On The Analysis of Scope Ambiguities in Comparative Constructions: Converging Evidence from Real-Time Sentence Processing and Offline Data

• Main Authors: Breakstone, Micha Y. (Author), Fox, Daniel (Author), Cremers, Alexandre (Author), Hackl, Martin (Author)
• Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Linguistics and Philosophy (Contributor)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Linguistic Society of America, 2020-05-14T19:32:03Z.
• Subjects: Article
• Online Access: Get fulltext

This paper compares two accounts of an ambiguity that arises when a comparative phrase containing an exactly differential is embedded under an intensional operator (Heim 2000). Under one account, the comparative phrase is responsible for the ambiguity (the er-scope theory), and, under the other, the ambiguity is attributed to the exactly phrase (the exactly-scope theory). We present converging evidence from the distribution of de re and de dicto readings and real time sentence processing that supports the er-scope theory. Since the er-scope theory presupposes a quantificational analysis of the comparative, such an analysis is ipso facto supported by our results. Keywords: Comparatives; Scope; Sentence Processing