Abstract

Abstract. The article presents a formal analysis in the framework of bi-directional optimality theory of the free choice, ignorance and indifference implicatures conveyed by the use of indefinite expressions or disjunctions. Ignorance is expressed by standard means of epistemic logic. To express indifference we use Groenendijk and Stokhof’s question meanings. To derive implicature, Grice’s conversational maxims, and an additional principle expressing preferences for minimal models, are formulated as violable constraints used to select optimal candidates out of a set of alternative sentence-context pairs. The implicatures of an utterance of φ are then defined as the sentences which are entailed by any optimal context for φ (but not by φ itself). Entailment is defined in a version of update semantics where contextual updates are derived by competition among contexts. Free choice and other modal implicatures of disjunctions and indefinites will follow, but also scalar implicatures and exhaustification. Key words: free choice indefinites, disjunction, implicatures, bi-directional optimality theory. 1 Modal implications of indefinites and disjunction The article proposes a formal analysis of the ignorance, indifference and free choice effects conveyed by the use of disjunctions or indefinite pronouns. As an illustration consider the German prefixed indefiniteness marker irgend in examples (1) from Haspelmath, (2) from Kratzer and Shimoyama (2002) and (3) from Kratzer (2005): 1 ⋆ Thanks to Katrin Schulz and Robert van Rooij for their inspiring work. I would also like to thank Paul Egre, Benjamin Spector, and the other participants to the PALMYR workshop for their insightful comments. Finally, I am also very grateful to two anonymous reviewers for their extremely valuable suggestions. This research has been financially supported by the NWO (Netherlands Organisation for Scientific

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