Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung
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The combination of inde?nite and de?nite ‘determiners’ — a cross-linguistic study
No full textIn the West African languages Akan, Ga (Kwa), Ngamo, and Hausa (West-Chadic), de?nite familiarity markers and choice-functional inde?nites can combine giving rise to a de?nite interpretation, which poses a puzzle for a compositional analysis of DPs. When combined, three different readings can arise: anaphoric, recognitional, or complement anaphoric reading, though the languages differ with respect to which reading is available. We propose that the available readings depend on (i) whether the de?nite is strongly or weakly familiar, and (ii) whether the choice-functional inde?nite has a novelty condition or not. By that the paper contributes to the ongoing discussion on the interpretation of (in)de?nites, crosslinguistically
Rhetorical wh-questions differing in inquisitiveness: Support from Mandarin prosody
Get PDFRhetorical questions are in many respects both question-like and assertion-like, and have been analyzed either as questions or assertions. Building on Farkas and Roelofsen (2017), we propose a unified account of rhetorical and information-seeking wh-questions in inquisitive semantics, where we are no longer forced to choose between these labels. Rhetorical questions that suggest that the answer is the empty set (‘nobody’ to a question with who) are compared to ones that suggest a non-empty set as their answer. We assign the same basic conventional discourse effects to the two types of rhetorical questions as for information-seeking questions, but posit different special discourse effects, which signal differences in speaker commitment. Special effects are signaled by a marked form, such as by a non-canonical intonation. We argue that the prosodic marking of Mandarin wh-interrogatives, whether used as a genuine or rhetorical question, is consistent with our analysis
A semantics for complement fulfilling conditionals with \u27glad\u27
No full textThis paper argues that complement fulfilling conditionals with glad are true arguments of the corresponding predicates. For this to be possible, certain standard assumptions about glad have to be revised. I argue that (a) glad is not a factive predicate by itself; and (b) that it doesn’t take propositions as its semantic argument. The main idea is based on an idea implicit in Heim (1992) that can be paraphrased as follows: “There is a hidden ‘because’-clause inevery factive desire report”. The resulting picture allows for a unified account of complement fulfilling and hidden conditionals in desire reports
The semantics of roots determines argument structure
Get PDFA challenge for theories of argument structure that take verb meanings to decompose into so-called roots and event templates (Rappaport Hovav and Levin, 1998; Ramchand, 2008; Alexiadou et al., 2015, i.a.) relates to successfully accounting for the distribution of roots, as not all roots seem to appear in the same syntactic contexts. In this respect, an in?uential approach holds that roots are indifferent to syntactic distribution, and therefore that in principle any root can appear in any context (Borer, 2005, 2013; Mateu and Acedo-Matell´an, 2012; Acedo-Matell´an and Mateu, 2014). Another in?uential approach on the other hand classi?es roots into semantic classes constraining the syntactic contexts roots can appear in (Marantz, 1997; Harley and Noyer, 2000; Reinhart, 2002; Alexiadou et al., 2006; Ramchand, 2008). Here, I show that the two main approaches to argument structure either undergenerate (Rappaport Hovav and Levin, 1998; Alexiadou et al., 2015) or overgenerate (Borer, 2005; Acedo-Matell´an and Mateu, 2014). In particular, I provide empirical data that show that so-called result verbs enjoy a certain degree of elasticity, contra Rappaport Hovav and Levin (1998); Alexiadou et al.(2015), yet there are cases of lack of verbal elasticity, contra Borer (2005); Acedo-Matell´an and Mateu (2014), i.a. To this end, I propose a root-sensitive approach to event structure in which the semantics of distinct classes of roots can determine the syntactic contexts roots can appear in. Under the present approach, cases of ungrammaticality are argued to result from clashes between the semantics of roots and the semantics of the event structure
Consequences of evidential marking on the interpretation of subjective predicates: Experimental data from Korean
Get PDFWe report two psycholinguistic experiments on how two kinds of subjective predicates – predicates of personal taste (PPTs) and non-PPT multidimensional adjectives (MDs) – interact with evidential morphology in Korean. We build on theoretical discussion on PPTs and MDs, according to which the semantics of PPTs, but not MDs, makes reference to an individual’s first-person experience. We test whether and how the perceived generalizability of opinions containing PPTs or MDs is modulated by evidentiality. We tested three evidential morphemes in Korean: the direct evidential -te-, the hearsay (reportative) evidential -tay, and the inferential evidential -napo-, along with a baseline condition with no evidential marking. The results suggest that (a) with PPTs, type of evidential marking has no effect on the perceived generalizability of opinions, but (b) with MDs, use of the inferential evidential lowers perceived generalizability. We attribute these patterns to the first-person direct experience requirement of PPTs (which we suggest renders opinions with PPTs harder to generalize, regardless of evidential marking), and to the decreased reliability of inferential evidence. Our work provides novel evidence for a link between evidentiality, subjectivity and the perceived generalizability of opinions
The incausality of \u27dennoch\u27 and \u27trotzdem\u27: Generic Contrast
No full textIn this paper, I suggest an adaptation of the incausality implicature ascribed to ‘concessive’ contrast with discourse connectives such as German dennoch (‘however’) and trotzdem (‘nevertheless’). Based on both, theoretical considerations and empirical data, I will argue that this contrast involves a generalization: a generic operator GEN (cf. Krifka et al., 1995) in the conventional implicature generalizes over variables in the asserted conjuncts. Theintroduction of the generic operator in the inference does not only provide insights on the close relation between properties of generic sentences and the concessive interpretation, it also allows for a consolidation of prevalent approaches to contrast with dennoch and trotzdem in the previous literature
Scaleless Implicatures, blocked by Actuality Entailments
Get PDFThe French necessity modals falloir and devoir can produce wide scope interpretations with respect to negation. However, when they are marked by the perfective aspect, this ability disappears, and they must take narrow scope. In this paper, I present a novel analysis of these modals’ wide scope interpretation, as a ‘scaleless implicature’ – a strengthening phenomenon arising from these necessity modals’ lack of a possibility scalemate. This strengthening, I argue, is blocked by the actuality entailment triggered by the perfective aspect
Quantificational variability effects with German \u27größtenteils\u27 and implicit agents
No full textThis paper investigates quantificational variability effects (QVE) with adverbs of quantity, focusing on German größtenteils and the QV-interpretations that arise with arguments of the main verb. I propose that these QV-interpretations are plausibly a result of gr¨oßtenteils directly composing with the argument showing QVE. In the first part of the paper, I analyze the syntactic behavior and semantic contribution of gr¨oßtenteils and show how the QVE with explicit arguments of the main verb can be captured. In the second part, the proposal is adapted slightly to be compatible with an event-based analysis of verbal meaning, and I show that the amended proposal and Bruening’s (2013) account of short eventive passives suffice to capture QVE with größtenteils and implicit agents. As a consequence, the availability of such QV-interpretations cannot be taken as evidence for the view that implicit agents are syntactically represented (pace Alexiadou and M¨uller 2018; M¨uller 2019)
Foreword
Get PDFIt is a pleasure to present the Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 25 – the first edition of the conference to be held in a virtual format. The main session of SuB25 was co-hosted by University College London and Queen Mary University of London from 3rd–9th September 2020. In addition, there were two special sessions from 1st–2nd September 2020: Gestures and Natural Language: Investigations at the Interface (organized and hosted by the University of Oslo) and the Semantics of Understudied Languages and Semantic Fieldwork (organized and hosted by Queen Mary University of London)
Remarks on disjunctive focus-associates
Get PDFThis paper concerns similarities and differences between the implicatures of dis-junction — modalized disjunction speci?cally — and the implicatures of other scalar terms like some. The two inference types are compared with special attention to their behavior under association with only, where they are shown to come apart. I argue that disjunct alternatives (p,q) to a disjunctive associate of only ([p or q]) do not feed the semantics of the particle. The signi?cance of the claim is discussed in connection to (a) semantic and implicature-based accounts of free choice inferences, and (b) the phenomenon of presupposed implicatures