International Journal of Language & Linguistics

The Referred Set of Quantifiers, The Precedence Relation of Quantifiers, and The Pair Reading of Quantifiers
Hsiu Wen Wendy Cheng

Abstract
Fintel (1994: 28) introduces the “hidden domain argument” of a quantifier as follows: “All quantifiers have a hidden domain argument, whose value is contextually supplied”. For instance, for the sentence “everyone is here”, the vision of the speaker with regard to the individuals at presence supplies the value of the hidden domain argument of the quantifier “every”. Parallel to this pragmatic condition, I propose a basic property of a quantifier, the Referred Set of a quantifier. In addition, I propose that The Referred Set RS of a quantifier, and the Precedence Relation of two Quantifiers in a clause, compose the Pair Reading of these quantifiers. Further, I introduce that, in relation to the interpretation of the Pair Reading of two Quantifiers, the Compositive and Simultaneous Computation at LF and at PF.

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