Free choiceness: facts, models, and problems

The analysis and representation of so-called Free Choice Items has resulted in a rich and growing literature in recent years. The goal of this course is to provide guidelines to explore this complex landscape, and to highlight the major threads of the debate. The course is organised into 5 main themes: 1 'Founding' intuitions: We start with reviewing work of the 60-70's in philosophy and linguistics. 2 Alternatives and modal structure: Free Choiceness comes together with access to a plurality of alternatives (through Hamblin and Kripke's approaches). We will discuss different operators (epistemic and deontic possibility and necessity, generics, habituals) as well as the issue of (ir)referentiality. 3 Attitudinal values: Widening, indifference, derogatory uses, etc. Are they peripheral or core values? 4 (In)definiteness and quantification: The existential vs. universal debate. Free relatives. 5 The relation to polarity: We put in retrospect the PS/FC division and examine the connection with positive polarity for certain items.