Expressives and Questions

Abstract

This paper explores the interaction of expressive content with the oper- ation of alternative generation in question denotations. We take as test cases expressive antihonorifics appearing in wh-words, wh-phrases and verbal morphology, and show that antihonorific content within the wh-phrase applies to all alternatives, while antihonorifics outside the wh-phrase apply only to true alternatives, closing with implications for the theory of expressive meaning.