Topic, focus, and quantifier raising
This paper investigates the correlation between information structure
annd quantifier scope. It has often been noted that intonation seems to
influence scope relations, yet noone has given a satisfactory account of
this influence. I try to show that Quantifier Raising in a language like
English depends on information structure, and thus indirectly on
intonation, in much the same way as does DP scrambling in a language like
German. I propose a theory where Quantifier Raising emerges as a side
effect of a more general operation, covert in a language like English but
overt in a language like German.
Kjell Johan Sæbø