Quotational indefinites

Abstract

This paper discusses one understudied variety of indefinites, which I call quotational indefinites. Quotational indefinites are attested in languages like Bulgarian and German (see Cieschinger and Ebert 2011 on the latter), and are akin to Japanese wh-doublets (Sudo 2008, ms) and English placeholder words like whatshisface or so-and-so (cf. Clark and Gerrig 1990). The main claim of the paper is that quotational indefinites have a mixed semantics: they range over linguistic expressions yet make reference to both expressions and their denotations. These indefinites also require that the expressions they quantify over be of a certain type (a referential expression, a particular type of adverbial, etc.) and be uttered in a previous conversation. The formal analysis is framed in a two-dimensional semantics (Potts 2005, 2007) which cleanly separates the indefinite force and the reportative implications of sentences with quotational indefinites. This work uncovers important interactions between indefiniteness, quotation, and reportativity, and broadens our understanding of the typology of indefinites.