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Plural Predication and the Strongest Meaning Hypothesis
- JOURNAL OF SEMANTICS
, 2001
"... The Strongest Meaning Hypothesis of Dalrymple et al (1994,1998), which was originally proposed as a principle for the interpretation of reciprocals, is extended in this paper into a general principle of plural predication. This principle applies to complex predicates that are composed of lexical ..."
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Cited by 18 (2 self)
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The Strongest Meaning Hypothesis of Dalrymple et al (1994,1998), which was originally proposed as a principle for the interpretation of reciprocals, is extended in this paper into a general principle of plural predication. This principle applies to complex predicates that are composed of lexical predicates that hold of atomic entities, and determines the pluralities in the extension of the predicate. The meaning
Atoms and Sets: A Characterization of Semantic Number
- Linguistic Inquiry
, 1999
"... This paper introduces a novel approach to the semantics of plurals that is not based on the traditional distributive/collective distinction between predicates. Rather, the semantic number of nouns, verbs and adjectives is classified according to their behaviour under replacement of a plural deter ..."
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Cited by 7 (2 self)
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This paper introduces a novel approach to the semantics of plurals that is not based on the traditional distributive/collective distinction between predicates. Rather, the semantic number of nouns, verbs and adjectives is classified according to their behaviour under replacement of a plural determiner (e.g. all, plural no) by its singular counterpart (e.g. every, singular no). It is proposed that predicates that are insensitive to this replacement range over atomic entities, whereas number sensitive predicates range over sets of such atoms. This modeltheoretic property, together with morpho-syntactic number of predicates and the quantificational/non-quantificational distinction between noun phrases, governs the availability of collective interpretations. The emerging system offers a general solution to some long-standing problems concerning the differences between every, all and simple plural definites. 1 Introduction In a widely cited work, Vendler (1967:70-76) points ou...
DP Structure and Flexible Semantics
- IN PROCEEDINGS OF THE 30TH CONFERENCE OF THE NORTHEAST LINGUISTIC SOCIETY
, 2000
"... Two general paradigms have influenced the study of nominals since the middle eighties. According to the syntactic DP hypothesis of Abney (1987), the syntactic unit that had formerly been known as noun phrase should in fact be analyzed as a phrase headed by a determiner, hence the label DP. Figure ..."
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Cited by 3 (2 self)
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Two general paradigms have influenced the study of nominals since the middle eighties. According to the syntactic DP hypothesis of Abney (1987), the syntactic unit that had formerly been known as noun phrase should in fact be analyzed as a phrase headed by a determiner, hence the label DP. Figure 1 gives a simple version of the DP hypothesis, without deciding here about the category of the specifier. DP SPEC D' D NP Figure 1: The DP hypothesis Quite independently of this syntactic development, Partee (1987) proposed a type shifting paradigm for the semantic analysis of nominals (now called DPs). In Partee's proposal DPs are ambiguous between a referential reading of type e, a predicative reading of type he; ti and a quantificational reading of type hhe; ti; ti. DP meanings can flexibly
The meaning of vague definites: a Decision-Theoretic approach. *
"... Abstract In this paper, I am concerned with two mutually motivating goals. The empirical goal is to demonstrate that definite plurals are expressions whose interpretation requires an approach that incorporates goals of the speaker and hearer. The theoretical goal is to contribute to the development ..."
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Abstract In this paper, I am concerned with two mutually motivating goals. The empirical goal is to demonstrate that definite plurals are expressions whose interpretation requires an approach that incorporates goals of the speaker and hearer. The theoretical goal is to contribute to the development of a mathematical model of pragmatic reasoning involved in interpretation of vague utterances. I propose a Decision-Theoretic approach to vague definites in a variety of linguistic and situational contexts, and examine interaction of pragmatic and lexical cues to resolving vagueness.
Plural Type Quantification
, 1999
"... This paper introduces some of the main components of a novel type theoretical semantics for quantification with plural noun phrases. This theory, unlike previous ones, sticks to the standard generalized quantifier treatment of singular noun phrases and uses only one lifting operator per semantic cat ..."
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This paper introduces some of the main components of a novel type theoretical semantics for quantification with plural noun phrases. This theory, unlike previous ones, sticks to the standard generalized quantifier treatment of singular noun phrases and uses only one lifting operator per semantic category (predicate, quantifier and determiner) for quantification with plurals. Following Bennett (1974), plural individuals are treated as functions of type et. Plural nouns and other plural predicates accordingly denote (et)t functions. Such predicates do not match the standard (et)((et)t) type of determiners. Following Partee and Rooth (1983), type mismatches are resolved using type shifting operators. These operators derive collectivity with plurals, keeping the analysis of singular noun phrases, where no type mismatch arises, as in Barwise and Cooper (1981). A single type shifting operator for determiners combines into one reading the existential shift and the counting (neutral) shift of Scha (1981) and Van der Does (1993). This operator combines the conservativity principle of generalized quantifier theory with Szabolcsi's (1997) existential quantification over witness sets. The unified lift prevents unmotivated ambiguity as well as the monotonicity ill of existential lifts pointed out by Van Benthem (1986)
ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Distributivity, Maximality, and Floating Quantifiers
, 1998
"... This dissertation argues that the widely-accepted analysis of all and both as universal quantifiers is incorrect, and proposes instead that all/both are modifiers that place a boundary on the range of otherwise contextually-available interpretations allowed with definite plurals. It is argued that t ..."
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This dissertation argues that the widely-accepted analysis of all and both as universal quantifiers is incorrect, and proposes instead that all/both are modifiers that place a boundary on the range of otherwise contextually-available interpretations allowed with definite plurals. It is argued that this proposal offers wider empirical coverage of the semantic and distributional properties of all/both than previous accounts. The range of meanings of sentences with definite plurals is examined, and it is argued that a theory of distributivity that assigns universal force to distributed plural noun phrases is empirically inadequate. A change to the theory of distributivity is proposed in which the context-sensitive variable in the domain of the distributivity operator (the D operator) can be assigned a value that weakens its universal force. It is further proposed that all/both interact with the D operator by restricting the range of values that can be assigned to the resource domain variable, ensuring that the universal force of the D operator is not weakened. This accounts for the "strengthening " effect of all/both on the quantification associated with definite plurals. Because all interacts with distributivity, it has the same "scope " as distributivity. This explains some differences between definite descriptions with all and quantified NP's with every that
