Definite description of episodic free relatives in Jordanian Arabic: A choice function analysis

Abstract

This paper addresses a puzzle in the semantics of episodic free yalli relative clauses in Jordanian Arabic (henceforth, Y-FR). Despite the fact that the Y-FR functions as referential definite descriptions, especially when occupying the syntactic position of DP or PP argument, it can be interpreted non-referentially on a variety of other occasions. We resolve the puzzle by proposing a unified analysis of Y-FR based on the following assumptions: (i) the FY definite description is inherently a predicative structure. (ii) Such a predicate is interpreted via choice function. (ii) The function is represented by an epsilon term ɛ which is a function from sets of individuals into singleton sets. (iii) The output of the epsilon function undergoes further compositional operations to derive the referential and non-referential readings of the Y-FR definite description.