Complete and true: A uniform analysis for mention some and mention all

Abstract

This paper provides a uniform analysis for the interpretations of indirect mention-some questions and indirect mention-all questions. The main goal of this paper is to characterize the readings that are sensitive to false answers, which are usually called “intermediately exhaustive” readings in the case of mention-all. To capture mention-some grammatically, I adopt Fox’s (2013) view that “completeness” amounts to Max-informativity, not exhaustiveness. Next, I argue that the “sensitivity to false answers” in direct questions is a matter of quality, not a result of exhaustification (compare Klinedinst & Rothschild 2011). Finally, I present a principled explanation as to why some false answers are more tolerated than the others.