Cross-linguistic variation in the expression of ignorance

Abstract

This article examines the properties of epistemic indefinites (EIs) when pluralized, focusing on the following puzzle: while ignorance is expressed by both singular and plural EIs in a number of languages, e.g. German, only the singular conveys ignorance in languages such as Spanish and French. What is the nature of this parameter? We propose that, despite appearances and, in contrast with the German situation, algunos and French quelques are not lexically related to singular epistemic algún and quelque, respectively. We show that, in these languages, singular EIs give rise to a conventional implicature -- in the sense of Potts (2005)--, rather than a conversational implicature based on Gricean reasoning, as in Alonso-Ovalle & Menéndez-Benito (2011) for Spanish: the ignorance expressed in Spanish and French is inherent to singular EIs. Using evidence from the inclusive/exclusive distinction (Krifka 1989; Sauerland 2003; Farkas & de Swart 2010; Martí 2020), we provide support for the idea that, despite plural morphology, the role of algunos EIs and quelques EIs is to express paucity (adding evidence for Martí (2015) proposal for Spanish).