Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung
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Take on this commitment: the particle \u27bərə\u27 in Marathi (Indo-Aryan)
No full textThe particle bərə in Marathi optionally occurs in final position in declaratives, imperatives, and wh-interrogatives giving rise to different discourse effects. This paper presents the first description of utterance-final bərə in declaratives and imperatives, offering a unified analysis for its distributional profile and interpretive effects. I will claim that in these uses, bərə has an advisory effect: a bərə-using speaker conventionally expresses their preference that the addressee undertake a dependent doxastic or preferential commitment to the content introduced by the speaker. A second conventional component is a felicity condition that undertaking this commitment is a pre-condition for fulfilling a contextually salient addressee-benefiting goal. The existence of this conventionalized cross-clausal discourse strategy reinforces a view on which models of discourse update must not only track (i) evolving interlocutor beliefs and preferences; but also (ii) speaker attitudes regarding how commitments should be optimally taken on by their interlocutors; and (iii) how acts of taking on commitments relate to the broader action choices and goals of interlocutors
Believing p, discovering ¬p: \u27Meğer\u27 and epistemic shifts
No full textThis paper provides the first formal semantic treatment of meğer clauses in Turkish, focusing on their presuppositional and evidential properties. Meğer clauses uniquely encodes a doxastic shift, asserting a proposition that the speaker previously believed to be false but now believes to be true. Additionally, the study explores the obligatory occurrence of the so-called indirect evidential marker -mI in meğer clauses, proposing that the contexts satisfying the presuppositions of meğer inherently satisfy the presuppositions of -mIș . Hence, in such contexts, -mIș is preferred over direct evidentiality as a result of Maximize Presupposition! (Heim, 1991). By analyzing meğer, this study aims to contribute to the broader understanding of evidentiality, presuppositions, and epistemic shifts in natural language
Unifying the French evidential construction \u27on di(rai)t que\u27
No full textThe evidential constructions on dit que p (∼‘one says that p’) and on dirait que p (∼‘one would say that p’) differ in terms of meaning, compatibility with negation, and in terms of the moods they can embed. These factors additionally influence whether the speaker can be taken to endorse the prejacent. On dit- and on dirait-constructions were previously assumed to be distinct idioms, the former with an evidential reading, the latter, with an epistemic reading. In this paper, we propose that both forms are derived from the same core components, in particular, an evidential modal dire involving an accessibility relation which forces a homogeneity effect regarding the truth of its prejacent in evidentially accessible worlds. We show that the complex interaction between embedded mood, negation, and speaker endorsement in these constructions, can be explained assuming that on di(rai)t-constructions compete with structural alternatives differing w.r.t. the placement of negation, mood, and their subject pronoun
Exploring the semblance and discrepancies between simplex and complex numerals in Mandarin Chinese
Full text linkThis paper investigates the polysemy of the adjective da ‘big’ within numeral classifier phrases, focusing on its dual roles as an attributive modifier before the head noun and as a degree operator preceding the classifier or a multiplicative numeral. By examining the position of da and its semantic implications, the study distinguishes the roles of cardinal numbers.Syntactically, simplex numerals act as heads, selecting numeral bases as complements. Semantically, they encode either degree-based or quantifier-type meanings. Multiplicative numerals (formed as Simplex-Base combinations) further exhibit versatility, serving as quantifying elements or nominal partitioning tools, highlighting the complex interplay between syntax and semantics in numeral classifier constructions
What does high negation do? Nothing, negation, or denegation?
Full text linkThis study discusses the semantics of the so-called high negation, which is probably a type of expletive negation in English realized in the guise of n’t in subject–auxiliary inversion contexts. We compare and scrutinize two types of phenomena that carry this item—high negation questions and negative inversion exclamatives—to elucidate its semantic contributions. High negation is revealed to function as a denegation (Searle, 1969; Cohen and Krifka, 2014), that is, the speaker’s refusal of someone’s assertion. In addition, the one to be refused is determined in correlation with the speech act ranging over high negation, suggesting that the negations involved in both phenomena are a unique lexical entry
No \u27iota\u27 type-shifter in Kazym Khanty
No full textIn this paper, we present new challenging data from Kazym Khanty (a Uralic language spoken in Western Siberia, Russia): in this articleless language, bare singular and bare dual NPs in argument positions can receive indefinite readings on par with definite ones, contradicting the predictions of the classic neo-Carlsonian approach (Chierchia, 1998; Dayal, 2004). We argue that the presence of indefinite uses can be accounted for within the neo-Carlsonian approach if we assume that the inventory of type-shifters accessible in the grammar is subject to cross-linguistic variation, and Kazym Khanty differs from the “canonicial” articleless languages in that it lacks the “definite” type-shifter iota. In the absence of iota, bare singular and bare dual NPs are predicted to be interpreted via the “indefinite” type-shifter ex. We show that this prediction is borne out: not only do bare singulars and bare duals feature indefinite uses, but they even can take variable scope, as expected from the generalized existential quantifiers. We also argue that ex, despite being associated with indefinite readings, can cover definite uses when iota is absent
Cardinality and (in)definiteness
Full text linkIn every language, numeral constructions (NCs) consistently exhibit a pattern of strong indefiniteness. Although they can also appear with an overt definite determiner, achieving definiteness in NCs in languages without articles typically necessitates the use of alternative markers, such as demonstratives (Jiang, 2012). This contrasts with bare nouns, which can freely take on definiteness in articleless languages, often attributed to a covert \u27iota\u27 operator in the neo-Carlsonian approach. The prevailing view considers NCs to be predicative expressions of type ⟨e,t⟩, undergoing ∃ type-shifting in argument positions without overt determiners. Yet, it is unclear why the covert iota does not similarly apply to NCs in articleless languages, given their compatibility with the definite determiner in languages with articles. Taking up this puzzle, this study proposes that NCs primarily function as argumental expressions of type e, with their indefiniteness (via a choice function) stemming from a cardinal head residing within their structure. The proposal is grounded in an analysis of NCs in Turkish, an articleless language with an optional classifier, tane, and reinforced by data from Farsi
Responsible drivers and good passengers: the influence of non-intersective modification on nouns
Full text linkA noun modified by a non-intersective adjective is standardly said to denote a subset of the unmodified noun’s extension; [[skillful surgeon]] is a subset of [[surgeon]] (Siegel, 1976; Kamp and Partee, 1995). I argue that many non-intersective adjective-noun combinations actually denote a subset of the modifier’s extension (e.g. [[skillful surgeon]] is a subset of [[skillful]]). I define \u27quality adjectives\u27 — adjectives that describe goodness or character traits specifiable by an identity — as a subclass of non-intersective modifiers and provide data to suggest these modifiers are centrally predicated while the nouns they modify restrict their context. I derive these cases from a dyadic generic quantifier over Kratzerian situations that situates the nominal in its restrictor and the adjective in its nuclear scope. This accounts for three novel generalizations regarding how certain quality modifiers influence nouns: quality modifiers alter the temporal properties of nouns, suppress the second argument of relational nouns, and resist nouns that reference species and natural classes
Standard and non-standard theories of attitudes and NPIs
Full text linkSome clause-taking verbs (e.g., \u27believe\u27) can also take DPs, some (e.g., \u27surmise\u27) cannot, and some (e.g., \u27groan\u27) can appear without a complement. The standard theory of complementation is forced to appeal to lexical ambiguity to explain this. An alternative theory says that “complements” of clause-taking predicates are not arguments, thereby offering a way to explain this variation without appealing to lexical ambiguity. This paper argues that the alternative theory is not more explanatory than the standard theory
Reconstructing coordinations
Full text linkThe debate about the proper analysis of coordination is usually organized around two competing approaches. On the first approach, sentences with apparent DP coordination consist of a coordination of full clauses. On the second approach, such sentences involve a coordination of DPs, in which the coordinator combines two quantificational elements. We introduce them, and subsequently evaluate them, on the basis of apparent subject DP coordinations in raising constructions. The data presents a challenge primarily for the first approach