Existential free choice items The case of Farsi yek -i DPs
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Abstract
Existential Free Choice Items (EFCIs) are interpreted as existential quantifiers in downward entailing contexts, but contribute stronger truth conditions when embedded under modals. When unembedded, their behavior differs: while Romanian vreun is ungrammatical (Fălăuş 2014), other EFCIs are grammatical and convey modality (Alonso-Ovalle & Menéndez-Benito 2015b). Farsi yek -i DPs instantiate a new profile: they pattern with other EFCIs in downward entailing and modal contexts, but differ in unembedded contexts, where they are grammatical, but do not convey modality. The paper derives this profile within an alternative- and exhaustification-based analysis of EFCIs (Chierchia 2013). Under this framework, EFCIs introduce two types of alternatives: scalar and (pre-exhaustified) domain alternatives. The behavior of yek -i DPs argues for the independence of the two types of alternatives and the splitting of scalar and domain exhaustification.
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