Topic, Focus, and Quantifier Raising

Abstract

This paper investigates the correlation between information structure and quantifier scope. It has often been noted that intonation seems to influence scope relations, yet noone has given a satisfactory account of this influence. I try to show that Quantifier Raising in a language like English depends on information structure, and thus indirectly on intonation, in much the same way as does DP scrambling in a language like German. I propose a theory where Quantifier Raising emerges as a side effect of a more general operation, covert in a language like English but overt in a language like German.