Subtrigging
{{Short description|Modification of words for free choice items}}
In formal semantics, subtrigging is the phenomenon whereby free choice items in episodic sentences require a modifier. For instance, the following sentence is not acceptable in English.{{cite thesis |type=PhD |last=LeGrand |first=Jean |date=1975 |title= Or and Any: The semantics and syntax of two logical operators |publisher=University of Chicago}}{{cite journal |last= Dayal |first=Veneeta |year=1998 |title= "Any" as inherently modal|journal= Linguistics and Philosophy |volume=21 |issue=5 |pages=433–476 |doi=10.1023/A:1005494000753 |jstor=25001717 |s2cid=60654913 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25001717}}{{cite journal |last= Aloni |first=Maria|author-link=Maria Aloni |year=2007 |title=Free choice and exhaustification: an account of subtrigging effects|journal= Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung |volume=11}}{{cite encyclopedia |title=A viability constraint on alternatives for free choice |encyclopedia= Alternatives in semantics |year=2009 |last=Dayal |first=Veneeta |editor-last= Fălăuș |editor-first=Anamaria |publisher= Palgrave Macmillan |citeseerx= 10.1.1.225.2499 }}
- *Any student signed the petition.
However, the sentence can be repaired by adding a post-nominal modifier such as a relative clause, prepositional phrase, or locative.
- Any student who went to the meeting signed the petition. (RC)
- Any student at the meeting signed the petition. (PP)
- Any student there signed the petition. (locative)