DS-2026-03: Presuppositional and Dynamic Aspects of Questions

DS-2026-03: Richard, Valentin (2026) Presuppositional and Dynamic Aspects of Questions. Doctoral thesis, ILLC.

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Abstract

This dissertation studies the presuppositions and anaphoric properties of interrogative words. These phenomena both contribute to the semantic and pragmatic effects of questions in a discourse. Presuppositions impose restrictions on the common ground. Interrogative words can raise discourse referents that anaphoric expressions can refer to in subsequent utterances. Moreover, these two phenomena are related to each other. Introducing a discourse referent interpreting an individual is correlated with the presupposition of its existence.
The theories proposed here offer a novel perspective on questions. They advocate for a more fine-grained semantics of interrogative words, while emphasizing the role of modality in shaping certain readings. Contrary to previous approaches, the studied phenomena are explained by extending analyses originally designed for determiners and pronouns in assertions. First, the chapters develop a specific vs. generic duality for wh-words. Second, Kratzerian semantics for modals and modal subordination are extended to modalized questions. These two interpretative frameworks are used to capture the interactions between questions and various semantic environments, including modal operators, focus, weak islands, and negative polarity items (NPIs).
Formalizing these two ideas for question is possible thanks to a uniform semantics for declaratives and interrogatives: Dynamic Inquisitive Semantics (Roelofsen, F., & Dotlačil, J. (2023). Wh-questions in dynamic inquisitive semantics. Theoretical Linguistics, 49(1‑2), 1‑91). This semantic model interprets both clause types as functions from context to context. Presuppositions are implemented as definedness conditions. The contexts contain assignment functions that keep track of discourse referents. Propositions can thus introduce or update the values assigned to discourse referents. This dissertation extends Dynamic Inquisitive Semantics to modals and conditionals. By allowing functions to act on more complex objects (stacks of local contexts), more subtle discourse dependencies can be encoded.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Report Nr:	DS-2026-03
Series Name:	ILLC Dissertation (DS) Series
Year:	2026
Subjects:	Language Logic
Depositing User:	Dr Marco Vervoort
Date Deposited:	06 Jan 2026 14:41
Last Modified:	06 Jan 2026 14:41
URI:	https://eprints.illc.uva.nl/id/eprint/2404

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