On Epistemic Indefinites: a Note on Emphatic Free Choice Uses∗
نویسندگان
چکیده
Epistemic indefinites (henceforth EIs) are existentials that when used in a positive context convey information about the speaker’s epistemic state (e.g. Jayez and Tovena, 2006, Alonso-Ovalle and Menéndez-Benito, 2010): they signal that the speaker is unable to identify the individual that satisfies the existential claim. In some languages EIs can also be used in negative contexts to convey narrow scope existential meanings or in the scope of a root modal to convey emphatic free choice meanings. The following implicational map seems to emerge with respect to the possible functions for EIs cross-linguistically:
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