Speaker: Iva Kovač (Vienna/UMass Amherst)
Title: Scope in NPI licensing
Time: Wednesday, December 3rd, 12:30pm – 2pm
Location: 32-D461
Abstract: Licensing of weak NPIs like any is subject to at least three scope-related constraints: certain elements, such as every, may not take scope between the NPI and its licenser (Linebarger 1980, 1987), the NPI must scope below its closest licenser (Homer 2020, Barker 2022), and it must be c-commanded by its licenser on the surface (Ladusaw 1979, 1980). In this talk, I bring these three constraints together by drawing a connection between NPI licensing and conditions that apply to scope taking of regular quantifiers (Fox 1995, Mayr & Spector 2010) and their linear order (Bobaljik & Wurmbrand 2012). I propose that NPI licensing is computed incrementally and explore an implementation in terms of Quantifier Raising and an interplay between spell-out domains and interface (LF and PF) principles regulating copy choice. In brief, under certain clearly defined conditions, NPIs like any disambiguate scope relations by marking narrow scope (Barker 2018), but syntactic domains force them to do so locally. If on the right track, this approach provides an argument in favour of an architecture of grammar where PF and LF domains can be distinct and PF has access to LF.