The Free Choice Condition for Any, a Free Choice Indefinite

There has been a long-running debate on whether English any represents two homophonous lexical items (i.e. PS any and FC any) or it is a unitary item with different interpretations. Generally following the approaches of Kadmon and Landman (1993) and Lee and Horn (1994), this paper recognizes any (both PS any and FC any) as an indefinite. However, instead of considering any to have "widening" effects or the "scalarity of even," as proposed by these researchers, I argue that any is an indefinite with a "free choice flavor" in all its interpretations, and that it can be interpreted universally, generically, existentially, or indiscriminatively, depending on the pragmatic context in which it is used. Considering any as a unitary lexical item, this paper proposes the Free Choice Condition (FCC) as a unified licensing condition for any with its various readings. The present study compares the FCC with Contextual Vagueness by Dayal (1998), Nonveridicality by Giannakidou (2001), and Non-Individuation by Jayez and Tovena (2005). It is revealed that the FCC can solve several problems in these three accounts. The licensing condition for any expounded in this paper is closely related to its semantics｡ The main semantic property of any is free choice in all its interpretations, and naturally freedom of choice proves to play a major or role in its licensing.