UC Santa Cruz

Typologically, many languages have indefinite pronouns that are derivedfrom interrogative pronouns. In fact, some indefinite pronouns assume the same morphological shape as their interrogative counterparts. Such words are termed quexistentials: they take on an indefinite or interrogative reading depending on the sentence environments in which they are licensed. Hengeveld et al. (2021) argue that indefinite quexistentials only appear in non-focused environments, whereas their interrogative counterparts only appear in focused environments. With San- tiago Laxopa Zapotec (Oto-Manguean) as the empirical focus of this thesis, I expand the typology of quexistentials presented by Hengeveld et al. (2021) and argue that indefinite and interrogative quexistentials are not always in comple- mentary distribution, providing elicited data from native speakers of Santiago Laxopa Zapotec as evidence. I use Karttunen’s (1977) semantics for questions to unite indefinite and interrogative quexistentials into having the same general- ized quantifier semantics. The difference in their interpretations arises from the syntax-semantics interface – in particular, whether the quexistential composes with an interrogative operator.