A compositional semantics for wh-ever free relatives

Abstract

This paper focuses on two puzzles posed by wh-ever free relatives (‘FRs’): wh-ever FRs (a) license ignorance inferences, and (b) display properties in common with questions. I propose to resolve these puzzles by unifying  the analysis of wh-ever FRs with Rawlins’ (2008, 2013) analysis of unconditionals.  The proposal derives ignorance, predicts question properties, and captures both the similarities  and differences between wh-ever FRs and unconditionals.