The acceptability of any-DPs in existential modal sentences presents a challenge for the theories of NPI licensing: existential modal sentences appear to differ substantially from other environments in which any-DPs are acceptable (in particular, they lack a downward-entailing operator). One recent approach to this challenge, first, takes any-DPs to be subject to an environment-based downward-entailingness condition – they have to occur in an environment that is Strawson downward-entailing with respect to their domain (cf. Kadmon & Landman 1993) – and, second, derives such an environment in existential modal sentences by means of exhaustification (e.g., Fox 2007). I present new evidence supporting this approach (cf. Crnic 2017, 2019). The evidence comes from a striking contrast in the behavior of singular vs. plural any-DPs in existential modal sentences. Time permitting, an extension of the analysis to the distribution of mass any-DPs and ever in existential modal sentences will be discussed.
