A semantic underspecification-based analysis of scope ambiguities in gapping

Abstract

Gapping is known to interact with scopal operators to create an ambiguity between so-called wide- and distributive-scope readings (Siegel, 1984). In this paper, we offer an analysis of these readings which combines an underspecified treatment of scope and a general theory of coordination. Utilizing the technique of semantic underspecification (Richter and Sailer, 2004), we develop a new coordination rule that captures an asymmetry in the semantic contributions between initial and non-initial conjuncts observed independently of Gapping. This semantic asymmetry in coordination as well as well-justified assumptions about tense and scopal operators (Condoravdi, 2002; Champollion, 2015) correctly predict the various readings of conjoined sentences with or without Gapping.