Semantic approaches to clause-type selection

In this chapter, I discuss recent semantic approaches to the selectional restrictions of clause-embedding predicates, focusing on what I refer to as the Triviality-based Account, according to which selectional restrictions derive from the systematic logical triviality in selection violation sentences, rooted in lexical semantic properties of embedding predicates. After reviewing concrete Triviality-based Accounts of three sub-classes of clause-embedding predicates (rogative predicates by Uegaki (2015), Ciardelli and Roelofsen (2015); neg-raising predicates by Theiler et al. (2019); non-veridical preferentials by Uegaki and Sudo (2017, 2019)), I introduce both off-line and on-line experimental methodologies to evaluate the predictions of these accounts. The discussion also includes a report of a preliminary off-line rating experiment focusing on Uegaki and Sudo’s (2017; 2019) analysis of the anti-rogativity of non-veridical preferential predicates. The experiment confirms that, within the class of preferential predicates, there is an inverse correlation between veridicality and the acceptability of interrogative complements.