This paper investigates the emphatic meaning of object marker doubling (OMD) constructions—constructionsin which a DP object and an associated object marker (OM) co-occur—in Cinyungwe, a Bantu language spoken in Mozambique. I propose that OMD has two licensing conditions: first, that an argument DP in the sentence is salient, and second, that the prejacent of the sentence addresses the Question Under Discussion (QUD). If these conditions are met, OMD introduces a manner implicature that the prejacent is atypical in some way. I provide original Cinyungwe data to support this analysis. I also discuss a previous approach to Bantu OMD (as introducing a mirative and/or verum conventional implicature), and I draw comparisons between OMD and another means of marking emphasis in Cinyungwe, as well as between OMD and Indo-European clitic doubling. Cinyungwe is an understudied language; as such, this research contributes not only to our understanding of Cinyungwe object marking but also to our understanding of the diversity of emphasis marking strategies crosslinguistically.

This paper proposes a dynamic approach to the problem of split antecedents, in which a pronominal element refers back to a disjunctive clause. First, I discuss the ambiguities disjunction gives rise to in intensional contexts, in particular their consequences for anaphoric possibilities. I pay special attention to the interaction of future tense and disjunction, showing the role of temporal structure in the availability of anaphora to a split antecedent. Second, I propose a dynamic binding account for split antecedents introducing the concept of `variable complexes'. These are syntactic constructs consisting of two variables that can be bound by two corresponding quantifiers. I implement variable complexes formally as an extension of Dynamic Predicate Logic (DPL; Groenendijk and Stokhof 1991). This provides better empirical coverage and also simplifies the status of disjunction in DPL by giving us an enriched view on the dynamic behavior of connectives.

The goal of this dissertation is to clarify and account for the patterns that underlie nominal property times. I argue that nominal property times are directly affected by sentential tense operators. Chapter 1 introduces the problem at hand – namely that nominal property times seem to have an unpredictably large set of possible property times. Chapter 2 illustrates that different nominal predicates exhibit different sets of available property times. I propose that stage nouns naturally separate into two classes based on their lexical aspect: (i) nouns which have property times which always overlap one of the time variables in the utterance and (ii) nouns which have property times that overlap or precede one of the time variables. I call these “inflexible” and “flexible” nouns, respectively. In Chapter 3, I show that local binding determines whether nouns are interpreted relative to the utterance time or to a time introduced by a tense operator. This claim is based on data in which the noun’s location in the LF is independently known (e.g., existential ‘there’ constructions, de dicto readings) – in such cases, the noun is reliably interpreted relative to the nearest scoping lambda abstractor. Given that similar claims have been made in the literature for other predicate types, I broaden my proposal in the latter half of the chapter to claim that the time arguments of all predicates are locally bound. This dissertation therefore offers strong support that tenses are sentential operators, counter to previous claims. Chapter 4 explores the property times of predicates which refer to familiar referents in an extended discourse. The property times of such predicates are shown to inherit their property times from predicates earlier in the discourse. I extend Tonhauser’s (2006) Discourse Representation Theory model of similar data, modifying her account to attribute property time inheritance effects to familiarity at the predicate level, rather than definiteness at the DP level. This modification is based on evidence from definite DPs licensed by uniqueness and definite DPs containing multiple predicates of varying familiarity. As with the claims of Chapter 3, the claims in this chapter hold for all predicate types.

This thesis undertakes a new investigation in the semantics of English additive particle too. I discuss various properties of too that have been noticed by scholars in the last four decades, and present some novel data that has not been discussed yet. These data, as we shall see, pose problems for the existing accounts of too. A new analysis is developed here to provide solutions to a range of problems. It is rooted in Rooth's (1992) alternative semantics, following the spirit of Beck's (2006) analysis of again. I treat too as a propositional operator that relates the proposition expressed by the sentence containing it to some contextually salient proposition from a set restricted by the interpretation of focus.

While quotation has been a popular area of study among semanticists, there has been a dearth of work related to how people say quotations in spoken speech, in the absence of orthographic quotation marks. Using corpus methodology, I identify three key intonational features of subclausal quotation in spoken American English: the Emphatic Juncture, pitch range reset, and a quotation-final IP break. I then validate these three intonational features and determine which is most responsible for identifying the presence of subclausal quotation using a comprehension experiment. I then discuss how these three intonational features relate to semantic analyses of subclausal quotation (Cappelen and Lepore, 1997; Potts, 2007). Subclausal quotation intonation also poses challenges to the current understanding of intonational theory, particularly regarding the Strict Layer Hypothesis (Selkirk, 1986), through the discovery of evidence for embedded IPs in American English.

Cross-linguistically future tense markers can additionally be used to mark a present inference (Aikhenvald 2004). This interpretation has commonly been analyzed as an epistemic modal (Condoravdi 2002, 2003, Werner 2002, 2006, Kush 2011, Rivero 2014, a.o.). This dissertation provides an in-depth look at English “will” when it receives a present-inference interpretation. It compares this use of “will” with epistemic “must” to show that the present-inference use of future markers cannot simply be analyzed as an epistemic modal.

The dissertation puts forth two main empirical claims about how “will” differs from epistemic “must”. The first builds on the observation that epistemic modals require that the speaker have inferred the truth of the prejacent, rather than concluding it through direct perception (Karttunen 1972, von Fintel and Gillies 2010, Mathewson 2015, a.o.). Just as is observed for “must”, “will” also requires an inference, but it more constrained than “must” in the type of inferences it's compatible with. This is characterized as an incompatibility between “will” and abductive inferences. The comparison between “will” and “must” suggests that epistemic modals carry requirements about the inference they are compatible with, not the evidence. The findings for PT “will” are also replicated for the present-inference use of future tense markers cross-linguistically.

The second claim is about how epistemic modals interact with negation. Epistemic “must” is varied in how it is interpreted relative to negation. For example, it is interpreted above clause-mate negation, but below superordinate negation. In contrast, “will” is always interpreted above negation, regardless of the syntactic configuration it occurs in. These findings are relevant for two reasons: First, “will” seems to constitute a new class of polarity sensitive predicates that is distinct from those discussed previously in the literature. Specifically, I analyze it as a "strict" Neg-Raising Predicate (NRP). This provides new insight on the semantic status of the Excluded Middle inference which has been a topic of debate for traditional NRPs (Batsch 1973, Gajewski 2005, 2007, Romoli 2002, 2003, and Kriz 2015). Second, it adds to a typology of polarity sensitive modals (Iatridou and Zeijlstra 2013, Homer 2015).

This dissertation studies counterfactual conditionals in English. Counterfactual conditionals typically come with inferences that their antecedent and their consequent are not true in the actual world (written CF-p and CF-q, respectively).

(1) If John had taken the bus, he would have been on time.

CF-p: John did not take the bus

CF-q: John was not on time

Focusing on CF-q, the dissertation answers the question of what contextual conditions must be met for CF-q to arise, by looking at cases in which the inference gets cancelled. I show that CF-q can be cancelled in a number of different contexts:

- in some but not all conditionals that have the words 'also' or 'still' in their consequent;

- in a set of conditionals when uttered with a specific intonation contour.

Empirically, I show that when 'also' focus-associates with material in the antecedent, it cancels CF-q, but when it associates with material in the consequent it does not. This difference in focus association is reflected in the prosodic properties of the particle 'also' in the conditional.

The first step of the analysis is to find a property that unites the different CF-q-cancellation contexts. I argue that what they have in common is their making salient more than one cause for the same consequent (a multiple cause context). In the case of 'also', association with focus determines where focus alternatives are generated, which in turn determines whether a single or multiple causes are made salient.

The second step of the analysis is to show that conditional perfection (strengthening conditionals to biconditionals) is a necessary ingredient for the CF-q inference to arise, an idea sketched by Karttunen (1971). The crucial prediction is that in contexts in which no conditional perfection occurs, CF-q is not generated either.

Finally, I show that multiple cause contexts do not trigger conditional perfection, which in view of the above-mentioned prediction completes the analysis. Moreover, because conditional perfection has been analyzed in terms of discourse structure and exhaustive answers, we obtain a new set of theoretical tools to study counterfactuality as a discourse phenomenon.