Biased interrogatives in Camuno

Abstract

This article discusses the properties of interrogative structures biased in the set of their possible answers by the particle po in Camuno. In declarative structures, po signals that according to the speaker, a proposition p is surprisingly controversial in the utterance world w. In interrogative structures, the same particle identifies the only subset of 〚p〛f[\kern-2pt[ {p]\kern-2pt] }^{f}, the set of focus alternatives to p, that can satisfy the existential presupposition introduced by the question. However, po additionally signals that such a subset is non-factual, i.e., controversial, in w. A characterization of po as an element operating on sets of alternatives offers an important tool to investigate the numerous pragmatic readings conveyed by po and account for the restrictions in its distribution. The semantic properties of the po-interrogatives can, in fact, capture the mirative and counterfactual readings also attested in cognate forms in neighboring varieties. Thus, this analysis represents an important step in exploring a possible unified account.

Keywords

• pragmatics
• semantics
• romance languages
• interrogative structures