Apparent scope inversion under the rise fall contour
Apparent scope inversion under the rise fall contour

Summary/Abstract: This paper proposes an explanation of the apparent scope inversion attested in sentences pronounced with a rise fall intonation contour. It argues that a left-peripheral quantifier pronounced with a (fall-)rise is in topic position (Spec, TopP). A topic phrase must refer to an individual already present in the domain of discourse-that which will be predicated about in the sentence. Non-individual-denoting expressions, among them quantifiers, can also be made suitable for the topic role if they are assumed to denote a property which the rest of the sentence predicates some higher-order property about. A quantifier functioning as a contrastive topic denotes a property of plural individuals, and its apparent narrow scope arises from the fact that it is considered to be a predicate over a variable inherent in the lexical representation of the verb.

• Details
• Contents