Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung
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More \u27again\u27 readings and more \u27again\u27 morphemes: A structural analysis of Kanien’kéha \u27again\u27
No full textThis paper examines again readings in Kanien’kéha, shining new light on the debate between structural and lexical analyses of again ambiguity. In addition to previously analyzed repetitive, restitutive, and counterdirectional readings, Kanien’kéha has two novel phenomena through which present potential challenges to past analyses. First, Kanien’kéha again gives rise to typologically rare objectless repetitive readings in which a similar event containing the same verb but a different internal argument is presupposed. Second, Kanien’kéha possesses two, co-occurring again morphemes. In investigating these phenomena, I argue that a structural approach most naturally accounts for the Kanien’kéha facts, with one major implication. To account for the availability of objectless repetitive presuppositions under such an approach, I argue for the severing of the internal argument (contra, e.g., Kratzer 1996). With this in place, I propose that a single repetitive operator with variable scope can give rise to the full array of again readings in Kanien’kéha, as predicted by a structural approach
The German particle \u27denn\u27 in a Scoreboard model of discourse
No full textWe develop a Scoreboard-based analysis of the German discourse particle denn occurring in questions. There are three main outcomes of this exercise: First, we propose that the function of denn naturally fits the central ideas of the Scoreboard model: denn indicates that acceptance of the previous discourse move (which may be implicit) is being put on hold until some issue arising from it has been clarified. Second, we show that the formal implementation requires treating all components of a context structure as stacks rather than sets. Third, we argue that the notion of highlighting, which had a prominent place in a previous analysis, is not needed to capture the meaning and distribution of denn
The modification puzzle of Mandarin numeral phrases
Full text linkIt has been observed in the literature that the nominal-internal word order influences the specificity in Mandarin Chinese (Huang, 1982; Tang, 1990; Yang, 2005; Partee, 2006; Zhang, 2006). In this paper, we concentrate on numeral phrases that contain modifiers and show how their interaction displays the interpretational difference. We propose a semantic solution that consists of two resources, namely (i) the semantics of classifiers from Japanese (Sudo, 2016), and (ii) the semantics of relative clauses from Turkish (Sağ, 2019). We show that this specificity contrast is pervasive in Mandarin nominal constructions that deserve a uniform account
Parenthetical \u27say\u27 as a window into sincerity and commitment
No full textThis paper offers an analysis of the parenthetical use of say in English: e.g., Can we meet in, say, an hour?. This expression can be used to perform a speech act without incurring its canonical “sincerity condition” (Searle, 1975): for example, using say in a declarative sentence with content ϕ can conversationally commit the speaker to ϕ without communicating that the speaker believes ϕ. Using say does not always void an utterance’s sincerity condition, however: sincerity conditions only disappear when the focal alternatives of the host sentence are inconsistent with each other. This suite of behavior allows us to draw a novel empirical linebetween an utterance’s dynamic effects and its usual implications about speaker attitudes. I derive this behavior from the metalinguistic, focus-sensitive, and imperative semantics of say.Specifically, I propose that say in an utterance u (i) conventionally implicates that the speaker could have uttered a sentence systematically similar to u (a focal alternative to u), but (ii) effectively prefers to utter u. The effective preference encoded in say requires speaker commitment, even when its implication about focal alternatives weakens belief. I motivate (i) by showing that say is conventionally focus sensitive (Beaver and Clark, 2008). I motivate (ii) by arguing that say is related to the suppositional imperative use of say (e.g., Say that the house was in New York.), which is analyzed using the theory of imperatives as commitments toeffective preferences (Condoravdi and Lauer, 2012)
An alternative to Presuppositional Exhaustification: Supervaluationist RSA
Full text linkIt has been recently argued that exhaustification (the mechanism responsible for deriving scalar implicatures and other exhaustivity effects) should be viewed as generating trivalent meanings, with the effect that scalar implicatures are, in some sense, presupposed (Bassi et al. 2021; Wehbe and Doron 2024). In this paper, I argue that (a) presuppositional exhaustification fails to derive correct felicity conditions in certain cases, and (b) one can replace presuppositional exhaustification with a probabilistic pragmatics account that includes a bivalent exhaustivity operator. Strong Kleene-like behavior is derived on the basis of general principles of rational communication, and adequate felicity conditions are predicted – I call this account, following Cremers et al. (2023), the Supervaluationist RSA account
Viewpoint matters: Prototypical vs. non-prototypical co-speech gestures in the VP domain
Full text linkThe present paper extends Ebert et al.’s (2020) theory of the semantic contribution of co-speech gestures to the VP domain by investigating differences between prototypical and non-prototypical iconic co-speech gestures. Drawing from Ebert et al. (2022) and Ebert and Hinterwimmer (2022), we propose a formalism where a prototypical gesture denotes an event type which is not interpreted iconically, whereas non-prototypical gestures depend on a viewpoint variable and are interpreted iconically. Moreover, Ebert et al.’s (2020) similarity predicate SIM is spelled out for the verbal domain. We argue that viewpoint is, in the verbal domain, one factor the similarity predicate can depend on
How to reconcile maximal and non-maximal Mandarin \u27mei\u27: Distributivity without maximality
No full textTraditionally translated as ‘each’, Mandarin mei is often considered to express both maximality and distributivity. However, mei’s semantic contribution has been debated as it canonically co-occurs with dou, which also appears to enforce maximality, much like English all. This paper presents novel data demonstrating that dou, not mei, is responsible for expressing maximality. The existence of distributive items such as mei – which enforce distributivity but do not require maximality – underscores the need to distinguish maximality from distributivity as a separate semantic property, a point recently argued by Haslinger et al. (2025)
The role of incompatible disjuncts in the acquisition of disjunction
Full text linkPrior studies on disjunctive utterances involving compatible disjuncts (i.e., where replacing the disjunction or with and would not lead to contradiction) have found that, while adults interpret disjunctive sentences such as The mouse carried either an apple or an orange exclusively (‘only one, not both’), children often interpret them inclusively (‘one, or both’) or conjunctively (‘both, not just one’) (see, for instance, Singh et al., 2016, Tieu et al., 2017 and Bleotu et al., 2024b). Recent studies based on child corpora and experiments with adults suggest that exclusive interpretations are more likely when the two disjuncts in question are incompatible with one another (Jasbi et al., 2018, 2022; Felton and Jasbi, 2025). Building on this observation, our study employed a covered box task to investigate monolingual Romanian five-year-olds’ and adults’ interpretation of disjunctive utterances involving the complex disjunction fie. . . fie ‘either. . . or’ with compatible versus incompatible disjuncts (e.g., The squirrel was either at the top or at the bottom of the tree). We aimed to investigate whether incompatibility would lead to a decrease in Romanian-speaking children’s conjunctive and inclusive interpretations of disjunction. While some children showed conjunctive interpretations for compatible cases, all patterned with adults on incompatible ones. Their adult-like responses to incompatible disjunctions highlight the role of pragmatic and lexical cues in the early acquisition of disjunction. We discuss the theoretical implications of our findings, arguing that the source of exclusivity may be pragmatic or lexical
Beyond negation and verum: Can contrast license NPIs?
Full text linkWe present the results of an acceptability judgment experiment, which indicate that contrastive environments contribute to the licensing of (some) NPIs in the absence of conventional negative licensors. We relate the findings to previous claims that verum focus licenses (some) NPIs, a phenomenon which we argue is actually a sub-type of licensing by contrast.We provide a rough sketch of how Sailer’s (2022) theoretical account of licensing by “negative side message” could be extended to the facts we observe in the cases of NPIs in contrastive environments
Mapping to a scale: Mandarin \u27even\u27-like \u27dou\u27 with hyperbolic comparatives
No full textHyperbole is a common figure of speech widely used cross-linguistically. This paper delves into a hyperbole-related puzzle in Mandarin comparatives observed by Yin (1995): Mandarin bi (than) comparatives intended for a hyperbolic interpretation are degraded in the sense that improved in the presence of dou. We note that dou in such uses is most naturally glossed as English even. This paper aims to address, in particular, why dou helps to improve such uses significantly; to this end, it draws on updated insights from three independent fields, i.e., hyperbole, the semantics of dou, and even-like particles in general. More concretely, it integrates three independently motivated assumptions: (i) hyperboles involve mapping from a factual scale to an evaluative/affective scale (Nouwen, 2024), (ii) dou is an even-like particle (Liao, 2011; Liu, 2017; Chen and Greenberg, 2022), and (iii) even-like particles necessarily map their prejacent and its alternatives to a contextually salient scale (Greenberg, 2018; Zhang, 2022). In light of such assumptions, we propose that dou improves hyperbolic bi comparatives in Mandarin because it encodes scale mapping that is required by but lacking in hyperbolic bi comparatives, and we formally implement this idea via Chen and Greenberg’s (2022) degree-based semantics of dou. Beyond addressing this puzzle, this work is of potential interest to the study of hyperboles in general, a phenomenon that has ‘historically resisted formal analysis’ in Feinmann’s (2023) words