Minimum of English Grammar
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Making a Pronoun: Fake Indexicals As Windows Into the Properties of Pronouns Angelika Kratzer
University of Massachusetts Amherst From the SelectedWorks of Angelika Kratzer 2009 Making a Pronoun: Fake Indexicals as Windows into the Properties of Pronouns Angelika Kratzer Available at: https://works.bepress.com/angelika_kratzer/ 6/ Making a Pronoun: Fake Indexicals as Windows into the Properties of Pronouns Angelika Kratzer This article argues that natural languages have two binding strategies that create two types of bound variable pronouns. Pronouns of the first type, which include local fake indexicals, reflexives, relative pronouns, and PRO, may be born with a ‘‘defective’’ feature set. They can ac- quire the features they are missing (if any) from verbal functional heads carrying standard -operators that bind them. Pronouns of the second type, which include long-distance fake indexicals, are born fully specified and receive their interpretations via context-shifting -operators (Cable 2005). Both binding strategies are freely available and not subject to syntactic constraints. Local anaphora emerges under the assumption that feature transmission and morphophonological spell-out are limited to small windows of operation, possibly the phases of Chomsky 2001. If pronouns can be born underspecified, we need an account of what the possible initial features of a pronoun can be and how it acquires the features it may be missing. The article develops such an account by deriving a space of possible paradigms for referen- tial and bound variable pronouns from the semantics of pronominal features. The result is a theory of pronouns that predicts the typology and individual characteristics of both referential and bound variable pronouns. Keywords: agreement, fake indexicals, local anaphora, long-distance anaphora, meaning of pronominal features, typology of pronouns 1 Fake Indexicals and Minimal Pronouns Referential and bound variable pronouns tend to look the same. -
Semantic Types and Type-Shifting. Conjunction and Type Ambiguity
Partee and Borschev, Tarragona 3, April 15, 2005 Semantic Types and Type-shifting. Conjunction and Type Ambiguity. Noun Phrase Interpretation and Type-Shifting Principles. Barbara H. Partee, University of Massachusetts, Amherst Vladimir Borschev, VINITI, Russian Academy of Sciences, and Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst [email protected], [email protected]; http://people.umass.edu/partee/ Universidad Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, April 15, 2005 1. Linguistic background:....................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1. Categorial grammar and syntax-semantics correspondence: centrality of function-argument application . 1 1.2. Tensions among simplicity, generality, uniformity and flexiblity........................................................... 1 2. Conjunction and Type Ambiguity (from Partee & Rooth, 1983)....................................................................... 2 2.0. To be explained: cross-categorial distribution and meaning of ‘and’, ‘or’. .................................................2 2.1. Generalized conjunction.............................................................................................................................. 3 2.2. Repercussions on the type theory: against uniformity, for "simplicity" and type-shifting.......................... 3 2.3. Proposal:...................................................................................................................................................... -
Appendix 1 Type-Shifting
Appendix 1 Type-Shifting Since a formal exposition of type-shifting theory is beyond the scope of this dissertation, I offer here only a brief sketch of the principle components, as presented in Partee 1987.1 The general motivation is roughly that Montague's ‘one category: one type’ restriction can be loosened to allow a single syntactic category to correspond to a family of semantic types. Partee suggests that the traditional distinction between referential, predicative, and quantificational noun phrases can be captured formally by allowing noun phrases to be interpreted, respectively, as individuals (type e), predicates (type <e,t>), or generalized quantifiers (type <<e,t>,t>). She suggests specifically that particular types of referring expression can receive the translations shown in (i): (i) NP TRANSLATION TYPE a. John MG: λP[P(j)] <<e,t>,t> je b. hen MG: λP[P(xn)] <<e,t>,t> xn e c. every man MG: λP[∀x[man'(x) → P(x)]] <<e,t>,t> d. the man MG: λP[∃x[∀y[man'(y) ↔ y = x] & <<e,t>,t> P(x)]] i. ιx[man'(x)] e ii. λx[man'(x) & ∀y[man'(y) ↔ y = x] <e,t> e. a man MG: λP[∃x[man'(x) & P(x)]] <<e,t>,t> i. man' <e,t> ii. Kamp-Heim: xi e cond: man'(xi), xi “new” f. dogs2 i. Chierchia: ∧dog' e ii. Carlson, in effect: λP[P ∧dog')] <<e,t>,t> iii. dog' <e,t> 1See especially Partee and Rooth 1983 on type-shifting and the semantics of noun phrase coordination, and Partee 1986 on type-shifting and the semantics of pseudoclefts. -
Variation and Change in Past Tense Negation in African American English
University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2018 Variation And Change In Past Tense Negation In African American English Sabriya Fisher University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the Linguistics Commons Recommended Citation Fisher, Sabriya, "Variation And Change In Past Tense Negation In African American English" (2018). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 2925. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2925 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2925 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Variation And Change In Past Tense Negation In African American English Abstract This dissertation investigates the use of ain’t for negation in past tense contexts in Philadelphia African American English [PhAAE]. This use of ain’t, which varies with didn’t, is a unique feature of AAE (Labov et al. 1968) and has implications for the expression of tense/aspect in the language. First, it further levels tense/aspect cues from auxiliaries in negative contexts. Second, whereas verbal complements of didn’t are uninflected (1a), complements of ain’t may either be uninflected or in preterit form (1b). This asymmetry indicates potential structural differences between ain’t and didn’t. (1) a. They didn’t play yesterday. b. They ain’t play(ed) yesterday. Consequently, this dissertation joins a quantitative study of the social and linguistic factors conditioning use of ain’t with a distributional investigation of its syntax and interaction with tense morphology. Toward that end, I analyze naturalistic speech data from 42 speakers in a corpus of casual conversations collected in the early 1980s from African American Philadelphians. -
Spatial Cognition and the Semantics of Prepositions in English, Polish and Russian
Slavistische Beiträge ∙ Band 237 (eBook - Digi20-Retro) Alan J. Cienki Spatial Cognition and the Semantics of Prepositions in English, Polish and Russian Verlag Otto Sagner München ∙ Berlin ∙ Washington D.C. Digitalisiert im Rahmen der Kooperation mit dem DFG-Projekt „Digi20“ der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek, München. OCR-Bearbeitung und Erstellung des eBooks durch den Verlag Otto Sagner: http://verlag.kubon-sagner.de © bei Verlag Otto Sagner. Eine Verwertung oder Weitergabe der Texte und Abbildungen, insbesondere durch Vervielfältigung, ist ohne vorherige schriftliche Genehmigung des Verlages unzulässig. «Verlag Otto Sagner» ist ein Imprint der Kubon & Sagner GmbH. Alan J. Cienki - 9783954792047 Downloaded from PubFactory at 01/10/2019 03:53:55AM via free access S l a v is t ic h e B e it r ä g e BEGRÜNDET VON ALOIS SCHMAUS HERAUSGEGEBEN VON HEINRICH KUNSTMANN PETER REHDER • JOSEF SCHRENK REDAKTION PETER REHDER Band 237 VERLAG OTTO SAGNER Alan J. Cienki - 9783954792047 Downloaded from PubFactory at 01/10/2019 03:53:55AM MÜNCHEN via free access ALAN J. CIENKI SPATIAL COGNITION AND THE SEMANTICS OF PREPOSITIONS IN ENGLISH, POLISH, AND RUSSIAN VERLAG OTTO SAGNER • MÜNCHENAlan J. Cienki - 9783954792047 Downloaded from PubFactory at 01/10/2019 03:53:55AM 1989 via free access ISBN 3-87690-421-8 ©Verlag Otto Sagner, MünchenAlan 1989 J. Cienki - 9783954792047 Downloaded from PubFactory at 01/10/2019 03:53:55AM Abteilung der Firma Kubon & Sagner, Münchenvia free access Preface and Acknowledgments .Sose say that knowledge it toaething tbit you never hive־ Some say that knowledge it somethin( sitting in your lap. 1 a u tt admit. Just when I think Г а king. -
Non-Root Modals for the Past and Temporal Shifting in Mandarin Chinese Zhiguo Xie
Xie Lingua Sinica (2015) 1:2 DOI 10.1186/s40655-014-0002-0 RESEARCH Open Access Non-root modals for the past and temporal shifting in Mandarin Chinese Zhiguo Xie Correspondence: [email protected] Department of East Asian Abstract Languages and Literatures, The Ohio State University, 360 Hagerty This paper has two major goals. First, it provides a detailed empirical description of Hall, 1775 College Road, Columbus, how the epistemic and metaphysical readings of the “non-root modal + Perf(ect) OH 43210, USA have” construction in English (e.g., John might have won the game yesterday) are expressed in Mandarin Chinese. The two readings both involve non-root modals for the past, i.e., non-root modals with either a past temporal perspective or a past temporal orientation. Certain languages express the two readings via manipulating the scope relation between the modal and the perfect aspect. In this paper, I show that Mandarin Chinese, by contrast, resorts to the presence/absence of such aspectual adverbs as 仍 reng ‘still’ and 还 hai ‘still’, to determine the reading of non-root modals for the past. Second, I propose that aspectual adverbs like reng and hai are operators that can back-shift the temporal perspective of a non-root modal from the speaker’s utterance time to a past time. The back-shifting gives rise to a metaphysical reading of the non-root modal. In spite of surface differences, English and Mandarin Chinese actually employ similar strategies in expressing metaphysical modality with a past temporal perspective. Keywords: Modality; Temporal shifting; Aspectual adverbs; Counterfactual implicature; Mandarin Chinese 1 Background It is well-known that certain “non-root modal + Perf(ect) have” sentences in English are ambiguous between an epistemic reading and a metaphysical reading (Mondadori 1978, Condoravdi 2002). -
Verb Tense Shifts
Verb Tense Shifts Type your information in the space below. Student Name: Date: Instructor: Course: About This DLA Important Note All the activities (3) in the DLA must be completed in their entirety before meeting with a tutor and receiving credit. Where indicated, complete your work on this sheet. If your instructor wants evidence of this completed DLA, return this form to him or her with the tutor’s signature included. Learning Outcomes Through computer exercises and other independent work, this activity will help you understand when and how to maintain verb tense consistency and how to correct inappropriate verb tense shifts to improve clarity in your writing. Activities (approximately 1 hour) Read the information, complete the activities that follow, and be prepared to discuss your answers when you meet with a tutor. What Are Verb Tense Shifts? A shift in verb tenses is a change in the time frame within a text. For instance, a writer may use present tense verbs in the beginning of an essay to introduce the definition of a concept and then switch to past tense verbs when describing something that happened or existed in the past only. Look at the excerpt below and notice the tense of the verbs in bold: is, combines, was, believe, used, and could practice. (1) Capoeira is a typical Brazilian art form that combines elements of dance, music, acrobatics, self- defense and combat. (2) It was common among slaves in the 19th century. (3) Many believe that the slaves used the element of dance in capoeira as a disguise so that they could practice self-defense techniques without raising suspicion from the slave masters. -
Contracted Forms of Auxiliary Verbs
Contracted Forms Of Auxiliary Verbs Special Anthony sometimes deoxygenizes any paradise decongests coincidently. Gary apostrophised her sleepwalking vigilantly, she regenerating it forgetfully. Collateral and necked Collin undercharging her auriculas gemmating superciliously or autolyzing earthward, is Jeromy consultative? According to the simple and interrogative contexts seems far to raise, scottish variety of auxiliary That auxiliaries referring to have contraction in contracted forms are less economical than two verbs? How auxiliary verb forms, contracted weak as sentential operators. Laka uses the report that if same strategies are distinct in emphatic affirmative and negative sentences as page that negation and affirmation are vulnerable of time same projection. Mouton de and of verbs are. Before after on them discuss AC in depth, are important distinction must be union between the phonological forms in which auxiliaries may appear. On form verb forms of auxiliary surfaces as contracted weak and for informational purposes only. The feedback of these suggestions is highly controversial as English modals are, without exception, always finite. As a modal auxiliary verb. English, and are attested in Scottish and Northern varieties of British English. The verb of a clitic negation should violate the pieces of the first problem for temp? If pronouns can be used to replace phrases then pronouns themselves also be phrases, not heads. Update card payment information immediately and avoid losing access into your subscription. It more auxiliary verb forms of? If she used. Do it is derived by means they have contraction which are usually preferred combinations of a contracted weak form differs across not an i have as contracted forms. -
Lecture 14. NP Interpretation, Quantification, and Type-Shifting
The Structure of Meaning, Lecture 14 Barbara H. Partee, May 3, 2006 Lecture 14. NP Interpretation, Quantification, and Type-shifting. 1. Linguistic background:....................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1. Tension between simplicity and generality, between uniformity and flexiblity...................................... 1 1.2. General processing strategy proposal:.......................................................................................................... 1 2. NP Type Multiplicity.......................................................................................................................................... 2 2.1. Montague tradition: ...................................................................................................................................... 2 2.2. Evidence for multiple types for NP's........................................................................................................... 2 2.3. Some type-shifting functors for NPs. ........................................................................................................... 3 2.4. "Naturalness" arguments: THE, A, and BE.................................................................................................. 3 2.4.1 THE ........................................................................................................................................................ 4 2.4.2 A and BE ............................................................................................................................................... -
Reeves V. Sanderson Plumbing Products Inc. and the Burden-Shifting Framework of Disparate Treatment Cases David J
Marquette Law Review Volume 85 Article 10 Issue 1 Fall 2001 Affirming Ambiguity: Reeves v. Sanderson Plumbing Products Inc. and the Burden-Shifting Framework of Disparate Treatment Cases David J. Turek Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/mulr Part of the Law Commons Repository Citation David J. Turek, Affirming Ambiguity: Reeves v. Sanderson Plumbing Products Inc. and the Burden-Shifting Framework of Disparate Treatment Cases, 85 Marq. L. Rev. 283 (2001). Available at: http://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/mulr/vol85/iss1/10 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at Marquette Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Marquette Law Review by an authorized administrator of Marquette Law Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. AFFIRMING AMBIGUITY: REEVES V SANDERSON PLUMBING PRODUCTS, INC. AND THE BURDEN-SHIFTING FRAMEWORK OF DISPARATE TREATMENT CASES I. INTRODUCTION Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 19641 makes it illegal for an employer to discriminate in the workplace on the basis of race, sex, color, religion, or national origin.2 However, since the passage of the Act in 1964, lawyers, jurists, and commentators have asked: How do affected employees produce persuasive evidence of discrimination?3 Undoubtedly, the most persuasive evidence of unlawful discrimination is direct proof of the employer's discriminatory motivation.4 Direct evidence of discrimination, however, is difficult to produce and rarely arises in contemporary disparate treatment litigation.5 This difficulty of 1. 42 U.S.C. § 2000e to e-17 (1994). According to Justice White, Title VII "was designed to remedy the intentional and systematic exclusion of blacks by the employer and the unions from certain job categories." Johnson v. -
UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations
UCLA UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Heterogeneity and uniformity in the evidential domain Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/40m5f2f1 Author Korotkova, Natalia Publication Date 2016 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITYOF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Heterogeneity and uniformity in the evidential domain A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics by Natalia Korotkova 2016 © Copyright by Natalia Korotkova 2016 ABSTRACTOFTHE DISSERTATION Heterogeneity and uniformity in the evidential domain by Natalia Korotkova Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics University of California, Los Angeles, 2016 Professor Dominique L. Sportiche, Co-chair Professor Yael Sharvit, Co-chair The dissertation is devoted to the formal mechanisms that govern the use of evidentials, expressions of natural language that denote the source of information for the proposition conveyed by a sentence. Specifically, I am concerned with putative cases of semantic variation in evidentiality and with its previously unnoticed semantic uniformity. An ongoing debate in this area concerns the relation between evidentiality and epistemic modality. According to one line of research, all evidentials are garden variety epistemic modals. According to another, evidentials across languages fall into two semantic classes: (i) modal evidentials; and (ii) illocutionary evidentials, which deal with the structure of speech acts. The dissertation provides a long-overdue discussion of analytical options proposed for evidentials, and shows that the debate is lacking formally-explicit tools that would differenti- ate between the two classes. Current theories, even though motivated by superficially different data, make in fact very similar predictions. -
English Weak Pronouns and Object Shift
English Weak Pronouns and Object Shift Joel C. Wallenberg University of Pennsylvania 1. Introduction Although it has been noticed from time to time in the literature that unstressed pronouns in English show some syntactic behavior that is not shared by their full DP counterparts, these differences have not yet been studied and accounted for in a systematic way.* This is not particularly surprising, as the special behavior of English pronouns is confined to only a few contexts, and so very few clues are provided to the analyst about the underlying processes involved (in contrast to, e.g., pronoun scrambling in German or Dutch). But this is only the case if we confine ourselves to data from the modern language. It is possible to learn a great deal more, however, by taking a broader, historical perspective of the phenomenon. With the help of corpus data from earlier stages of English, I will argue that the exceptional syntax of modern English object pronouns actually results from their status as “weak pronouns”, in the sense of Cardinaletti & Starke (1999), and their ability to undergo “Object Shift” of the Scandinavian type (Holmberg 1986, Holmberg 1999, inter alia). However, object shift is severely restricted in the modern language by a combination of Holmberg’s Generalization and an independent, but intersecting, phenomenon: the loss of movement of main verbs to Tense in the overt syntax. In this way, English is not the odd language out in Germanic, but rather patterns with the rest of the family in having a leftward movement process that applies to its unstressed object pronouns.