Free Choice in Deontic Inquisitive Semantics (DIS)...... 1

We will propose a novel solution to the free choice puzzle that is driven by empirical datafrom legal discourse and does not suffer from the same problems as implicature-based accounts. We willargue against implicature-based accounts and provide an entailment-based solution. Following Anderson’sviolation-based deontic logic, we will demonstrate that a support-based radical inquisitive semantics willcorrectly model both the free choice effect and the boolean standard entailment relations in downwardentailing contexts. An inquisitive semantics is especially suited to model sluicing effects where the contin-uation “but I do not know which” coerces an ignorance reading. It also demonstrates that the counterar-guments to deontic reduction failed to take into account the different effects of inquisitive and informativeutterances in conversation, such that a refined definition of radical inquisitive entailment renders such in-ferences invalid. Furthermore, we will argue that the problem of strengthening the antecedent that is usedas a counterargument against entailment-based accounts also fails under a refined notion of entailment.