Experimental Support for Inverse Scope Readings of Finite-Clause-Embedded Antecedent-Contained-Deletion Sentences

Unlike its overt counterpart, wh-movement, Quantifier Raising (QR) is typically assumed not to be able to cross a finite clause boundary. Two effects of this clause-boundedness constraint are that (a) a universal quantifier that is embedded in a finite clause is judged to be unable to take scope over an indefinite in subject position, and (b) in sentences in which antecedent-contained deletion (ACD) is embedded in a finite clause, a matrix reading is questionable—and extrawide scope over the indefinite subject even more so. However, counterexamples to this generalization about the QR locality constraint have surfaced over the years, and recent evidence demonstrates that the matrix reading is available, given certain linguistic and contextual manipulations. Cecchetto (2004) argues that if the quantificational phrase in an ACD sentence raises high enough by QR to take scope over the matrix VP, it should be able to take scope over an indefinite subject....