Cardinality Noun Phrases, Wh-Questions, and Scope Ambiguity

Abstract

This paper deals with the scope properties of cardinality wh-phrasesand proposes a decomposition analysis that treats these phrases as involving both a cardinality wh-operator and an existential group quantifier. This approach is motivated by examples involving cardinality noun phrases in which the cardinality quantifier and the existential group quantifier take separate scope. The decomposition analysis provides a precise and natural account of scope ambiguity in How many questions, which has not been explained in literature. We also examine constituent questions with quantificational noun phrases, and show that they may take scope over each other. Considering a wide range of examples, we argue against the view that the relative scope order between an interrogative operator and a universal quantifier exhibits subject-object asymmetry and is subject to a syntactic constraint.