The Romanian epistemic constraint: New challenges in the area of semantic dependencies

Fălăus, Anamaria

doi:10.1075/cilt.318.18fal

In:Romance Linguistics 2010: Selected papers from the 40th Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages (LSRL), Seattle, Washington, March 2010
Edited by Julia Herschensohn
[Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 318] 2011
► pp. 287–302

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New challenges in the area of semantic dependencies

The Romanian epistemic constraint

Anamaria Fălăus | University of the Basque Country

Published online: 30 November 2011

https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.318.18fal

This paper investigates the parameters of variation in the area of semantically dependent indefinites, by focusing on the distribution of the Romanian dependent determiner vreun. Refining previous descriptions in the literature (Farkas 2002, 2006), I argue that the occurrence of vreun in intensional contexts is sensitive to epistemic alternatives. To account for this, I endorse the unitary approach to polarity-sensitivity due to Chierchia (2006) and argue that the differences between vreun and other dependent indefinites stem from the types of alternatives they activate and the way these alternatives contribute to the overall meaning.

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Slade, Benjamin

2015. A short history of English epistemic indefinites. In Epistemic Indefinites, ► pp. 100 ff.

[no author supplied]

2015. Copyright Page. In Epistemic Indefinites, ► pp. iv ff.

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2015. Abbreviations. In Epistemic Indefinites, ► pp. x ff.

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2015. About the contributors. In Epistemic Indefinites, ► pp. vii ff.

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