Formal Features and Semantic Interpretation of Concealed Questions in English Noun Phrases

Abstract

This study examines how English noun phrases can be interpreted as concealed questions (CQs), with a focus on the formal features that contribute to such interpretations. Concealed questions are noun phrases that, in certain contexts, elicit answers to implicit questions. For example, in Steve knows the author, the noun phrase the author may be interpreted as the question “Who is the author?”, resulting in a CQ reading: “Steve knows who the author is.” Alternatively, in different contexts, the same sentence may be understood as simply stating that Steve is personally acquainted with the author. This semantic ambiguity reveals how noun phrases may function not only as terms that denote particular entities but also as cues for retrieving specific pieces of knowledge or information. In English, noun phrases with definite articles or possessive constructions often yield CQ readings when combined with certain verbs such as know, find out, or reveal. However, the precise contribution of the formal and semantic properties of noun phrases to the licensing of concealed questions remains underexplored. This paper aims to provide a more explicit account of how formal features interact with contextual and verbal semantics to give rise to CQ interpretations. Drawing on and extending the framework of procedural meaning proposed by Wilson & Sperber (1993), this study proposes a more nuanced explanation of how noun phrases signal CQ readings and how such interpretations are contextually resolved.