Quantification and modality in the realm of questions

Project Information

QuModQu

Grant agreement ID: 680220

DOI

10.3030/680220

Project closed

EC signature date 1 March 2016

Start date 1 September 2016

End date 31 August 2021

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)

Total cost

€ 1 391 324,00

EU contribution

€ 1 391 324,00

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITEIT VAN AMSTERDAM
Netherlands

Periodic Reporting for period 4 - QuModQu (Quantification and modality in the realm of questions)

Reporting period: 2021-03-01 to 2021-08-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The interpretation of linguistic expressions has been investigated across various disciplines, ranging from linguistics and philosophy to logic, cognitive science, and computer science. At the heart of this enterprise is a simple notion of meaning as truth-conditional content. Despite its merits, this notion has a fundamental limitation: while suitable for statements, it does not apply to other sentence types, like questions.

This limitation has led the PI and his collaborators to propose a more general notion of meaning, giving rise to a new semantic framework called inquisitive semantics. This framework opens up new horizons for all disciplines concerned with linguistic meaning. The present project explores these horizons in logic and linguistics.
In linguistics, besides providing a framework for the analysis of questions, the new approach suggests that inquisitive content plays a role in the semantics of statements as well, which sheds new light on recent linguistic observations that are highly puzzling from a purely truth-conditional point of view.
In logic, the enriched notion of meaning also opens up new, exciting possibilities. While logic is standardly concerned with reasoning processes that involve concrete pieces of information, our new perspective also allows us to consider reasoning processes involving types of information.

The project explores in detail how the inquisitive perspective extends the boundaries of logic and linguistics, with a particular focus on the domains of quantification and modality, which are central to both enterprises. The approach is highly inter-disciplinary in nature, forging cross-fertilization between the two fields.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Subproject 1: Modality in Language
==============================

Main achievements:
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- A new general notion of modal operators, which encompasses both "believe"-type modals and "wonder"-type modals, and a general semantic explanation for the fact that these modals only take one type of complement, declarative or interrogative (Theiler et al, 2019).
- A new treatment of 'hybrid' modal expressions like "know", which take both declarative and interrogative complements (Theiler et al, 2018).
- Experimental evidence that counterfactual conditionals are sensitive to the inquisitive content of their antecedent (Ciardelli et al, 2018).
- A new theory of distributive ignorance inferences with "believe" and "wonder" (Cremers et al, 2019).


Main output:
---------------

A uniform semantics for declarative and interrogative complements.
Nadine Theiler, Floris Roelofsen, and Maria Aloni. Journal of Semantics 35(3), pp. 409–466, 2018.

Picky predicates: why "believe" doesn't like interrogative complements, and other puzzles
Nadine Theiler, Floris Roelofsen, and Maria Aloni. Natural Language Semantics 27, pp. 95–134, 2019.

Distributive ignorance inferences with "wonder" and "believe"
Alexandre Cremers, Floris Roelofsen, and Wataru Uegaki. Semantics and Pragmatics 12(5), 2019.

Two switches in the theory of counterfactuals
Ivano Ciardelli, Linmin Zhang and Lucas Champollion. Linguistics and Philosophy 41(6), pp. 577–621, 2018.



Subproject 2: Quantification in Language
===================================

Main achievements:
------------------------
- Experimental investigation and theoretical analyis of numeral quantifiers (Cremers et al, 2021).
- Experimental investigation of quantifiers in questions (van Gessel and Cremers, 2021) and theoretical analysis (Qing and Roelofsen, 2021).
- Empirical and theoretical analysis of "quexistentials": words that can serve both as existential quantifiers and question words (Hengeveld et al, 2021).
- New theory of the distribution and interpretation of polarity-sensitive quantifiers in questions (Roelofsen, 2018).


Main output:
---------------

Ignorance implicatures of modified numerals
Alexandre Cremers, Liz Coppock, Jakub Dotlacil, and Floris Roelofsen. Linguistics and Philosophy, Online First 2021.

Testing the distribution of pair-list questions with quantifiers
Thom van Gessel and Alexandre Cremers. Sinn und Bedeutung 25, pp. 841-855, 2021.

Quantifier scope in questions
Ciyang Qing and Floris Roelofsen. To appear in the proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 26.

Quexistentials and focus
Kees Hengeveld, Sabine Iatridou, and Floris Roelofsen. Linguistic Inquiry, Online First 2021.

NPIs in questions
Floris Roelofsen. Colloquium at NYU, 2018.


Subproject 3: Quantification in Logic
================================

Main achievements:
------------------------
- Model-theoretic analysis of first-order inquisitive logic (Grilletti 2019).
- Axiomitization of an important fragment of the logic (Grilletti 2021).
- Analysis of the expressive power of the logic (Ciardelli and Grilletti, 2021).
- Conceptual foundations for inquisitive logic (Ciardelli 2018).


Main output:
---------------

Disjunction and Existence Properties in Inquisitive First-Order Logic
Gianluca Grilletti, Studia Logica 107, 1199–1234, 2019.

Completeness for the Classical Antecedent Fragment of Inquisitive First-Order Logic
Gianluca Grilletti, Journal of Logic, Language and Information 30, 725-751, 2021

Games and cardinalities in inquisitive first-order logic
Gianluca Grilletti and Ivano Ciardelli. Review of Symbolic Logic, Online First 2021.

Questions as information types
Ivano Ciardelli. Synthese 195(1), 321–365, 2018.


Subproject 4: Modality in Logic
===========================

Main achievements:
------------------------
- Integration of inquisitive dynamic epistemic logic with action model logic (van Gessel 2018).
- A proof system for inquisitive dynamic epistemic logic (Ciardelli 2017).
- Model theory for inquisitive modal logic (Ciardelli and Otto 2017).
- Two-dimensional inquisitive logic (van Gessel 2020).


Main output:
---------------

Action models in inquisitive logic
Thom van Gessel. Synthese 197, 3905–3945, 2018.

The dynamic logic of stating and asking: A study of inquisitive dynamic modalities
Ivano Ciardelli. Logics of Rationality and Interaction, 2017.

Bisimulation in inquisitive modal logic
Ivano Ciardelli and Martin Otto. Proceedings of TARK, 2017.

Questions in context
Thom van Gessel. PhD thesis, 2020.


Synthesis and broader repercussions
===============================

Main achievements:
------------------------
- Survey monograph on inquisitive logic (Ciardelli 2021).
- Practical application in sign language translation (Roelofsen et al 2021).
- Placement of all junior researchers in excellent academic institutions (in Munich, Edinburgh, Paris, and Amsterdam)
- Successful application for two follow-up grants.


Output:
---------

Questions in logic
Ivano Ciardelli. To appear with Springer.

Sign Language Translation in a Healthcare Setting
Floris Roelofsen, Lyke Esselink, Shani Mende-Gillings, Anika Smeijers. Translation and Interpreting Technology, 110–124, 2021.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

All the results listed above go beyond the state of the art in logic and linguistics, and build towards an integrated theory of the interaction between questions, modality and quantification.

Most results are in line with our expectations at the outset of the project. In some cases we obtained new insights that we had not anticipated, but overall the results seem to lead to a coherent picture in line with what we had sketched in the proposal.
The application to sign language translation pursued in the final year of the project was not anticipated at the outset.

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