Correlatives

Abstract

The paper reviews the semantics and pragmatics of correlatives across various ontological domains (temporal, modal, individual and degree domains), focusing mostly on Indo-European languages. Taking correlatives in the individual domain as a case study, the paper then argues that their interpretation, in particular the variability of the uniqueness effects exhibited by correlatives, is due to their mixed referential and quantificational nature. The account involves an articulated notion of quantification consisting of both (discourse) referential components and non-referential/quantificational components – thus bringing together previous analyses that took either the referential or the quantificational route. The variable uniqueness effects emerge out of the interaction between (i) the semantics of wh-indefinites, singular anaphors and habitual morphology and (ii) the pragmatics of quantification, which allows for the selection of different levels of ‘zoom-in’ on the quantified-over objects.