Questions and Answers in Embedded Contexts (review)

Utpal Lahiri’s book, the second volume in the series Oxford studies in theoretical linguistics, addresses the question of the structure of the interface between syntax and semantics. It focuses on the ways in which embedded questions are interpreted by the semantic component of the grammar and the ramifications that this has on the syntactic representation. The focus of the work is on linguistic semantics rather than on strictly philosophical linguistic concerns. Though this work assumes some knowledge of formal semantics, Appendices 1–4 at the end of Ch. 3 introduce the concepts of Boolean algebra for the benefit of the reader.

The introductory chapter (1–3) tells us that the book is about the interpretation of embedded interrogatives and the predicates that take interrogative complements. The second chapter, ‘A brief survey of some issues in the semantics of questions’ (4–61), provides a general introduction to various issues on the semantics of questions in both embedded and matrix contexts. L discusses a variety of earlier approaches to the semantics of questions found in the literature. He also discusses in some detail the phenomenon of ‘quantificational variability effect’ (QVE), according to which the interrogative complements of know-class predicates can be modified by certain adverbs of quantification whereas those of predicates like wonder cannot.

The third chapter, ‘Quantificational variability I: Adverbial modification of embedded interrogatives’ (62–183), provides an account of QVE. It argues that know-class predicates and wonder-class predicates are of distinct semantic types. Hence, interpreting structures with know plus interrogative requires a syntactic operation called interrogative raising (IR). It also argues that answers to (some) questions have a part-whole algebraic structure called ‘propositional conjunction algebras’ (PCAs). L discusses in detail the phenomenon of quantifying into questions, especially in embedded contexts. In the fourth chapter, ‘Embedded interrogatives and plurality’ (184–220), L observes that sentences with predicates like know and plural NP subjects, and interrogative complements with plural WhPs exhibit semidistributive reading. He shows that the account of the algebra of answers developed in Ch. 3 can account for this phenomenon. L also gives an account of quantificational variability when the embedded interrogative contains collective predicates.

The fifth chapter, ‘Quantificational variability II: Adverbial modification of interrogative-embedding predicates’ (221–42), argues that the different kind of quantificational variability that is seen with interrogative-embedding predicates actually involves adverbial modification of interrogative-embedding predicates rather than modification of interrogative complements themselves. The case of the predicate depend on is analyzed in detail in this chapter. The sixth chapter, ‘The syntax of embedded interrogatives and the lexical semantics of interrogative-embedding predicates’ (243–92), examines some syntactic issues related to, and some lexical properties of, interrogative complements. It argues that interrogatives uniformly denote questions. L provides a detailed reanalysis of Spanish quotative complements. He classifies interrogative-taking predicates into ‘rogative’ and ‘responsive’ classes and provides a comparison with various other classifications that have been provided in the literature.