Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung
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Cumulative readings of modified numerals: A plural projection approach
Get PDFThis paper addresses cumulative readings of modified-numeral DPs (MNs) like exactly two boys. Based on new German data, we argue that MNs are interpreted in situ in cumulative sentences, while the maximality condition contributed by the numeral modifier can take wider scope. We present an analysis that combines the Plural Projection system (Schmitt, 2019 a.o.), a surface-compositional approach to cumulativity, with a two-dimensional semantics for the numeral modifiers (Krifka, 1999 a.o.) and derives widest scope for the maximality condition. We then discuss ‘non-maximal’ readings of MNs (Buccola and Spector, 2016). We show that the availability of such readings depends on the syntactic positions of the MNs, which supports the idea that they are interpreted in situ, and sketch a way of deriving this fact
Eliminating EARLIEST: a general semantics for before and after
Get PDFDespite recent proposals, there are still empirical gaps in the study of the semantics of temporal relations, including the precise truth conditions of before and after constructions. Theoretically, there is disagreement about whether the constructions involve aspectual coercion operators, like EARLIEST, that privilege certain bounds over others (Beaver and Condoravdi, 2003; Condoravdi, 2010); or whether non-veridical interpretations of before constructions are the result of intensionality or semantic underspecification (Krifka, 2010b). In this paper, I focus on the truth conditions of before and after constructions as they are conditioned by different aspectual classes across languages, and propose a reformulation of the semantics of before and after that characterizes them as antonymic in a particular way inspired by the treatment of comparatives in the degree-semantic literature. I argue that the result is a more empirically comprehensive and explanatory theory of relations between ordered plurals in general
Contiguity and membership and the typology of collective nouns
Get PDFIn the semantics of human collective nouns there are two mechanisms at work, leading to distinct types of collectivity. The collectivity of ‘crowds’ is based on the contiguity of its elements, while the contiguity of ‘clubs’ is based on membership in a social institution. This proposal strengthens and unifies earlier proposals about the nature and typology of collective nouns; it accounts for a range of new and old observations about the variety of collective nouns and it connects to recent insights in the study of collective reference more generally
Experimenting with subject alternatives for analysing generic sentences
Get PDFIn this paper we argue that for the (probabilistic) interpretation of generic sentences of the form ‘Gs are f ’ alternative groups, or kinds, of G play an important role. We describe the results of some experiments that empirically test this use of alternatives
Reverse sobel sequences and the dissimilarity of antecedent worlds
Get PDFWe have conducted an acceptability judgement experiment to examine two hypotheses related to the felicity of reverse Sobel sequences (rSS). The first hypothesis was based upon Lewis’ (2018) relevance-based variably-strict semantics: If two rSS are identical except for their respective difference in dissimilarity between their antecedent worlds, then the rSS with a higher degree of dissimilarity should be, on average, more acceptable. Our results, however, seem to support this hypothesis only weakly and appear more contradictory than supportive to the model behind it: Any kind of clear-cut dissimilarity will render an rSS felicitous, so long as its conditionals are counterfactual by nature. The second hypothesis, that rSS whose domains of quantification are entirely disjoint should be just as acceptable as regular utterances, was quasi-confirmed. Whilst a significant difference to the control items was found, these rSS differ only minimally in average acceptability and are the highest rated rSS so far. We therefore explain the slight, statistically significant decrease in acceptability as a result of the markedness of rSS structures. Finally, we provide two analyses to account for the data gathered. First, one modification of Lewis’ (2018) account, where we argue that relevance may not increase closeness beyond the levels set forth by worlds similarity. Then, with the second account, we attempt to motivate the need for and the pragmatic contribution of contrastive stress with regards to rSS, using Ebert et al.’s (2008) assumption that antecedents represent their conditional’s aboutness topic – thereby deriving contrastive topic with regard to the two sets of antecedent worlds
Vietnamese subcomparatives, the grammar of degrees, and comparative deletion
Get PDFBeck et al. (2009) conducted a cross-linguistic survey of degree constructions and proposed three parameters to classify languages according to the constructions they allow and their available interpretations: 1. whether a language has degrees in its semantics; 2. whether a language has degree abstraction; and 3. whether a language allows the degree argument position of a gradable predicate to be overtly filled. This paper provides novel data from Vietnamese that test the predictions of these parameters. Languages with clausal comparatives and a positive setting for these parameters should allow subcomparatives. This paper shows that Vietnamese is such a language, but despite this, many subcomparatives are ungrammatical. Further examination of the data reveals a crucial generalization: a predicate’s ability to remain in the standard of a subcomparative is linked to its ability to interact with nhi?u ‘much, many’. I propose that this generalization can be captured by positing that degrees combine directly with some Vietnamese predicates, while in other cases degrees combine with nhi?u or its silent counterpart ? before combining with predicates, an idea inspired by Bresnan (1973), Grano and Kennedy (2012) and Wellwood (2012). I also propose a mandatory deletion operation that occurs in the standards of Vietnamese comparatives, forcing predicates to elide when they combine directly with degrees but allowing them to remain overt when degrees must first combine with nhi?u/?
The prosody of presupposition projection in naturally-occurring utterances
Get PDFIn experimental studies, prosodically-marked pragmatic focus has been found to influence the projection of factive presuppositions of utterances like these parents didn’t know the kid was gone (Cummins and Rohde, 2015; Tonhauser, 2016; Djarv and Bacovcin, 2017), supporting question-based analyses of projection (i.a., Abrusán, 2011; Abrusán, 2016; Simons et al., 2017; Beaver et al., 2017). However, no prior work has explored whether this effect extends to naturally-occurring utterances. In a large set of naturally-occurring utterances, we find that prosodically-marked focus influences projection in utterances with factive embedding predicates, but not those with non-factive predicates. We argue that our findings support an account where lexical semantics of the predicate contributes to projection to the extent that they admit QUD alternatives that can be assumed to entail the content of the complement
Negative priorities: evidence from prohibitive and expletive negation
Get PDFIn this paper we propose an analysis of prohibitive and expletive negation that relies on two ways of building negative priorities. Our empirical ground is the diachronic development of expletive negation from Latin to French. We show that the negative expression ne (from Indo-European me) is found in two contexts in Latin: imperatives and priority attitudes. We propose a unified semantics for these contexts, that leaves room to accommodate a distinction between positive (e.g. order/wish) and negative (e.g. forbid/fear) priority attitudes. We argue for an ambiguity account of ne driven by these two types of attitudes, and argue for a distinction of a prohibitive ne acting as a true negation in the context of imperatives and positive priority attitudes and an expletive ne, reversing the ordering relation encoded in the lexical semantics of negative priority attitudes. We extended the analysis to expletive negation in the context of epistemic attitudes conveying a meaning of contrariness such as doubt or deny thus establishing a unified semantics for negative attitudes that cuts across priority and epistemic ones
Linking scope, exhaustivity and ignorance
Get PDFThis paper accounts for a link between scope and epistemic effects of ?hari marked disjunctions/indefinites in Sinhala (Indo Aryan, Sri Lanka) with respect to DPs carrying universal quantificational force. It proposes to derive the wide/narrow scope and related epistemic effects as implicatures by way of exhaustification with respect to alternatives associated with a disjunction/indefinite. A doxastic and an exhaustivity operator placed in the syntactic structure of a ?hari disjunction/indefinite construction serve in deriving the implicatures, following the grammatical approach to derivation of implicatures (cf. Fox, 2007; Chierchia et al., 2012; Meyer, 2013; Nicolae, 2017, a.m.o.)
Verbal negation
Get PDFWhile it is well–known that negation has various behaviours, I focus here on verbal negation, a constituent negation acting on verbs. I show that propositional negation and verbal negation are barely distinguishable at matrix level, but that a real semantic difference is brought out in certain linguistic contexts, including direct perception reports. I link verbal negation with counter–expectation and active inaction, thus generalising previous accounts on negated infinitives in direct perception reports. I then propose a formalisation in a recent event semantics framework. Finally I explore how these ideas relate with previous studies in two languages featuring several negation forms: Korean and Bengali