@incollection{Roelofsen2021questions,
  title={Questions and Indeterminate Reference},
  author={Roelofsen, Floris},
  booktitle={Asking and Answering: Rivalling Approaches to Interrogative Methods},
  editor         = {Moritz Cordes},
  pages={241-251},
  year={2021},
  abstract = {This short paper describes a perspective on questions which does not
view wh-words as existential quantifiers or as expressions introducing a
quantificational domain, but rather as indeterminate referential expressions
(Dotlačil and Roelofsen 2019). The proposal is programmatic in nature,
and several aspects of it remain to be worked out in greater detail. I
argue, however, that it has several potential benefits, including a principled
account of weak and strong question interpretations, a uniform analysis of
single-wh and multiple-wh questions, and an account of the typologically
widespread similarity between interrogative and indefinite pronouns which,
unlike previous approaches, can explain the observation that if a language
contains interrogative and indefinite pronouns which are similar in form but
non-identical (e.g., where and somewhere), the indefinite pronouns are always
morphologically more complex than the interrogative pronouns, and never
the other way around (Haspelmath 1997). The tentative proposal is that an
interrogative pronoun involves complete indeterminacy in the sense that it
does not only leave open what its referential value is but also whether it
has a referential value at all. For instance, where is completely indeterminate,
permitting lack of a referential value. The ‘some’ in somewhere eliminates this
possibility and thereby exerts existential force.},
  keywords	= {inquisitive semantics,dynamic semantics,questions, indefinites,theoretical linguistics},
  url            = {https://elibrary.narr.digital/book/10.24053/9783823394808},
  publisher={Narr Francke Attempto Verlag}
}

{"_id":"HiG49eXEXqhLabvEe","bibbaseid":"roelofsen-questionsandindeterminatereference-2021","author_short":["Roelofsen, F."],"bibdata":{"bibtype":"incollection","type":"incollection","title":"Questions and Indeterminate Reference","author":[{"propositions":[],"lastnames":["Roelofsen"],"firstnames":["Floris"],"suffixes":[]}],"booktitle":"Asking and Answering: Rivalling Approaches to Interrogative Methods","editor":[{"firstnames":["Moritz"],"propositions":[],"lastnames":["Cordes"],"suffixes":[]}],"pages":"241-251","year":"2021","abstract":"This short paper describes a perspective on questions which does not view wh-words as existential quantifiers or as expressions introducing a quantificational domain, but rather as indeterminate referential expressions (Dotlačil and Roelofsen 2019). The proposal is programmatic in nature, and several aspects of it remain to be worked out in greater detail. I argue, however, that it has several potential benefits, including a principled account of weak and strong question interpretations, a uniform analysis of single-wh and multiple-wh questions, and an account of the typologically widespread similarity between interrogative and indefinite pronouns which, unlike previous approaches, can explain the observation that if a language contains interrogative and indefinite pronouns which are similar in form but non-identical (e.g., where and somewhere), the indefinite pronouns are always morphologically more complex than the interrogative pronouns, and never the other way around (Haspelmath 1997). The tentative proposal is that an interrogative pronoun involves complete indeterminacy in the sense that it does not only leave open what its referential value is but also whether it has a referential value at all. For instance, where is completely indeterminate, permitting lack of a referential value. The ‘some’ in somewhere eliminates this possibility and thereby exerts existential force.","keywords":"inquisitive semantics,dynamic semantics,questions, indefinites,theoretical linguistics","url":"https://elibrary.narr.digital/book/10.24053/9783823394808","publisher":"Narr Francke Attempto Verlag","bibtex":"@incollection{Roelofsen2021questions,\n title={Questions and Indeterminate Reference},\n author={Roelofsen, Floris},\n booktitle={Asking and Answering: Rivalling Approaches to Interrogative Methods},\n editor = {Moritz Cordes},\n pages={241-251},\n year={2021},\n abstract = {This short paper describes a perspective on questions which does not\nview wh-words as existential quantifiers or as expressions introducing a\nquantificational domain, but rather as indeterminate referential expressions\n(Dotlačil and Roelofsen 2019). The proposal is programmatic in nature,\nand several aspects of it remain to be worked out in greater detail. I\nargue, however, that it has several potential benefits, including a principled\naccount of weak and strong question interpretations, a uniform analysis of\nsingle-wh and multiple-wh questions, and an account of the typologically\nwidespread similarity between interrogative and indefinite pronouns which,\nunlike previous approaches, can explain the observation that if a language\ncontains interrogative and indefinite pronouns which are similar in form but\nnon-identical (e.g., where and somewhere), the indefinite pronouns are always\nmorphologically more complex than the interrogative pronouns, and never\nthe other way around (Haspelmath 1997). The tentative proposal is that an\ninterrogative pronoun involves complete indeterminacy in the sense that it\ndoes not only leave open what its referential value is but also whether it\nhas a referential value at all. For instance, where is completely indeterminate,\npermitting lack of a referential value. The ‘some’ in somewhere eliminates this\npossibility and thereby exerts existential force.},\n keywords\t= {inquisitive semantics,dynamic semantics,questions, indefinites,theoretical linguistics},\n url = {https://elibrary.narr.digital/book/10.24053/9783823394808},\n publisher={Narr Francke Attempto Verlag}\n}\n\n","author_short":["Roelofsen, F."],"editor_short":["Cordes, M."],"key":"Roelofsen2021questions","id":"Roelofsen2021questions","bibbaseid":"roelofsen-questionsandindeterminatereference-2021","role":"author","urls":{"Paper":"https://elibrary.narr.digital/book/10.24053/9783823394808"},"keyword":["inquisitive semantics","dynamic semantics","questions","indefinites","theoretical linguistics"],"metadata":{"authorlinks":{}},"downloads":9,"html":""},"bibtype":"incollection","biburl":"froelofs.github.io/bib/floris35.bib","dataSources":["CEDzXuZSHaKCtJZEA","WRSofRd6uxxHywTGu"],"keywords":["inquisitive semantics","dynamic semantics","questions","indefinites","theoretical linguistics"],"search_terms":["questions","indeterminate","reference","roelofsen"],"title":"Questions and Indeterminate Reference","year":2021,"downloads":14}