Topic summary
Quantifier raising
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Operator (linguistics).
Quantifier raising
In the generative model of the syntax-semantics interface, a quantifier must move to positions higher in the structure, leaving behind a trace which it then binds. When this movement leaves the spoken word order unchanged, it is said to be "covert". This process of covert quantifier raising (QR) can create scope ambiguities as in the following example.