Free choice, modals, and imperatives

@article{Aloni2007FreeCM,
  title={Free choice, modals, and imperatives},
  author={Maria Aloni},
  journal={Natural Language Semantics},
  year={2007},
  volume={15},
  pages={65-94}
}
  • M. Aloni
  • Published 29 June 2007
  • Philosophy
  • Natural Language Semantics
The article proposes an analysis of imperatives and possibility and necessity statements that (i) explains their differences with respect to the licensing of free choice any and (ii) accounts for the related phenomena of free choice disjunction in imperatives, permissions, and statements. Any and or are analyzed as operators introducing sets of alternative propositions. Free choice licensing operators are treated as quantifiers over these sets. In this way their interpretation can be sensitive… 
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223 Citations
Highly Influential Citations
32
Background Citations
96
Methods Citations
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Results Citations
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223 Citations

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Simplifying with Free Choice

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Expressing permission

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References

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This article proposes a new analysis of modal expressions which (i) explains the difference between necessity and possibility modals with respect to the licensing of Free Choice any and (ii) accounts…

FREE CHOICE AND EXHAUSTIFICATION: AN ACCOUNT OF SUBTRIGGING EFFECTS

The goal of this article is to explain the distribution and meaning of qualsiasi/qualunque in the examples in (1). Universal FC items will be analysed as indefinites (contra Dayal, 1998). Following…

Free Choice Disjunction and Epistemic Possibility

This paper offers an explanation of the fact that sentences of the form (1) ‘X may A or B’ may be construed as implying (2) ‘X may A and X may B’, especially if they are used to grant permission. It…

Free Choice Items and Alternatives

Extending the proposal made by Schulz (2003), we put forward a pragmatic account of the meaning of existential and universal FC items, where the ‘ignorance or indierence’ inference triggered by the…

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Following Zimmermann (2000), I propose that disjunctions are to be treated as conjunctions of modal propositions, and that the essential contribution of ‘or’ is merely to present a list of…

Epistemic Containment

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