1,721,432 research outputs found
Counterdirectionality cross-linguistically: Comparing Brazilian Portuguese and Dutch
No full textIn this paper, we investigated the expression of “counterdirectionality”, contrasting Brazilian Portuguese and Dutch data. Firstly, we define counterdirectionality using English data, and we present some of its subdivisions in meaning. Secondly, we investigated the expression of counterdirectionality in Brazilian Portuguese and Dutch, comparing the two languages
Emphatic reflexives as part-structure modifiers
Full text linkThe standard analysis of emphatic reflexives assumes that they are focused expressions of identity in all their uses (e.g. Gast 2006). On the basis of semantic and prosodic data, I argue that exclusive adverbial emphatic reflexives in Dutch and English should instead be analyzed as expressions excluding certain participants from the modified event (“P-exclusives”). The proposed analysis is based on Moltmann’s (2004) account of the part-structure modifier ‘alone’, and avoids a number of problems that the standard analysis has when applied to these data
Degree modification across categories in Afrikaans
Full text linkThe paper presents an analysis of the Afrikaans degree modifier baie ‘very/much/many’. Baie appears to be a single lexical item with a wide distribution in terms of the categories of gradable predicate with which it can combine. However, the paper shows that two syntactically distinct instances of baie should be distinguished. These instances of baie portion out the modification of different grammatical categories between them: one, a head, exclusively modifies gradable adjectives, and the other, an adjunct, modifies the remaining categories of gradable predicate
Two Dutch many ’s and the structure of pseudo-partitives
No full textThis article discusses the syntax and semantics of Dutch pseudo-partitive constructions with measure nouns, such as 'drie liter water' ‘three liters of water’. The major empirical puzzle is the distribution of two Dutch instances of 'many'/'much': 'veel' and 'vele'. Unlike earlier proposals, I analyze 'veel' as a gradable adjective, and 'vele' as a numeral. It turns out that in pseudo-partitives with pure measure readings, only 'vele' can freely occur ('veel liters water' only allows a marked “liter-bottle” reading). This is puzzling, because 'veel' is otherwise allowed both with mass and count terms, and both in the singular and in the plural. I adopt the more-or-less standard right-branching syntax for Dutch pseudo-partitives (providing some new arguments for its correctness), and propose a semantics for measure nouns which, in combination with Ionin & Matushansky’s semantics for cardinals, correctly characterizes these constructions and explains where pure measure readings occur. I then show that my analysis correctly derives the behavior of 'veel' and 'vele' in these constructions, given their characterization as a gradable adjective and a numeral. This article is part of the Special Collection: Partitives</a
Conceptual restrictions on weakly referential constructions: Evidence from modification
No full textIn this dissertation I investigated the restrictions on so-called weakly referential constructions such as weak definites, bare predicates and bare singular nouns. Weak definites are definite constructions in which the definite doesn’t refer uniquely, such as in (1): Context: Piet spent his evening reading The Guardian, De Volkskrant, and Le Monde. (1) Piet spent his evening reading the newspaper. Bare predicates are nominal predication constructions in which the indefinite article is absent, like in (2): (2) Gaaike is kunstenaar. Bare singular nouns are singular noun phrases that occur without an article (see the Catalan example in (3)). (3) Té apartament. has.3sg apartment ‘(S)he has an apartment.’ (I.e. (S)he is an apartment-owner) These constructions share several properties, one of which is that they don't set up discourse referents in the usual way, but rather refer more abstractly to roles, properties, etc. Hence the term weak referentiality. Not just anything can be expressed using a weakly referential construction: there are certain restrictions, which are related to cultural and contextual back ground knowledge. I used adjectival modification as a tool to bring together the linguistic and conceptual aspects of these restrictions. Conceptual in the sense that I used adjectival modification to systematically alter the denotation of nouns, linguistic in the sense that I hypothesized that the conceptual requirements would be linked to the lexical semantics of the various types of adjectives I used. The reasoning behind this hypothesis was that based on observations that can be found all over the literature, conceptual stability is a core property of weakly referential constructions -- that is, they refer to things, roles, functions, properties that are perceived as conceptually stable. The notion of stability also emerges when you look at the lexical semantics of certain types of adjectives. For instance, the interpretation of stage-level adjectives is situation dependent. Similarly, the interpretation of evaluative adjectives depends on whose opinion is expressed: these adjectives are judge dependent. The interpretation of kind-level adjectives, on the other hand, doesn't involve any such dependencies. The lexical semantics of color adjectives involves some dependency but is relatively stable compared to that of stage-level and evaluative adjectives. Linking the notions of conceptual stability and semantic stability, I formulated the stability hypothesis: The more stable the interpretation of an adjective is, the more acceptable it will be in a weakly referential construction. I tested this hypothesis in several languages, by collecting native speaker acceptability judgments of sentences containing weakly referential constructions on several modification conditions. The results of my work in this dissertation show that the stability hypothesis has been confirmed. The research I presented here provides the first structural empirical evidence that supports the intuition that constructions such as weak definites, bare predicates, and bare singular nouns require the concepts they denote to be stable in some sense. Using modification as a tool, I showed that something as intangible as conceptual requirements can still be traced back to semantics, showing a link between linguistics and the conceptual level
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