1,720,990 research outputs found
A Case for Phenomenal Experience in Natural Language
No full textModel-theoretic semantics is grounded on the assumption that meaning is reference. In such a framework, defining the meaning of a natural language expression corresponds to defining the object to which it refers,
a practice sometimes referred to as ‘Natural Language Metaphysics’. Typical objects of reference used in semantic modeling are individual entities and possible worlds. A number of linguistic facts have been explained by introducing novel classes of entities in the model. Relevant examples are times and events. In this contribution, we aim at producing a case for introducing phenomenal experiences among the set of objects
natural language expressions refer to. We show that the truth conditions of some natural language expressions are best described as denoting phenomenal experiences, rather than objects of the world
INVESTIGATING THE COMPUTATION OF SCALAR IMPLICATURES IN ITALIAN CHILDREN WITH DYSLEXIA: THE ROLE OF QUANTIFIER PROPERTIES
No full textThis paper investigates scalar implicatures (SIs) computation in dyslexia focusing on the role of the quantifier's semantic properties. We developed two protocols, a Statement Evaluation Task (SET) and a Truth Value Judgement Task, using two Italian quantifiers, alcuni (a cardinality quantifier) and qualche (a proportional quantifier), both corresponding to the English 'some'. The tasks were administered on 18 dyslexic children (10.6 y.o.), 18 age-matched controls (10.7 y.o.) and 18 adults (24.5 y.o.). Unlike the other groups, dyslexics showed a higher tendency to avoid the derivation of a SI. We propose that this is due to the processing limitations characterizing dyslexia and to the high cognitive costs imposed by SIs computation, especially in the SET, which, requiring access to encyclopaedic knowledge, is more cognitively demanding. Furthermore, in this task all groups showed longer latencies when the SI was licensed by alcuni: we propose that this is related to the semantic properties of this quantifier, whose interpretation requires the introduction of a new discourse referent corresponding to the intersection between two sets and associated with a specific cardinality property (at least two). This step increases the processing costs of implicature computation, exerting an effect that becomes tangible when the processing demands of the task are higher
The syntactic and semantic properties of Free Indirect Discourse
No full textFree indirect discourse has traditionally been described as a form of reported speech or thought. It seems to be a mixture of both direct discourse (in allowing exclamatives, interrogatives, etc.) and indirect discourse (in following sequences of tenses and pronouns). It has been the object of more interest from literary theorists than from linguists, though Banfield (1982) offered what is still the best syntactic description of the phenomenon, and contemporary semantic accounts have brought new insights into it. Schlenker (2004) made decisive progress in proposing an account of two contexts and indexical shifting. Maier (2015) proposes an alternative quotational analyses, which Eckardt (2015) rejects, going back to Schlenker's model, suitably amended to answer Maier's criticism. We present these theories, criticize them, and propose an extension of the Schlenker–Eckardt model
Mapping precedence into containment: linear ordering in a bidimensional space
Full text linkThere is an almost unanimous theoretical consensus according to which human languages are externalized as linear sequences of atomic units which are encoded according to specific hierarchical conditions. The nature of the interplay between the cognitive development of these hierarchical representations and their linearization on the string is however still not clear. In this paper, we aim to address this issue, exploring the relationship between precedence and containment by capitalizing on the results of a new experimental paradigm that has already provided interesting insights (Vender et al. 2019, 2020). More specifically, we report the results of two modified Simon Tasks in which the sequence of stimuli is determined by the rules of the Fibonacci grammar (Fib) or of its modifications Skip and Bif. All three grammars share the same transitional regularities, but they crucially differ in their structure: only Fib is characterized by the presence of so-called k-points, which provide, from a purely computational perspective, a potential bridge to full hierarchical reconstruction. We tested 64 adults’ implicit learning skills, assessing learning of the statistical regularities in Fib, Skip and Bif, while also exploring the presence of hierarchical learning, in terms of the ability to predict k-points. Results provide evidence not only for the presence of statistically-based sequential learning, but also for hierarchical learning in Fib. We argue that the relations of precedence and containment are not antagonistic ways of processing a temporally ordered sequence of symbols; rather, they are strictly interdependent implementations of an abstract mathematical relation of linear ordering within a bidimensional computational space. We propose that the construction of this bidimensional space is primarily determined by labeling requirements, with the labeling algorithm emerging as the solution to the problem of mapping precedence into containment
Syntactic gradients in compounding: Bemba associative nominals vs. prepositional and deverbal compounds
No full textIn this article we compare three classes of nominal constructions: Bemba so-called ‘associative nominals’, a class of nominal constructions found in several Bantu languages (though we will essentially concentrate
on Bemba), Italian so-called ‘prepositional compounds’ (or ‘phrasal compounds’), a class of nominal constructions common to other Romance languages (such as French and Spanish), and a specific class of prepositionless deverbal compounds that is peculiar to Italian and is not found in the other Romance languages
The Semantic Properties of Free Indirect Discourse
No full textFree indirect discourse has traditionally been described as a form of reported speech or thought. It seems to be a mixture of both direct discourse (in allowing exclamatives, interrogatives, etc.) and indirect discourse (in following sequences of tenses and pronouns). It has been the object of more interest from literary theorists than from linguists, though Banfield (1982) offered what is still the best syntactic description of the phenomenon, and contemporary semantic accounts have brought new insights into it. Schlenker (2004) made decisive progress in proposing an account of two contexts and indexical shifting. Maier (2015) proposes an alternative quotational analyses, which Eckardt (2015) rejects, going back to Schlenker’s model, suitably amended to answer Maier’s criticism. We present these theories, criticize them, and propose an extension of the Schlenker–Eckardt mode
A perspective-based account of the imperfective paradox
No full textKazanina and Phillips (Cognition (2007) 105:65−102) distinguish two accounts of the progressive and imperfective: the ‘perspective-based’ approach and the ‘event-based’ approach. The event-based approach maintains that imperfective and perfective refer to different classes of events. The perspective-based approach maintains that imperfective and perfective encode different perspectives towards otherwise ontologically and metaphysically equivalent events. The event-based approach is preferable over the perspective-based approach because it accounts for the imperfective paradox, that is, for the fact that imperfective and progressive morphology make it possible to use a telic predicate like ‘drive to Bordeaux’, which is defined by its endpoint, reaching Bordeaux, to describe an event that is only a partial event of driving to Bordeaux. The perspective-based approach, on the other hand, is supported by experimental findings on the acquisition of the meaning of the imperfective. In this article, we propose an alternative approach to the progressive/imperfective that can account both for the imperfective paradox and the experimental findings. The proposal is based on two main ideas: (i) as in the perspective-based approach, the role of the progressive and imperfective is to present events from an internal perspective, whereas the role of the perfective is to present events from an external perspective; (ii) progressive and imperfective sentences involve quantification over inertia worlds, as in the modal variant of the event-based approach; however, the modal import of progressive sentences is not brought about by the progressive operator, but is a property of telic predicates themselves
Towards an extension of 'de se' / 'de re' ambiguities: person features and reflexivization
No full textIn this contribution we argue in favor of a morphosyntactic analysis of the DE RE / DE SE ambiguity, based on the opposition between interpreted and non-interpreted 3-person features (as realized on pronouns). More specifically, we contend that non-interpreted person features encode, by means of a mechanism of thematic feature inheritance, the semantic properties typically encoded by interpreted 1-person features. The proposed analysis allows an extension of the DE RE / DE SE ambiguity to linguistic contexts that do not involve verbs of propositional attitude, such as reflexive constructions. Finally, elaborating on Reinhart and Siloni’s (2003) proposal that
reflexivization operations may apply either in syntax or in the lexicon, we demonstrate how the interpretive properties of inherently reflexive predicates can be formalized cross-linguisticall
Indexicality and left-periphery
No full textIn this contribution, we propose that: (a) indexical features
(such as first-person features) are presuppositional (following Delfitto and Fiorin 2011, Hunter 2010, Maier 2010, Schlenker 2004); (b) indexicals features are hosted in the position in the left-periphery that is devoted to the representation of the context of
utteranc
Person features and pronominal anaphora
No full textThis contribution aims at clarifying the role of Person at the interface between syntax and the interpretive systems. We argue that first-person interpretations of third-person pronouns (de se readings) stem from the option of leaving the referential index underspecified on the pronoun, thus accounting for the interplay of this phenomenon with the anaphoric usage of first-person indexicals (pronoun-shifting) and logophoric pronouns. The results include proposals on the connection between the semantics of first-person and the syntax of the left-periphery, a neo-Davidsonian treatment of the semantics of first-person indexicals, and a novel view of pronominal anaphora according to which Higginbotham’s asymmetric relation of ‘linking’ involves a mechanism of thematic role inheritance tied to the semantics of first-perso
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