Speaker: Madeline Bossi (UC Berkeley)
Date and time: Wednesday March 2, 1-2pm
Location: 32-D461
Title: Higher order ignorance in Kipsigis epistemic indefinites
Abstract: Epistemic indefinites are indefinite pronouns or determiners that convey speaker ignorance with respect to the witness to the indefinite. Cross-linguistically, the ignorance effects associated with epistemic indefinites come in two flavors; first order ignorance conveys that the speaker doesn’t know which individual witnesses the indefinite, while higher order ignorance conveys that the speaker is ignorant about some relevant property of the witness. In the existing literature, these different types of ignorance effects are often linked to different analyses of the epistemic indefinites; in particular, first order ignorance is often linked to domain widening semantics, whereas higher order ignorance is often linked to choice functional indefinites. In this talk, I draw on original field data to show that epistemic indefinites in Kipsigis (Nilo-Saharan; Kenya) can convey higher order ignorance but don’t transparently warrant a choice functional analysis. Kipsigis epistemic indefinites are scopally flexible, which is predicted on a domain widening analysis but poses challenges for a choice functional one. However, they are also compatible with singleton domains of quantification, as predicted to be possible on a choice functional account but impossible on a domain widening one. This unique set of properties calls into question the link between the domain widening vs. choice functional analysis of an epistemic indefinite and the type of ignorance conveyed. Against this backdrop, I offer a new analysis for Kipsigis, according to which use of the epistemic indefinite is only licensed when there is some salient property that holds of one possible witness to the indefinite but not of another. Ignorance effects—including first order and higher order ignorance—are then derived pragmatically via competition with other Kipsigis indefinites.