Switch to: References

Add citations

You must login to add citations.
  1. Vagueness in Degree Constructions.Galit Weidman Sassoon - 2009 - In Arndt Riester & Torgrim Solstad (eds.), Proceedings of Sinn Und Bedeutung 13.
    This paper presents a novel semantic analysis of unit names and gradable adjectives, inspired by measurement theory (Krantz et al 1971). Based on measurement theory's typology of measures, I claim that different predicates are associated with different types of measures whose special characteristics, together with features of the relations denoted by unit names, explain the puzzling limited distribution of measure phrases.
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  • Easy Solutions for a Hard Problem? The Computational Complexity of Reciprocals with Quantificational Antecedents.Fabian Schlotterbeck & Oliver Bott - 2013 - Journal of Logic, Language and Information 22 (4):363-390.
    We report two experiments which tested whether cognitive capacities are limited to those functions that are computationally tractable (PTIME-Cognition Hypothesis). In particular, we investigated the semantic processing of reciprocal sentences with generalized quantifiers, i.e., sentences of the form Q dots are directly connected to each other, where Q stands for a generalized quantifier, e.g. all or most. Sentences of this type are notoriously ambiguous and it has been claimed in the semantic literature that the logically strongest reading is preferred (Strongest (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   4 citations  
  • Cumulation is Needed: A Reply to Winter (2000). [REVIEW]Sigrid Beck & Uli Sauerland - 2000 - Natural Language Semantics 8 (4):349-371.
    Winter (2000) argues that so-called co-distributive or cumulative readings do not involve polyadic quantification (contra proposals by Krifka, Schwarzschild, Sternefeld, and others). Instead, he proposes that all such readings involve a hidden anaphoric dependency or a lexical mechanism. We show that Winter's proposal is insufficient for a number of cases of cumulative readings, and that Krifka's and Sternefeld's polyadic **-operator is needed in addition to dependent definites. Our arguments come from new observations concerning dependent plurals and clause-boundedness effects with cumulative (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   33 citations  
  • Relational domains and the interpretation of reciprocals.Sivan Sabato & Yoad Winter - 2012 - Linguistics and Philosophy 35 (3):191-241.
    We argue that a comprehensive theory of reciprocals must rely on a general taxonomy of restrictions on the interpretation of relational expressions. Developing such a taxonomy, we propose a new principle for interpreting reciprocals that relies on the interpretation of the relation in their scope. This principle, the Maximal Interpretation Hypothesis (MIH), analyzes reciprocals as partial polyadic quantifiers. According to the MIH, the partial quantifier denoted by a reciprocal requires the relational expression REL in its scope to denote a maximal (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   2 citations  
  • Pluractional comparisons.Sigrid Beck - 2012 - Linguistics and Philosophy 35 (1):57-110.
    This paper develops a semantic analysis of data like It is getting colder and colder. Their meaning is argued to arise from a combination of a comparative with pluractionality. The analysis is embedded in a general theory of plural predication and pluractionality. It supports a semantic theory involving a family of syntactic plural operators.
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   4 citations  
  • A unified account of nominal distributivity, for -adverbials, and measure phrases.Lucas Champollion - unknown
    In this talk, I first systematize the analogies and complete the picture in some corners. Then, I formally relate the three constructions, and I derive their properties from a single operator. Previous analyses were not designed to account for all three constructions at the same time. Accordingly, I not only assess how well they generalize beyond their intended purpose, but I also evaluate them in their own right. Even so, this analysis improves on previous accounts in several ways. Although I (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  • Syntax and semantics: an overview.Arnim von Stechow - 2011 - In Klaus von Heusinger, Claudia Maienborn & Paul Portner (eds.), Semantics: An International Handbook of Natural Language Meaning. De Gruyter Mouton.
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   2 citations  
  • Counting configurations.Manfred Krifka - unknown
    The sentence With these three shirts and four pairs of pants, one can make twelve different outfits does not entail that one can dress twelve persons. The article proposes an analysis of “configurational” entities like outfits as individual concepts. It investigates the interaction of noun phrases based on such nouns with temporal and modal operators and in collective and cumulative interpretations. It also discusses a generalization from tokens to types, as in with the seven pieces of a tan- gram set, (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   1 citation  
  • Plural Predication and the Strongest Meaning Hypothesis.Yoad Winter - 2001 - Journal of Semantics 18 (4):333-365.
    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 of such a complex predicate is claimed to be the truth-conditionally strongest meaning that does not contradict lexical properties (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   17 citations  
  • Scopeless quantity words in Shona.Elizabeth Ferch - 2013 - Natural Language Semantics 21 (4):373-400.
    In Shona , bare plurals and bare singulars seem to have different scope possibilities with respect to a class of modifiers which I term “scopeless quantity words” few’, and ose ‘all’). I argue that this is due to two factors. First, the scopeless quantity words are intersective modifiers rather than quantifying determiners, so that DPs containing them denote entities rather than generalised quantifiers. Second, transitive sentences involving plural arguments are usually interpreted using the **-operator, which gives a cumulative reading; the (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  • Reciprocals are Definites.Sigrid Beck - 2001 - Natural Language Semantics 9 (1):69-138.
    This paper proposes that elementary reciprocal sentences have four semantic readings: a strongly reciprocal interpretation, a weakly reciprocal interpretation, a situation-based weakly reciprocal reading, and a collective reading. Interpretational possibilities of reciprocal sentences that have been discussed in the literature are identified as one of these four. A compositional semantic analysis of all of these readings is provided in which the reciprocal expression is uniformly represented as 'the other ones among them' (recasting Heim, Lasnik and May 1991a, b). A reciprocal (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   18 citations  
  • Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 9.Emar Maier, Corien Bary & Janneke Huitink (eds.) - 2005 - Nijmegen Centre for Semantics.
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   1 citation  
  • Dependent plurals and three levels of multiplicity.Serge Minor - 2022 - Linguistics and Philosophy 45 (3):431-509.
    The paper focuses on the semantics of distributivity, grammatical number, and cardinality predicates. I argue that constructions involving so-called ‘dependent plurals’, i.e. plurals lacking cardinality predicates occurring in the scope of certain quantificational items such as all and most, pose a challenge to familiar semantic frameworks that distinguish between two sources of multiplicity: mereological plurality and distributive quantification. I argue that dependent plural readings should be analysed as distinct both from cumulative readings and distributive readings, in the classical sense. I (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  • Gather / numerous as a mass/count opposition.Jeremy Kuhn - 2020 - Natural Language Semantics 28 (3):225-253.
    Predicates like gather and ones like be numerous have both been described as ‘collective predicates,’ since they predicate something of a plurality. The two classes of predicates differ, however, with respect to plural quantifiers, which are grammatical with gather-type predicates but ungrammatical with numerous-type predicates. Here, I show that the gather/numerous opposition derives from mereological properties that are familiar from the domains of telicity and mass/count. I address problems of undergeneration and overgeneration with two technical innovations: first, I weaken the (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   1 citation  
  • (1 other version)Dog After Dog Revisited.Sigrid Beck & Arnim von Stechow - unknown
    The topic of this paper is the semantic analysis of the sentences in (1). (1a,b) contain the adverbial modifiers 'one after the other' and 'dog after dog', respectively, which add to the simple (1') information on how the overall event of the dogs entering the room is to be divided into subevents based on a division of the group of dogs into individual dogs. We call these adverbials pluractional adverbials, following e.g. Lasersohn's (1995) use of the term pluractionality for the (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   1 citation  
  • Distributivity and Dependency.Yoad Winter - 2000 - Natural Language Semantics 8 (1):27-69.
    Sentences with multiple occurrences of plural definites give rise to certain effects suggesting that distributivity should be modeled by polyadic operations. Yet in this paper it is argued that the simpler treatment of distributivity using unary universal quantification should be retained. Seemingly polyadic effects are claimed to be restricted to definite NPs. This fact is accounted for by the special anaphoric (dependent) use of definites. Further evidence concerning various plurals, island constraints, and cumulative quantification is shown to support this claim. (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   30 citations  
  • Temporal prepositional phrases with quantifiers: Some additions to Pratt and Francez (2001). [REVIEW]Arnim von Stechow - 2002 - Linguistics and Philosophy 25 (5-6):755-800.
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   11 citations  
  • Plurality and temporal modification.Ron Artstein & Nissim Francez - 2006 - Linguistics and Philosophy 29 (3):251 - 276.
    A semantics with plural entitles and plural times accounts for cumulative relations between plural arguments and temporal expressions. The semantics equips nominal, verbal and sentential meanings with temporal context variables and treats temporal modifiers as temporal generalized quantifiers; cumulative conjunction, however, takes place at types lower than generalized quantifiers. The mediation of temporal context variables allows cumulative relations to percolate between an argument in a main clause and one in a temporal clause, in apparent violation of locality restrictions. Plural times (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   1 citation  
  • Distributivity, Collectivity, and Cumulativity in Terms of (In)dependence and Maximality.Livio Robaldo - 2011 - Journal of Logic, Language and Information 20 (2):233-271.
    This article proposes a new logical framework for NL quantification. The framework is based on Generalized Quantifiers, Skolem-like functional dependencies, and Maximality of the involved sets of entities. Among the readings available for NL sentences, those where two or more sets of entities are independent of one another are particularly challenging. In the literature, examples of those readings are known as Collective and Cumulative readings. This article briefly analyzes previous approaches to Cumulativity and Collectivity, and indicates (Schwarzschild in Pluralities. Kluwer, (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   11 citations  
  • Measurement in the nominal and verbal domains.Kimiko Nakanishi - 2007 - Linguistics and Philosophy 30 (2):235 - 276.
    This paper examines some aspects of the grammar of measurement based on data from non-split and split measure phrase (MP) constructions in Japanese. I claim that the non-split MP construction involves measurement of individuals, while the split MP construction involves measurement of events as well as of individuals. This claim is based on the observation that, while both constructions are subject to some semantic restrictions in the nominal domain, only the split MP construction is sensitive to restrictions in the verbal (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   11 citations  
  • The semantics of different: Comparison operator and relational adjective. [REVIEW]Sigrid Beck - 2000 - Linguistics and Philosophy 23 (2):101-139.
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   16 citations  
  • Covert distributivity in algebraic event semantics.Lucas Champollion - 2016 - Semantics and Pragmatics 9 (15):1-66.
    This is the first in a pair of papers that aim to provide a comprehensive analysis of the semantic phenomenon of distributivity in natural language. This paper investigates and formalizes different sources of covert distributivity. Apart from lexical distributivity effects, which are modeled by meaning postulates, phrasal distributivity is captured via two covert operators: (i) a D operator distributing over atoms only (Link 1987), and (ii) a cover-based Part operator, which can also distribute over non-atomic pluralities under contextual licensing (Schwarzschild (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   12 citations  
  • Independent Set Readings and Generalized Quantifiers.Livio Robaldo - 2010 - Journal of Philosophical Logic 39 (1):23-58.
    Several authors proposed to devise logical structures for Natural Language (NL) semantics in which noun phrases yield referential terms rather than standard Generalized Quantifiers. In this view, two main problems arise: the need to refer to the maximal sets of entities involved in the predications and the need to cope with Independent Set (IS) readings, where two or more sets of entities are introduced in parallel. The article illustrates these problems and their consequences, then presents an extension of the proposal (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   10 citations  
  • Plurality effects in an exhaustification-based theory of embedded questions.Alexandre Cremers - 2018 - Natural Language Semantics 26 (3):193-251.
    Questions embedded under responsive predicates and definite descriptions both give rise to a variety of phenomena which can be grouped under the term plurality effects: quantificational variability, cumulativity, and homogeneity effects. This similarity has not gone unnoticed, and many proposals have taken inspiration in theories of definite plurals to account for these effects with embedded questions. Recently these phenomena have received less attention, as the field has focused on the so-called intermediate exhaustive reading of embedded questions instead, after Spector called (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   3 citations  
  • Reference Processes in Intensional Contexts.Francesca Delogu - 2009 - In Arndt Riester & Torgrim Solstad (eds.), Proceedings of Sinn Und Bedeutung 13.
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  • On the DP dependence of collective interpretation with numerals.Sarah Ouwayda - 2017 - Natural Language Semantics 25 (4):263-314.
    This paper argues that, given a simple [DP VP] sentence, the availability of a collective interpretation crucially depends on the syntactic and semantic properties of the subject DP, specifically the presence versus absence of a pluralizing function that makes the collective interpretation available. In support of my claim, I present Lebanese Arabic and Western Armenian examples in which an indefinite DP contains a cardinal numeral and there is no overt distributivity operator but the interpretation of the sentence is nevertheless obligatorily (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark