ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates how the Alternative Semantics theory can help us understand the existential interpretation of wh-indefinites. It is shown that a generalized quantifier is formed directly on the wh-indefinite, which can then enter into scope interactions with other quantifiers. Different from previous theories, the focus here is on the distributions of both existential and interrogative wh-indefinites and how they can be accounted for via compositional semantics, syntactic features, phonological properties, and pragmatic reasoning.
