Intonation and Information Structure
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UC Santa Cruz UC Santa Cruz Electronic Theses and Dissertations
UC Santa Cruz UC Santa Cruz Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Syntax & Information Structure: The Grammar of English Inversions Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2sv7q1pm Author Samko, Bern Publication Date 2016 License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ 4.0 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA CRUZ SYNTAX & INFORMATION STRUCTURE: THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH INVERSIONS A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in LINGUISTICS by Bern Samko June 2016 The Dissertation of Bern Samko is approved: Professor Jim McCloskey, chair Associate Professor Pranav Anand Associate Professor Line Mikkelsen Assistant Professor Maziar Toosarvandani Tyrus Miller Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies Copyright © by Bern Samko 2016 Contents Acknowledgments x 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Thequestions ............................... 1 1.1.1 Summaryofresults ........................ 2 1.2 Syntax................................... 6 1.3 InformationStructure . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 7 1.3.1 Topic ............................... 8 1.3.2 Focus ............................... 11 1.3.3 Givenness............................. 13 1.3.4 The distinctness of information structural notions . ....... 14 1.3.5 TheQUD ............................. 17 1.4 The relationship between syntax and information structure ....... 19 1.5 Thephenomena .............................. 25 1.5.1 -
On the Question of Topics in Topic Prominent Interlanguage
On the Question of Topics in Topic Prominent Interlanguage Marie Fellbaum Korpi Linguistics Program The Australian National University Canberra 2000 [email protected] Abstract For twenty-five years, interlanguage researchers have accepted an early period of topic prominence in the language of a native speaker of Hmong learning English (Huebner 1983). The study was based on Li and Thompson's Typology of Subject-Prominent and Topic Prominent language types. Since Huebner only examined properties of topic prominent languages without also looking for evidence of subject, I revisit the study and show evidence for subjecthood from grammatical relations, semantic functions, and properties of behavior and control. An investigation of one of the properties, namely that topics control co-referential constituent deletion, suggests instead evidence for subject in serial verb constructions. After finding evidence for at least three properties of subject as a basic subject-predicate construction in the interlanguage, I propose an alternative analysis that the learner’s early interlanguage must be re-classified as both subject and topic prominent. Keywords Interlanguage, SLA, Subject, Topic Prominence I would like to thank participants of an ANU/RSPAS 2005 seminar and ALS2005 and for their comments on an earlier version, Anthony Diller, Wayan Arka, and two anonymous ALS reviewers for their comments. 2/16 On the Question of Topics in Topic Prominent Interlanguage 1.0 Introduction The notion of an early stage of topic prominence in interlanguage, the language system of learners as they develop from their first/native language (L1) to the language they are attempting to acquire, the target language (TL), was first proposed by Huebner in 1983. -
Chapter 12 Expletive Pronouns
Hardegree, Compositional Semantics, Chapter 12: Expletive Pronouns 1 of 36 Chapter 12 Expletive Pronouns 1. Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 2 2. Overview ........................................................................................................................... 2 3. Expletive-There .................................................................................................................. 2 4. Fundamental Proposal: Expletive-There is an Anaphoric Pronoun ..................................... 3 5. How do we Read ‘be’ in ‘There be’? ................................................................................. 3 6. What is the Point of There? ................................................................................................ 6 7. Looney Examples of Topic-Comment ............................................................................... 7 8. Junction-Simplification Revisited ...................................................................................... 7 9. Other Anaphoric Uses of There.......................................................................................... 8 10. Relative-There ................................................................................................................... 9 11. Expletive-it ......................................................................................................................... 9 12. "It" is Raining ................................................................................................................. -
Degrees As Kinds Vs. Degrees As Numbers: Evidence from Equatives1 Linmin ZHANG — NYU Shanghai
Degrees as kinds vs. degrees as numbers: Evidence from equatives1 Linmin ZHANG — NYU Shanghai Abstract. Within formal semantics, there are two views with regard to the ontological status of degrees: the ‘degree-as-number’ view (e.g., Seuren, 1973; Hellan, 1981; von Stechow, 1984) and the ‘degree-as-kind’ view (e.g., Anderson and Morzycki, 2015). Based on (i) empirical distinctions between comparatives and equatives and (ii) Stevens’s (1946) theory on the four levels of measurements, I argue that both views are motivated and needed in accounting for measurement- and comparison-related meanings in natural language. Specifically, I argue that since the semantics of comparatives potentially involves measurable differences, comparatives need to be analyzed based on scales with units, on which degrees are like (real) numbers. In contrast, since equatives are typically used to convey the non-existence of differences, equa- tives can be based on scales without units, on which degrees can be considered kinds. Keywords: (Gradable) adjectives, Comparatives, Equatives, Similatives, Levels of measure- ments, Measurements, Comparisons, Kinds, Degrees, Dimensions, Scales, Units, Differences. 1. Introduction The notion of degrees plays a fundamental conceptual role in understanding measurements and comparisons. Within the literature of formal semantics, there are two major competing views with regard to the ontological status of degrees. For simplicity, I refer to these two ontologies as the ‘degree-as-number’ view and the ‘degree-as-kind’ view in this paper. Under the more canonical ‘degree-as-number’ view, degrees are considered primitive objects (of type d). Degrees are points on abstract totally ordered scales (see Seuren, 1973; Hellan, 1981; von Stechow, 1984; Heim, 1985; Kennedy, 1999). -
Pragmatics and Grammar: Motivation and Control Robert A
Work Papers of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, University of North Dakota Session Volume 32 Article 3 1988 Pragmatics and grammar: Motivation and control Robert A. Dooley SIL-UND Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.und.edu/sil-work-papers Recommended Citation Dooley, Robert A. (1988) "Pragmatics and grammar: Motivation and control," Work Papers of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, University of North Dakota Session: Vol. 32 , Article 3. DOI: 10.31356/silwp.vol32.03 Available at: https://commons.und.edu/sil-work-papers/vol32/iss1/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by UND Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Work Papers of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, University of North Dakota Session by an authorized editor of UND Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. PRAGMATICS AND GRAIUIAR.: HOTIVATIOII AND OOIITROL Robert A. Dooley 1 Introduction 2 Pragmatics in relation to semantics and syntax 2.1 Early definitions of pragmatics 2.2 The interface between pragmatics and semantics 2.3 The interface between pragmatics and syntax 2.4 Externally motivated phenomena encoded by grammar 2.5 Types of interaction between grammar and pragmatics 3 Pragmatic phenomena with little or no grammaticalization 3.1 Mbya hearsay particle 3.2 Wayampi main clause word order 4 Pragmatic phenomena with partial grammaticalization 4.1 Mbya future marker 4.2 Hixkaryana hearsay particle 4.3 Hixkaryana afterthought elements 5 Pragmatic phenomena with more or less complete grammaticalization 5.1 English WR-clefts 5.2 Dutch auxiliary placement 6 Concluding remarks I Introduction Much of what has been done as "pragmatics" has dealt with utterance interpretation, that is, with the influence of context on meaning. -
Anaphoric Reference to Propositions
ANAPHORIC REFERENCE TO PROPOSITIONS A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Todd Nathaniel Snider December 2017 c 2017 Todd Nathaniel Snider ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ANAPHORIC REFERENCE TO PROPOSITIONS Todd Nathaniel Snider, Ph.D. Cornell University 2017 Just as pronouns like she and he make anaphoric reference to individuals, English words like that and so can be used to refer anaphorically to a proposition introduced in a discourse: That’s true; She told me so. Much has been written about individual anaphora, but less attention has been paid to propositional anaphora. This dissertation is a com- prehensive examination of propositional anaphora, which I argue behaves like anaphora in other domains, is conditioned by semantic factors, and is not conditioned by purely syntactic factors nor by the at-issue status of a proposition. I begin by introducing the concepts of anaphora and propositions, and then I discuss the various words of English which can have this function: this, that, it, which, so, as, and the null complement anaphor. I then compare anaphora to propositions with anaphora in other domains, including individual, temporal, and modal anaphora. I show that the same features which are characteristic of these other domains are exhibited by proposi- tional anaphora as well. I then present data on a wide variety of syntactic constructions—including sub- clausal, monoclausal, multiclausal, and multisentential constructions—noting which li- cense anaphoric reference to propositions. On the basis of this expanded empirical do- main, I argue that anaphoric reference to a proposition is licensed not by any syntactic category or movement but rather by the operators which take propositions as arguments. -
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. -
Contrastive Topic, Contrastive Focus, Alternatives, and Scalar Implicatures
Contrastive Topic, Contrastive Focus, Alternatives, and Scalar Implicatures Chungmin Lee Abstract This chapter attempts to establish Contrastive Topic (CT) and Con- trastive Focus (CF) in relation to how their alternatives are evoked via their focal components involved and Question under Discussion (QUD) in discourse. CT, as part of Potential Topic, is claimed to generate conventional scalar implicature, not cancellable. CT but not ‘list CT’ has unresolved sub-questions. CF is shown to occur via alternative question (ALT-Q), which has the exhaustivity condition that exactly one disjunct holds. CT and CF constructions are cross-linguistically wit- nessed. CF, in parallelism with ALT-Q, may shed some light on the problematic exceptions to suspension of scalar implicatures in DE contexts such as antecedents of conditionals, and similar problems as well. Keywords Contrastive topic ⋅ Contrastive focus ⋅ Potential topic ⋅ QUD ⋅ Conventional scalar implicature ⋅ Alternative question (ALT-Q) ⋅ Exhaustivity 1 Contrastive Topic Sentential utterances in discourse are structured to optimize the exchange of information. Several dimensions of information structure have been identified by various authors: Topic and Focus, Topic and Comment, Topic (=Link), Tail and Focus, and finally Contrastive Topic and Contrastive Focus. As for topic-comment, the speaker of a sentence identifies something to talk about as a topic, and then I would like to express my gratitude to Manfred Krifka for his comments on and improvement of style of part of an earlier version and an anonymous reviewer at ESSLLI 2013 for his/her comments on the workshop abstract. I also thank the series editor’s (Marcel den Dikken) comments on style. -
Situations and Individuals
Forthcoming with MIT Press Current Studies in Linguistics Summer 2005 Situations and Individuals Paul Elbourne To my father To the memory of my mother Preface This book deals with the semantics of the natural language expressions that have been taken to refer to individuals: pronouns, definite descriptions and proper names. It claims, contrary to previous theorizing, that they have a common syntax and semantics, roughly that which is currently associated by philosophers and linguists with definite descriptions as construed in the tradition of Frege. As well as advancing this proposal, I hope to achieve at least one other aim, that of urging linguists and philosophers dealing with pronoun interpretation, in particular donkey anaphora, to consider a wider range of theories at all times than is sometimes done at present. I am thinking particularly of the gulf that seems to have emerged between those who practice some version of dynamic semantics (including DRT) and those who eschew this approach and claim that the semantics of donkey pronouns crucially involves definite descriptions (if they consider donkey anaphora at all). In my opinion there is too little work directly comparing the claims of these two schools (for that is what they amount to) and testing them against the data in the way that any two rival theories might be tested. (Irene Heim’s 1990 article in Linguistics and Philosophy does this, and largely inspired my own project, but I know of no other attempts.) I have tried to remedy that in this book. I ultimately come down on the side of definite descriptions and against dynamic semantics; but that preference is really of secondary importance beside the attempt at a systematic comparative project. -
Topic Structures in Chinese Author(S): Xu Liejiong and D
Linguistic Society of America Topic Structures in Chinese Author(s): Xu Liejiong and D. Terence Langendoen Source: Language, Vol. 61, No. 1 (Mar., 1985), pp. 1-27 Published by: Linguistic Society of America Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/413419 Accessed: 11/05/2009 22:37 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=lsa. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1995 to build trusted digital archives for scholarship. We work with the scholarly community to preserve their work and the materials they rely upon, and to build a common research platform that promotes the discovery and use of these resources. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Linguistic Society of America is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Language. http://www.jstor.org TOPIC STRUCTURES IN CHINESE Xu LIEJIONG D. -
A Theory of Names and True Intensionality*
A Theory of Names and True Intensionality? Reinhard Muskens Tilburg Center for Logic and Philosophy of Science [email protected] http://let.uvt.nl/general/people/rmuskens/ Abstract. Standard approaches to proper names, based on Kripke's views, hold that the semantic values of expressions are (set-theoretic) functions from possible worlds to extensions and that names are rigid designators, i.e. that their values are constant functions from worlds to entities. The difficulties with these approaches are well-known and in this paper we develop an alternative. Based on earlier work on a higher order logic that is truly intensional in the sense that it does not validate the axiom scheme of Extensionality, we develop a simple theory of names in which Kripke's intuitions concerning rigidity are accounted for, but the more unpalatable consequences of standard implementations of his theory are avoided. The logic uses Frege's distinction between sense and reference and while it accepts the rigidity of names it rejects the view that names have direct reference. Names have constant denotations across possible worlds, but the semantic value of a name is not determined by its denotation. Keywords: names, axiom of extensionality, true intensionality, rigid designation 1 Introduction Standard approaches to proper names, based on Kripke (1971, 1972), make the following three assumptions. (a) The semantic values of expressions are (possibly partial) functions from pos- sible worlds to extensions. (b) These functions are identified with their graphs, as in set theory. (c) Names are rigid designators, i.e. their extensions are world-independent. In particular, the semantic values of names are taken to be constant functions from worlds to entities, possibly undefined for some worlds. -
EISS 12 Empirical Issues in Syntax and Semantics 12
EISS 12 Empirical Issues in Syntax and Semantics 12 Edited by Christopher Pinon 2019 CSSP Paris http://www.cssp.cnrs.fr/eiss12/ ISSN 1769-7158 Contents Preface iv Anne Abeillé & Shrita Hassamal 1–30 Sluicing in Mauritian: A Fragment-Based Analysis Aixiu An & Anne Abeillé 31–60 Number Agreement in French Binomials Micky Daniels & Yael Greenberg 61–89 Extreme Adjectives in Comparative Structures and even Emilie Destruel & Joseph P. De Veaugh-Geiss 91–120 (Non-)Exhaustivity in French c’est-Clefts Regine Eckardt & Andrea Beltrama 121–155 Evidentials and Questions Yanwei Jin & Jean-Pierre Koenig 157–186 Expletive Negation in English, French, and Mandarin: A Semantic and Language Production Model Fabienne Martin & Zsófia Gyarmathy 187–216 A Finer-grained Typology of Perfective Operators Vítor Míguez 217–246 On (Un)certainty: The Semantic Evolution of Galician seguramente Emanuel Quadros 247–276 The Semantics of Possessive Noun Phrases and Temporal Modifiers EISS 12 iii Preface This is the twelfth volume of the series Empirical Issues in Syntax and Semantics (EISS), which, like the preceding eleven volumes of the series, is closely related to the conference series Colloque de Syntaxe et Sémantique à Paris (CSSP). The nine papers included in the present volume are based on presentations given at CSSP 2017, which took place on 23–25 November 2017 at École Normale Supérieure (http: //www.cssp.cnrs.fr/cssp2017/index_en.html). CSSP 2017 had a small thematic session entitled Discourse particles, but since the number of papers from the thematic session submitted to the volume was low, they are not grouped separately. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the reviewers, whose comments aided the authors in revising the first drafts of their pa- pers, sometimes substantially.