Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung
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Individuation criteria and copredication: modification in context
Full text linkWhen instances of copredication (e.g., \u27damaged, insightful book\u27) are combined with quantification such as that provided by numerals (e.g., \u27three damaged, insightful books\u27), it has been argued that the result is a \u27double-distinctness\u27 interpretation. For instance, ‘three damaged insightful books, each of which are physically distinct and informationally distinct from the others’ (see, e.g, Gotham, 2017; Chatzikyriakidis and Luo, 2018). However, doubt has been cast on this view by Liebesman and Magidor (2017, 2019), who provide examples where the double distinctness reading does not arise. The challenge that is taken up in this paper is to explain, in a systematic way, why quantified copredication constructions seem to have double-distinctness interpretations in simple and/or minimal contexts, and also why and on what basis these can be overridden in more elaborate contexts
Scope ambiguities in future questions: Reflection and \u27queclamative\u27 with Italian \u27mica\u27
No full textThe paper studies the interpretation of Italian future questions with and without MICA. While bare future questions are reflective and enhance uncertainty, MICA future questions reveal bias, if not mirativity, and are exclamative in nature. We argue that these differences are grounded in a difference in scope. When FUT scopes over QUES, the question becomes reflective and enhances un-answerability. When QUES embeds the modal FUT the resulting interpretation is ill-formed. MICA offers the content needed to repair the question, contributing an alternative. This alternative has an expressive status whose content is adjoined by expressive application, and is thereby highlighted, with the enhancement of bias. Our paper offers three main insights: (i), modals, like attitudes, can embed sets of propositions. (iii) Expressive content can be adjoined to questions, creating an exclamative biased questions, which we call queclamative. (iii) Italian MICA belongs to the broad class of mirative evidentials sensitive to defeasible generalization rather than to the one of common ground management devices
Symmetry resolution and blocking
Full text linkWe propose a blocking condition that limits the possible effects of exhaustification: exhaustifying a sentence φ cannot output a meaning that could be expressed as the basic, non-exhaustified, meaning of a sentence that is no more complex than φ . We propose that this blocking condition provides a solution to the so-called symmetry problem. We compare our solution to the proposal in Katzir (2007) and Fox and Katzir (2011), which instead prevents ex-haustification from excluding alternatives that are more complex than the assertion. In support of our blocking condition, we argue that Katzir and Fox’s complexity filter does not actually solve the symmetry problem in full, and in fact is incompatible with exhaustification data. We also argue against a central auxiliary assumption that Katzir and Fox’s account appeals to, viz. the assumption that symmetry cannot be resolved by context
The at-issue status of viewpoint gestures: Evidence for gradient at-issueness
Full text linkRecent semantic research on the meaning contribution of speech-accompanying gestures has focused on their at-issue status. Empirical evidence suggests they contribute not-at-issue meaning by default (e.g., Ebert et al., 2020). However, there is growing evidence that the notion of at-issueness is better captured as a gradient one instead of a binary one (Barnes et al., 2022; Tonhauser et al., 2018; see Barnes and Ebert, 2023 for a formal implementation). Research investigating differences in at-issueness between different types of co-speech gestures is missing entirely. This paper presents findings from two experimental rating studies investigating differences in the at-issue status and salience of \u27character viewpoint gestures\u27 (CVGs) and \u27observer viewpoint gestures\u27 (OVGs). The results of the first experiment suggest that while both viewpoint gesture types contribute not-at-issue meaning by default, CVGs are still more at-issue than OVGs. In the second study, it was investigated whether CVGs are more salient than OVGs. The results tentatively suggest that there are no salience differences between CVGs and OVGs. Overall, the findings provide additional evidence in favor of a gradient approach to at-issueness
When the time of the story meets the time of the telling: On temporal metalepsis
Full text linkIn literary studies, temporal metalepsis is defined as a seemingly inconsistent transgression between the time of the telling and the time of the told. For instance, the past time of the told story may appear to overlap with the present time of the telling, as in \u27Ada began to climb the mountain. While Ada is climbing the mountain, we have time for a digression.\u27 This paper tackles temporal metalepsis from a primarily linguistic point of view. It first draws attention to unexplored semantic properties of temporal metalepsis, focusing on the grammar of time (subordinators, tense, and aspect) and on anaphoric relations. This shows that the phenomenon deserves linguistic scrutiny. Second, a pretense-based analysis is proposed. Specifically, the temporal entanglement between narrative layers is argued to result in an ontological conflict that licenses the accommodation of an event in pretense at the actual layer. The proposal is spelled out in terms of a dynamic semantics that factors a game of pretense into transgressions between story worlds and actuality as known from para- and metafictional discourse
Future and the composition of modal meaning: the view from Igbo
Full text linkIn many languages, overt ‘future markers’ play a role in the expression of modal meaning, but their exact semantic contributions vary depending on the particular language and analysis. In some prominent existing accounts, future markers i) contribute prospective time shifting and combine with modal operators or ii) they are part of the functional modal paradigm of a language, on a par with \u27must\u27-type necessity modals. The Igbo future marker \u27ga\u27 presents an interesting variation on ii). On its own, \u27ga\u27 expresses necessity relative to a stereotypical conversational background (similar to other future modals). Interestingly, however, \u27ga\u27 also contributes to the composition of other necessity meanings (≈ MUST) as well as circumstantial possibility (≈ ability CAN). We explore this empirical pattern in more detail, sketch an analysis of the relevant modal constructions involving \u27ga\u27, and discuss potential theoretical implications from a cross-linguistic perspective
The role of gesture in ʔayʔaǰuθəm determiners and demonstratives
Full text linkThis paper examines the contribution of co-speech gesture with determiners and demonstratives in ʔayʔaǰuθəm (ISO 639-3: coo), an endangered Salish language spoken in British Columbia, Canada. Using a small experiment designed after similar work by Ebert et al. (2020) on German, we show that gestural content is not-at-issue accompanying ʔayʔaǰuθəm determiners but shifts to the at-issue dimension with at least one class of demonstratives, the so-called “gesture demonstratives”. The experiment also confirms Ebert et al.’s observation that co-speech gesture makes different contributions with indefinite-like versus definite-like determiners. Overall, the findings suggest that speech-accompanying gestures are interpreted similarly even in unrelated languages with quite different systems of determiners and demonstratives
On the meaning and use of \u27okay\u27 in spoken German
No full textWe present an account of the meaning and use of \u27okay\u27 in spoken German based on a conversation analytic study of the Berlin-Map-Task-Corpus, focusing on three uses: \u27pure acknowledgment\u27, \u27acceptance\u27, and u\u27ndecidedness marking\u27. Semantically, we propose that \u27okay\u27 denotes a truth predicate. This allows for a uniform semantics: The different uses of \u27okay\u27 can be derived from that meaning in connection with the meanings of prosodic contours which we take here to indicate stance marking. Pragmatically, we propose that the basic function of \u27okay\u27 is to indicate uptake. For simplicity and lack of space, our proposal will be approximated in terms of a three-valued propositional multi-agent model, in which \u27okay\u27 is taken to denote a constant function from formulas to the truth value \u27true\u27
Semantics of Mandarin Demonstratives
Full text linkThis paper presents novel data from Mandarin that can tease apart the two main analyses of demonstratives. Dayal and Jiang (2020) propose that demonstratives carry an anti-uniqueness presupposition, requiring there to be another entity meeting the NP description in the larger situation. The Hidden Argument Theory of demonstratives argue that demonstratives carry an additional restriction than a definite description. The Mandarin data I focus on involve demonstratives with restrictions that are so specific that anti-uniqueness cannot be met. By discussing this data, I show that an account of demonstratives based on situational anti-uniqueness is not sufficient. Then, I build an account of Mandarin demonstratives based on the main intuitions from the Hidden Argument Theory. Following Nowak (2021), I argue that the second restriction must be a syntactic constituent. In explaining the restricted distribution of demonstratives, I follow Blumberg (2020) and Ahn (2022) in arguing that there is a pragmatic competition. Finally, I extend Ahn’s analysis and argue that proper names should be added to the inventory of expressions that can occupy the second argument position
Varieties of indefinites in Cantonese
Full text linkWe focus on the semantics of three types of Cantonese nominal constructions that can refer to indefinite referents. We argue that the indefinite interpretation is derived by a different semantic mechanism in each construction. The evidence for this claim comes from the different behavior of these constructions in terms of their scope-taking characteristics and their (in)compatibility with specific indefinite interpretations. Specifically, we make the following claims: (i) [BARE N] phrases denote type ⟨e,t⟩ properties, and get an indefinite interpretation via type-shifting, (ii) [CL N] and [\u27jat1\u27 CL N] phrases are choice-functional indefinites, and (iii) the choice-function variable in [CL N] phrases can be left unbound, allowing for definite as well as (specific) indefinite uses, depending on context