Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung
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Now and then: Perspectives on positional variance in temporal demonstratives
Get PDFDespite its reputation as an archetypal example of indexicality, the temporal adverb now has many non-indexical uses. It is not surprising, then, that recent work has instead focused on an intuition that now evokes some notion of change or contrast in the preceding discourse. We argue that this intuition should not be directly encoded in the semantics of now, but rather should be derived as a product of how its semantics interacts with information structure. Our argument is guided by a previously unnoticed contrast in its interpretation based on its position in the sentence. We propose that, in sentence-initial position, now is a contrastive topic, which contributes to the intuition that it “pushes forward” the narrative. Its true semantic shape is revealed in final position. This is, we propose, indexical, though not to the utterance time, but a more flexible assessment time. We extend our account of now to then, treating them as a proximal-distal pair of temporal demonstratives, identifying some similarities and some differences in how they are interpreted in a narrative
Acquaintance content and obviation
Get PDFThis paper is about what Ninan (2014) (following Wollheim 1980) calls the Acquaintance Inference (AI): a firsthand experience requirement imposed by several subjective expressions such as Predicates of Personal Taste (PPTs) (delicious). In general, one is entitled to calling something delicious only upon having tried it. This requirement can be lifted, disappearing in scope of elements that we will call obviators. The paper investigates the patterns of AI obviation for PPTs and similar constructions (e.g., psych predicates and subjective attitudes). We show that the cross-constructional variation in when acquaintance requirements can be obviated presents challenges for previous accounts of the AI (Pearson 2013, Ninan 2014). In place of these, we argue for the existence of two kinds of acquaintance content: (i) that of bare PPTs; and (ii) that of psych predicates, subjective attitudes and overt experiencer PPTs. For (i), we propose that the AI arises from an evidential restriction that is dependent on a parameter of interpretation which obviators update. For (ii), we argue that the AI is a classic presupposition. We model both (i) and (ii) using von Fintel and Gillies’s (2010) framework for directness and thus connect two strands of research: that on PPTs and that on epistemic modals. Both phenomena are sensitive to a broad direct-indirect distinction, and analyzing them along similar lines can help shed light on how natural language conceptualizes evidence in general
Some kind of relative clause
Get PDFAmount Relatives (ARs) differ from restrictive relative clauses in that they do not refer to a particular object denoted by the head of the relative clause, but to an amount of such objects (Carlson, 1977a; Heim, 1987). Traditionally, ARs have been regarded as degree expressions. In this paper I argue against this view and propose instead that amount interpretations of relative clauses are in fact a special case of kind interpretation
Embedded disjunctions and the best response paradigm
Get PDFThe current study investigates implicature of embedded disjunctions. We employ a paradigm in which implicatures are inferred indirectly from action choices of test subjects. This avoids meta–linguistic judgements on which previous studies relied. The focus is on four different types of implicature that may be triggered by embedded disjunctions in a situation with a competent speaker. We distinguish between local and global scalar implicatures, exhaustive and existence implicatures. The results provide evidence that varieties all four types of implicature have been inferred by a majority of subjects
The pragmatic ingredients to get perfect biscuits
Get PDFBuilding on previous work, we present a proposal for a pragmatic account of biscuit conditionals (BCs). We present a new phenomenon that we dub biscuit perfection to support our proposal and argue that differences between BCs and hypothetical conditionals can be explained once we consider the relation between if -constructions and discourse
Reportative deontic modality in English and German
Get PDFWe discuss the dual uses of the English adjectival modal be supposed to and the German modal auxiliary sollen under their deontic and evidential readings. While deontic modality is a familiar category, we discuss novel data on the expression of reportative evidentiality in English. We argue for a truly unified analysis for both be supposed to and sollen, which are specified for a reportative informational conversational background. The apparent difference in “flavours” (reportative vs. deontic) is an illusion, caused by differences in the types of reports that feed the ordering source. Although we assign be supposed to and sollen an identical semantics, their distributions are not identical. We hypothesize that this is due to the fact that in German, sollen competes with the quotative modal wollen, which carries a stronger presupposition, triggering Maximize Presupposition effects which are absent in English
The Vietnamese perfect
Get PDFThe paper seeks to advance understanding of cross-linguistic variation in the semantics of tense and aspect by investigating the distribution and interpretation of the temporal marker da in Vietnamese. The study first explores the possibility of accounting for such a marker as an optional past tense. By testing this hypothesis against empirical data, this paper argues that da is neither a referential nor a quantificational past tense, but a perfect marker in Vietnamese. The second part of the paper provides a formal analysis of da. Based on da’s interaction with different adverbial phrases, this study suggests that da behaves similarly to the German perfect rather than the English perfect. The discussion relates directly to recent approaches to other languages and offers data from a superficially tenseless language to the discussion on the cross-linguistic semantic variation in ‘perfect puzzle.
Bare nouns, number, and definiteness in Teotitl´an del Valle Zapotec
Get PDFHow is definiteness expressed in number-marking languages lacking a definite article? May bare nouns in such languages simply be read as definites or indefinites, without constraint? Dayal (2004) demonstrates that the interpretation of bare nouns with respect to definiteness is significantly constrained in Hindi and Russian. In these languages, singular and plural bare nouns present different possibilities for indefinite interpretation, in a way that receives a natural explanation within a neo-Carlsonian theory of noun meaning (Chierchia, 1998). This makes for a close connection between the meanings of bare nouns in English and those in Hindi and Russian. Does this connection extend to the meanings of bare nouns in numbermarking languages in general, even outside of Indo-European? In this paper, we demonstrate that the answer is yes. Our evidence comes from bare noun interpretation in Teotitl´an del Valle Zapotec, a language of Oaxaca, Mexico. The Zapotec findings closely replicate Dayal’s findings for Indo-European languages, providing support for the viability of the neo Carlsonian approach as a set of constraints on semantic variation in general
Coordination and focus particles (re?)united
Get PDFThe aim of this paper is to sketch a unified semantics for coordination markers and focus particles. The main empirical motivation is found in the existence of some ‘multipractic’ particles in Serbian, ni and i, which serve as coordination markers, additive focus particles and scalar focus particles. A disjunction-based analysis can capture the polarity-sensitive behavior of ni, whereas i relies on a conjunction semantics. An approach that involves the exhaustification of alternatives is a crucial ingredient. Nonetheless, two types of exhaustification should be allowed—one corresponding to ‘only’ and the other one to ‘even’
On the lexical semantics of property concept nouns in Basaá
Get PDFThis paper considers the link between lexical category and lexical semantics, examining variation in the category of property concept (PC) words (Dixon, 1982; Thompson, 1989)—words introducing the descriptive content in translational equivalents of sentences whose main predicate is an adjective in languages with large open classes of them. Francez and Koontz-Garboden (2015) conjecture that nominal PC words might only have mass-type denotation (conceived in the spirit of Link 1983), as diagnosed by possession in predication (e.g., Kim has beauty/#Kim is beauty). In Basaá, a class of PC nominals we call substance nouns trigger possession in predication, while a class we call adjectival nouns do not, thereby falsifying Francez and Koontz-Garboden’s conjecture. We offer several diagnostics that confirm the substance denotation for the substance nouns, and an individual-characterizing denotation for the adjectival nouns, speculating on whether such nouns have a degree semantics, and whether they represent a crosslinguistically rare category or not