Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung
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The local context of disjunction is not universal: A case study of Japanese
Get PDFKurafuji (1998) observes that \u27bathroom anaphora\u27 is felicitous in Japanese with an overt pronoun, but not with a covert ‘pronoun.’ This study reexamines this observation. I argue that the infelicity of the overt pronoun should be attributed to the absence of the local context for the second disjunct. I also demonstrate that the covert ‘pronoun’ is not a genuine instance of bathroom anaphora. The covert argument results from eliding an indefinite through \u27argument ellipsis\u27. The conclusion of this study implies that the local context of logical connectives is a locus of cross-linguistic/categorial variations
Crew members of the Titanic – a lexical temporal account
Get PDFIn this paper, I propose an analysis for the temporal interpretation of noun phrases according to which nouns independently locate the time at which they are temporally evaluated depending on noun class and context. I will argue that nouns separate into two aspectual classes: eventive and stative nouns. On top of this, noun phrases possess a covert time pronoun that is semantically under-specified for nouns that are eventive, and restricted to the utterance time if they are stative. This novel approach explains puzzling data and unifies previous accounts by means of extending analyses of verbal tense phenomena (i.e., pronominal tense, superficial tenselessness) to the nominal domain
On the conjunctive interpretation of the disjunction \u27fie. . . fie\u27 in child Romanian
No full textPrevious studies show that adults tend to interpret sentences involving unembedded complex disjunctions (\u27The mouse carried either the apple or the orange\u27) exclusively (‘The mouse carried one or the other but not both’), while children tend to interpret them either inclusively (‘The mouse carried one and possibly both’) or conjunctively (‘The mouse carried both’) (Paris 1973; Braine and Rumain 1981; Chierchia et al. 2001; Guasti et al. 2005; Singh et al. 2016; Nicolae and Sauerland 2016; Tieu et al. 2017; among others). We conducted a set of experiments investigating children’s and adults’ interpretations of different kinds of simple and complex disjunctions in Romanian, with the goal of probing whether children’s conjunctive interpretation of disjunction is an experimental artifact, as argued by Huang and Crain (2020) and Skordos et al. (2020). Specifically, we investigated whether contexts where the disjunctive statement exhaustively mentions all objects in the display are more likely to elicit the conjunctive interpretation. While the majority of the disjunction types were interpreted inclusively by children, there was one disjunction that appeared to differ from the rest: the complex disjunction \u27fie. . . fie\u27, which children tended to interpret conjunctively, whether there were two or four objects in the context. In this paper, we focus on this particular finding, and discuss possible sources of children’s conjunctive interpretations: (i) a derived meaning via an implicature within an alternatives-based account, (ii) a primary meaning alongside inclusivity, (iii) syncretism with the present subjunctive of the verb \u27a fi\u27 (‘to be’)
(Past) temporal reference in an aspect prominent language
Get PDFAkan (Kwa, Niger-Congo) deploys three different temporal markers to express pastness: the final vowel lengthening of the verb (LEN), the prefix \u27a\u27-, and the particle \u27ná\u27. Building on novel fieldwork data, we propose a pronominal analysis for \u27ná\u27, viewed as a non-present tense. For \u27LEN\u27, we develop a hybrid tense-aspect analysis, with its (past) tense lacking existential closure. By contrast, \u27a\u27- denotes a hybrid perfect with a quantificational tense semantics and an underspecified resultative aspect semantics
What number marking on indefinites means: conceivability presuppositions and sensitivity to probabilities
Get PDFThe inferences due to number marking on indefinites have been argued be pragmatic in nature, and to disappear in downward-monotonic environments. This paper shows that indefinites are associated to a conceivability presupposition even when embedded under negation. Furthermore, it presents the results of an experiment that shows, on the basis of a production task, that the preferred number for negated indefinites is sensitive to probabilistic information in a gradient way: the more common it is in general for the objects of interest to come in groups, the more plural is used, etc. The sketch of an account of these facts is provided, in a model of pragmatics where statements compete on the basis of their potential continuations
Yet another player in the \u27re\u27 domain: the redirectional (\u27send-it-somewhere else\u27) reading
No full textThe paper analyzes a neglected reading which appears in the domain of iterative morphemes focusing on the English prefix \u27re\u27-. The analysis is discussed against the backdrop of the structural vs. lexical types of analyses suggested by previous research for other readings of iteratives, notably the repetitive and restitutive ones (von Stechow 1996, among others). The relationships of the different readings are discussed. The current proposal is formulated by updating Zwart’s (2019) semantics, hence fully compatible with a lexical account. The relevant relation defined is called ‘redirectional’ and the reading observed ‘send-it-somewhere-else’, starting out from the most literal instances, i.e., locational and specifically path-based ones, which link up directly to, and extend, other more widely discussed notions of (counter )directionality and reversal. Questions from the current research arise for semantics, but also its mapping with the morphosyntax
Revisiting kind predication in Italian
Get PDFIn this work, I present novel data form Italian, showing that the flavor of generic sentences interacts with mood. Definite plural generics may receive a law-like or an accidental flavor when the subject is modified by a relative in the indicative. However, when the subject is modified by a relative in the subjunctive, it can only receive a law-like reading. I argue that this data is explained if we extend to kinds, standardly seen as intensional plural entities, the tools already used in the treatment of referential plurals, and specifically the distributive operator. I propose that the interaction between the flavor of generic sentences and the presence of the subjunctive is due to a structural ambiguity in Italian definite plural generics. The optional insertion of the distributive operator in plural definite generics gives rise to two LFs. (i) If \u27DIST\u27 is not inserted, the kind is interpreted in the restriction of GEN, and we get the usual LF. The modal nature of this structure yields the law-like reading, and licenses the subjunctive. (ii) If it is inserted, it distributes the predicate over actual members of the kind, yielding the accidental reading. The subjunctive is then not licensed, as it cannot be interpreted in the modal environment provided by the restriction of GEN. This also predicts that singular indefinite generics cannot receive accidental readings, as they don’t denote kinds. I finally argue that a similar reasoning provides a fresh perspective on English bare plurals
Polar particles in Farsi: Anaphora in the scoreboard model of discourse
Get PDFCross-linguistically, polar particles can be used in two readings: \u27polarity\u27 and \u27conformity\u27. In response to positive polar questions/assertions, the two readings of each particle generate the same proposition. However, in response to negative initiatives, they lead to ambiguity (Krifka, 2013; Roelofsen and Farkas, 2015; Geist and Repp, in press). In this paper, we investigate the reading(s) of the particles \u27âre\u27 ‘yes’ and \u27na\u27 ‘no’ in Farsi for five types of initiatives: (i) positive assertions, (ii) negative assertions, (iii) negative polar questions (NPQs), (iv) biased negative questions with the discourse particle \u27dige\u27 (\u27dige\u27-NPQs) and (v) tag questions (TQs). Based on the distribution of readings, we argue that different readings of polar particles react to propositions placed in different compartments of the Scoreboard Model representation
Dynamics and alternatives of unconditionals
Get PDFThe \u27indistinguishable participants\u27 configuration, typically observed within conditional sentences, has motivated dynamic analyses of anaphora resolution. This study points out that the configuration is attested in \u27unconditionals\u27 as well. We analyze these instances of indistinguishable participants by augmenting dynamic semantics to Rawlins’ (2013) proposal for unconditionals, which utilizes Hamblinian alternative semantics. The result is a combination of dynamic semantics and update semantics. The success of the analysis provides further support for the combinatory system, which is independently motivated by Li (2021)
Subkinds and anaphoricity: Avoid covert complexity
Get PDFThis paper is about the theoretical implications of Despić’s (2019) generalization regarding languages without definite articles. Applied to the number-marking Serbian and Turkish, bare plurals and uncountables can refer anaphorically to instances but not to subkinds, while bare singulars can refer anaphorically to both instances and subkinds. The first part poses a puzzle to the view that overt and covert definites are equivalent, along with the fact that overtly-definite plurals and uncountables can refer anaphorically to subkinds. I propose that the lack of equivalence is because subkind-anaphoricity is complex, and its covertness in languages without definite articles causes it to be blocked by the simpler covert operation of reference to kinds