Generalized Quantifiers, Exception Phrases, and Logicality

Abstract

On the Fregean view of NPs, quantified NPs are represented as operator-variable structures, while proper names are constants appearing in argument position. The Generalized Quantifier (GQ) approach characterizes quantified NPs as elements of unified syntactic category and semantic type. According to the Logicality Thesis (May 1991), the distinction between quantified NPs, which undergo an operation of quantifier raising to yield operator-variable structures at Logical Form (LF), and non-quantified NPs, which appear in situ at LF, corresponds to a difference in logical status. The former are logical expressions, while the latter are not. Using van Benthem's (1986, 1989) criterion for logicality, I extend the concept of logicality to GQs. I argue that NPs modified by exception phrases constitute a class of quantified NPs which are heterogeneous with respect to logicality. However, all exception phrase NPs exhibit the syntactic and semantic properties which motivate May to treat quantified NPs as operators at LF. I present a semantic analysis of exception phrases as modifiers of GQs, and I indicate how this account captures the major semantic properties of exception phrase NPs. I explore the consequences of the logically heterogeneous character of exception phrase NPs for proof-theoretic accounts of quantifiers in natural language. The proposed analysis of exception phrase NPs provides support for the GQ approach to the syntax and semantics of NPs