Acta Linguistica Academica Vol. 65 (2018) 2–3, 385–416 DOI: 10.1556/2062.2018.65.2–3.6 Quantifier scope in sentence prosody? A view from production Balázs Surányi Research Institute for Linguistics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences; Pázmány Péter Catholic University suranyi.balazs@nytud.mta.hu Gergő Turi Research Institute for Linguistics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences turi.gergo@nytud.mta.hu Abstract: Logical scope interpretation and sentence prosody exhibit intricate, yet scarcely studied inter- relations across a variety of languages and constructions. Despite these observable interrelations, it is not clear whether quantifier scope by itself is able to directly affect prosodic form. Information structure is a key potential confounding factor, as it appears to richly interact both with scope interpretation and with prosodic form. To address this complication, the current study investigates, based on data from Hungarian, whether quantifier scope is expressed prosodically if information structure is kept in check. A production exper- iment is presented that investigates grammatically scope ambiguous doubly quantified sentences with varied focus structures, while lacking a syntactically marked topic or focus. In contrast to the informa- tion structural manipulation, which is manifest in the analysis of the acoustic data, the results reveal no prosodic effect of quantifier scope, nor the interaction of scope with information structure. This finding casts doubt on the notion that logical scope can receive direct prosodic expression, and it indirectly corroborates the restrictive view instead that scope interpretation is encoded in prosody only in cases in which it is a free rider on information structure. Keywords: quantifier scope; sentence intonation; prosodic prominence; information structure; focus 1. Introduction Sentences containing two quantified expressions (aka “doubly quantified” sentences) often exhibit scope ambiguity.This is illustrated by the following example, in which either of the two argument noun phrases may have logical scope over the other. 2559–8201 © 2018 Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest Unauthenticated | Downloaded 09/10/22 05:29 PM UTC