On propositional anaphora: ‘Referential’ propositions and propositional proforms
Elizabeth Bogal-Allbritten, Keir Moulton, Junko Shimoyama
November 2024 

This paper examines the discourse requirements of nominalized CPs in Korean and Japanese and the implications for theories of propositional anaphora. We focus on nominalized clausal complements (-ta-nun-kes clauses in Korean and (-to-yuu)-no clauses in Japanese) in non-factive belief reports. We show that these clauses have anaphoric requirements, but that the range of propositional antecedents they can refer to is limited. We take as a point of comparison response particles (yes/no) (Krifka 2013). These canonical instances of propositional anaphora can refer to the proposition embedded by negation or the positive proposition (the “highlighted” proposition) of a polar question (Kirk 2013, Roelofsen and Farkas 2015, Snider 2017). We show that Korean/Japanese anaphoric nominalized clauses cannot access these propositional antecedents. We hypothesize that (anaphoric) reference to propositions by nominalized clauses is in fact reference to ‘things’ with propositional content, individual types corresponding to the attitudinal objects of Moltmann (2013, 2020). Only certain ‘chunks’ of language can evoke these objects, hence the more limited reference afforded to nominal proportional anaphora. We also examine simplex nominal propositional anaphora in Japanese, Korean, and English. We tentatively suggest that these too may be anaphoric to a narrower range of propositional antecedents than previously recognized (Asher 1993, Snider 2017).

Format:	[ pdf ]
Reference:	lingbuzz/008620 (please use that when you cite this article)
Published in:	Ikumi, Kishimoto & Sawada (eds.) In Polarity-Sensitive Expressions: Comparisons between Japanese and Other Languages
keywords:	propositional anaphora, nominalized clauses, polar questions, polar response, korean, japanese, semantics, syntax
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