Abstract:

We investigate the interpretation of plural expressions, starting from the puzzle of the logical gap between their interpretations in affirmative and negative sentences. While bare plurals (e.g., "books") typically receive an at least two reading in upward-entailing environments (e.g., "The box contains books"), they yield an at least one reading in downward-entailing contexts (e.g., "The box doesn't contain books"). Existing bivalent and trivalent theoretical approaches differ in their predictions about truth conditions of plural indefinites under the scope of a universal quantifier (e.g., "Every box contains books") in mixed scenarios (some boxes contain one book, others contain several).
Through experimental studies, we uncover gradient truth-value judgments in such mixed scenarios, which challenge the categorical predictions of all available theories. Our results raise key questions about the empirical identification of accessible readings and we put forward a methodology to disentangle readings from gradient effects. Additionally, we extend our investigation to Mandarin Chinese, a language with optional number marking, finding similar gradient effects but with accessed readings different from English.