Pseudo-scoping out of relative clauses: An individual concept approach

Jonathan Palucci (McGill)

A longstanding debate concerns whether universal quantifiers can covertly scope shift out of relative clauses (Rodman, 1976; May, 1977; Cooper, 1979). Barker (2022) (a.o.) provides several examples illustrating that relative clauses aren’t scope islands for universals and proposes that the intended reading (henceforth, a ‘varying reading’) is captured using a non-local scope shifting mechanism, like quantifier raising (QR). Instead, we argue that this apparent exceptional scope behaviour of universals is not due to a scope shifting mechanism such as QR but rather to the presence of a covert matrix-level situation quantifier, in concert with an individual-concept analysis of the definite DP (henceforth, ‘the individual concept analysis’, or the ICA). Several arguments are presented in favour of the ICA; in particular, evidence comes from (i) cases where QR doesn’t deliver the right truth conditions but the ICA does, and (i) cases where a varying reading is possible even in the absence of an embedded universal quantifier.