erators to apply to sets of propositions. We develop a detailed account of darou, capturing its non-reductive nature as well as its puzzling interaction with intonation (Hara 2015).
Document type Article
Note Proceedings of the 28th Semantics and Linguistic Theory Conference, held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge May 18-20, 2018, edited by Sireemas Maspong, Brynhildur Stefánsdóttir, Katherine Blake and Forrest Davis.
Language English
Published at https://doi.org/10.3765/salt.v28i0.4427
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4427-6923-1-PB (Final published version)
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