Equational-intensional relative clauses with syntactic representation

Abstract

Analyses of scope reconstruction typically fall into two competing approaches: ‘semantic
reconstruction’, which derives non-surface scope using semantic mechanisms, and ‘syntactic
reconstruction’, which derives it by positing additional syntactic representations at the
level of Logical Form. Grosu and Krifka (2007) proposed a semantic-reconstruction analysis
for relative clauses like the gifted mathematician that Dan claims he is, in which the relative
head NP can be interpreted in the scope of a lower intensional quantifier. Their analysis relies
on type-shifting the relative head into a predicate of functions. We develop an alternative
analysis for such relative clauses that replaces type-shifting with syntactic reconstruction. The
competing analyses diverge in their predictions regarding scope possibilities in head-external
relative clauses. We use Hebrew resumptive pronouns, which disambiguate a relative clause
in favor of the head-external structure, to show that the prediction of syntactic reconstruction
is correct. This result suggests that certain type-shifting operations are not made available by
Universal Grammar.
Keywords: relative clauses, scope, reconstruction, type-shifting, de dicto, intensional quantifiers,
binding, resumptive pronouns.