The Semantic Effects of Number Agreement on Disjunctions

This thesis investigates the semantic behavior of disjunction and its interaction with modality, with a particular focus on the emergence of Free Choice effects in sentences with disjunctive subjects. I show that when the predicate is plural, the sentence cannot receive an ignorance interpretation and only allows a Free Choice reading. By contrast, the same sentence with a singular predicate can license both Free Choice and ignorance readings. The thesis begins with a review of existing accounts of Free Choice, highlighting both semantic and pragmatic approaches. I then examine different views on the markedness of number, advocating for a weak theory of plurality. Building on this, I propose two novel accounts that explain why plural predicates block ignorance readings. Finally, I discuss a phenomenon that has received little attention in the Free Choice literature, which I term bare Free Choice. This arises when a disjunctive sentence exhibits a Free Choice reading despite apparently lacking a sentential operator, such as a modal.