Scopal properties

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter investigates the scopal properties of parentheticals and proposes explanations for the core findings. It is argued that, on the basis of their scopal behavior, parentheticals fall into two major categories: pure and impure. Pure parentheticals readily occur in embedded syntactic positions but trigger projective inferences. The robust projection of pure parentheticals is best explained not in structural terms but in terms of speaker perspective. Such a perspective arises from the fact that parentheticals are headed by force operators, which do not scopally interact with higher propositional operators and entail commitments for the speaker. In turn, impure parentheticals operate on the illocutionary level and typically occur in root clauses. When placed in the syntactic domain of verbs of saying, impure parentheticals adopt a non-speaker perspective but remain relevant to the current context.