Talk by Sigrid Beck and Hotze Rullmann
Degree Questions, Maximal Informativeness, and
Exhaustivity
We relate the issue of exhaustivity in non-degree wh-questions to the
type of answer required by degree questions like "How many eggs can
Mary eat?", which, intuitively, asks for maximal number of eggs that
Mary can eat. Rather than building maximality directly
into the semantics of wh-questions (as in Rullmann 1995), we argue
for a more flexible approach in terms of maximal informativeness.
Crucial evidence comes from questions like "How many eggs are
sufficient?", where the questioner wants to know the minimal number
of eggs that are sufficient. We argue that this difference is due to
the inferential properties of the predicate. Our analysis retains the
original insight that maximality is the same thing as exhaustivity.
Once this link is made, degree questions contribute new data to the
ongoing discussion on exhaustivity. We argue that a flexible approach
to exhaustivity is preferable.
Paul Dekker, November 2, 1995