Pseudo-scoping out of relative clauses: A functional approach

Abstract

Sentences where a definite DP is modified by a relative clause containing a universal quantifier (relativized DPs), like the supervisor that each volunteer reported to, license readings which carry separate presuppositions of uniqueness and existence for each volunteer—henceforth, ‘varying definite readings’. Barker 2022 argues that these readings involve the universal DP scoping out of the relative clause and above the definite determiner, proposing to analyze them using a non-local scope shifting mechanism, like quantifier raising (QR). In this paper, we argue for a functional interpretation of the relativized DP and propose that varying definite readings result from the definite DP denoting an ⟨e, e⟩ function, from volunteers to supervisors. We present two arguments in favour of the functional analysis, both of which involve readings a QR based approach fails to capture. Combining these arguments with the fact that the functional approach can also be minimally extended to derive varying definite readings, we conclude that non-local QR is not necessary to handle these examples. As a result, we can maintain the assumption that relative clauses are scope islands for universal quantifiers.