DOCSLIB.ORG

The Scope of Negation

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Scope of Negation T h e S c o p e o f N e g a t i o n Vincenzo Moscati Promotor: Prof. Luigi Rizzi CoPromotor: Prof. Gabriele Usberti SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN COGNITIVE SCIENCE. JUNE 2006 Keywords: negation, negativequantifiers, Italian, Negative complementizers, N-words, polarityitems, negation raising, modality. A Milena Acknowledgments I wish to express my gratitude to many friends which have supported this work both on personal and on scientific side. I’m grateful to Luigi Rizzi for his advice and for his inspiring attitude, and to all the members of the Centro Interdisciplinare di Studi Cognitivi sul Linguaggio (Ciscl), in particular to Valentina Bianchi, Adriana Belletti, Cristiano Chesi and Ida Ferrari. A special thank goes also to Liliane Haegeman, Maria Rita Manzini and to all the participants to her lectures series held at the University of Florence in Fall 2005. I can not forget all the people I’ve met during those days of study and many evenings of recreation, especially during the cold winter spent at the department of linguistic at MIT and the rainy summer of Hamburg: my thank goes to Andrea Gualmini, Marta Abrusan, Michael Wagner, Andrew Newins, Justin Fitzpatrick and Pranav Anand; and to Jurgen Meisel and Wolfgang J.Meyer, together with the audience at the SFB of Hamburg, for the many helpful comments I received. My acknowledgments go also to Genoveva Puskas, Johan van der Auwera, Margarita Suner, Karin Stromswold, Marit Westergaard, Paolo Aquaviva, Carlo Cecchetto, Gabriele Usberti, Günther Grewendorf, Ian Roberts; and to Federico Misirochi and his granny for judgments on Milanese and to Prof. Shevcenko for Russian. This work wouldn’t be accomplished without the support of my family and my friends: my deepest and more sincere gratitude is for them. INDEX Index Acknowledgments ........................................................................................................ 4 Index ............................................................................................................................. 5 Introduction................................................................................................................... 7 Chapter 1. Negation Raising. ...................................................................................... 10 1.1. Inverse wide scope........................................................................................... 12 1.1.1. Scope over Modality................................................................................. 15 1.1.2. German and West Flemish........................................................................ 16 1.1.3. Negative Quantifiers and Split Scope readings. ....................................... 18 1.1.4. Milanese.................................................................................................... 23 1.2. A refinement of the notion of modality ........................................................... 26 1.2.1. Alethic and Root modality........................................................................ 27 1.2.2. Epistemic modality ................................................................................... 30 1.2.3.Over Quantifiers ........................................................................................ 34 Conclusions............................................................................................................. 36 Chapter 2. Negation in the complementizer ............................................................... 38 2.1. Overt Manifestations........................................................................................ 38 2.1.1. Irish ........................................................................................................... 39 2.1.2. Latin .......................................................................................................... 43 2.1.3. Basque....................................................................................................... 45 2.1.4. Gbe languages........................................................................................... 46 2.1.5. Hebrew...................................................................................................... 48 2.1.6 Summary.................................................................................................... 50 2.2. Morphosyntactic reflexes. ............................................................................. 52 2.1. Italian Left-Edge Licensors ......................................................................... 54 Conclusions............................................................................................................. 58 Chapter 3. Valuation of typing features...................................................................... 59 3.1. Clausal Typing ................................................................................................. 61 3.1.1. Lexical Insertion ....................................................................................... 64 3.1.2.Typing through Agree................................................................................ 66 3.2. Valuation of Typing Features .......................................................................... 74 Conclusions............................................................................................................. 83 Chapter 4. Negative quantifiers in Noconcord languages ......................................... 84 4.1. English and noconcord languages. ................................................................. 86 Negative Quantifiers ....................................................................................... 86 Pre-post verbal asymmetries ........................................................................... 88 4.2. Other Noconcord languages ........................................................................... 92 4.2.1. Split scope readings .................................................................................. 97 4.3. Polarity............................................................................................................. 98 4.3.1. The problem with Subject PIs................................................................... 98 4.3.2. Domain widening operators in DE contexts ........................................... 102 4.3.3. Minimality effects restrict domain widening.......................................... 107 Conclusions........................................................................................................... 112 INDEX Chapter 5. Negative Concord.................................................................................... 114 5.1. Symmetric Concord Languages..................................................................... 115 5.1.1. Different strengths of PIs. ....................................................................... 118 5.1.2. pre-post verbal asymmetries ................................................................... 121 5.1.3. Long distance licensing .......................................................................... 122 5.1.4. Fragments................................................................................................ 123 5.1.5. Summary................................................................................................. 125 5.2. Feature checking or semantic dependency?................................................... 126 5.2.1. Syntactic accounts................................................................................... 127 5.2.2. Polarity dependencies ............................................................................. 131 5.3. Asymmetric Concord languages .................................................................... 133 5.3.1. pre-verbal environments ......................................................................... 135 5.3.1.1. Ellipsis resolution and the missing reading ..................................... 139 5.3.2. Post-verbal N-words and PIs in asymmetric negative concord .............. 147 5.3.3. The unavoidable lexical ambiguity of ACLs .......................................... 151 5.3.3. Asymmetry at phase edge ....................................................................... 153 5.4. Clustering of N-words ................................................................................... 159 5.5.Previous accounts for Asymmetric Concord Languages ................................ 162 5.5.1 The Neg-Criterion approach. ................................................................... 163 5.5.2. Feature copying....................................................................................... 168 5.5.3. Polarity Universal Quantifiers ................................................................ 170 Conclusions........................................................................................................... 173 References................................................................................................................. 175 INTRODUCTION Introduction We know that the syntax of negation is subject to variation across languages. What we don’t exactly know is which aspect of its syntax has to be parameterized, given that manifest variations can be only epiphenomena due to different and more general parametrical choices. There are certain aspects, hovewer, which can be directly related to the syntax of negation. The particle used to express sentential negation,
Load more

Recommended publications
  • 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.
    [Show full text]
  • Sentential Negation and Negative Concord
    Sentential Negation and Negative Concord Published by LOT phone: +31.30.2536006 Trans 10 fax: +31.30.2536000 3512 JK Utrecht email: [email protected] The Netherlands http://wwwlot.let.uu.nl/ Cover illustration: Kasimir Malevitch: Black Square. State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia. ISBN 90-76864-68-3 NUR 632 Copyright © 2004 by Hedde Zeijlstra. All rights reserved. Sentential Negation and Negative Concord ACADEMISCH PROEFSCHRIFT ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam op gezag van de Rector Magnificus Prof. Mr P.F. van der Heijden ten overstaan van een door het College voor Promoties ingestelde commissie, in het openbaar te verdedigen in de Aula der Universiteit op woensdag 15 december 2004, te 10:00 uur door HEDZER HUGO ZEIJLSTRA geboren te Rotterdam Promotiecommissie: Promotores: Prof. Dr H.J. Bennis Prof. Dr J.A.G. Groenendijk Copromotor: Dr J.B. den Besten Leden: Dr L.C.J. Barbiers (Meertens Instituut, Amsterdam) Dr P.J.E. Dekker Prof. Dr A.C.J. Hulk Prof. Dr A. von Stechow (Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen) Prof. Dr F.P. Weerman Faculteit der Geesteswetenschappen Voor Petra Table of Contents TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................ I ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .......................................................................................V 1 INTRODUCTION................................................................................................1 1.1 FOUR ISSUES IN THE STUDY OF NEGATION.......................................................1
    [Show full text]
  • Downloaded from Brill.Com09/28/2021 06:09:44PM Via Free Access 142 Bağrıaçık
    Journal of Greek Linguistics 17 (2017) 141–189 brill.com/jgl Representing discourse in clausal syntax The ki particle in Pharasiot Greek Metin Bağrıaçık* Ghent University [email protected] Abstract In Pharasiot Greek, an Asia Minor Greek dialect, a certain particle copied from Turkish, ki, is employed in a number of seemingly unrelated constructions. Close scrutiny, however, reveals that in each of these constructions, ki is employed as a device geared to influencing the interlocutor’s epistemic vigilance. Based on the Cartographic Approach which defends the syntactization of the interpretive domains, I propose that this unique semantics of ki should be represented in the clause structure. Following recent work which advocates the existence of a pragmatic field—Speech Act Phrase (sap) in particular—above the cp-layer, where discourse and pragmatic roles are mapped onto syntax, I propose that ki is the overt exponent of sa0 and is further endowed with a [+sentience] feature indexing the speaker as the sentient mind. The apparent differences between various construction types which involve ki—hence, in which sap projects—then reduce to whether the [+sentience] feature on sa0 is checked by an internally or externally merging category in Spec, sap. * I would like to thank Jan Casalicchio, Guglielmo Cinque, Federica Cognola, Lieven Danckaert, Liliane Haegeman, Aslı Göksel, Mark Janse, Io Manolessou, Anna Roussou, Ioanna Sitari- dou, the members of gist—Generative Initiatives in SyntacticTheory—and two anonymous reviewers for their various comments and suggestions on earlier drafts of this paper. My deep- est gratitude is to Andreas Konstantinidis, his family and to Konstantinos Kalaitzidis for their hospitality, and to my informants who helped with the data with greater enthusiasm than mine: Despoina K.†, Kathina P., Anastasia I., Eirini P., Evlambia Ch., Georgios S., Georgios K., Leftheris K., Maria S., Nikos T., Prodromos K., Sophia K.†, Theodorakis K., Miranda M., and Maria A.
    [Show full text]
  • 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.
    [Show full text]
  • Interrogative Slifting in English
    Interrogative Slifting in English a, b c c William Haddican ∗,AndersHolmberg,HidekazuTanaka, George Tsoulas aDepartment of Linguistics and Communication Disorders, Queens College, CUNY, 65-30 Kissena Blvd. Queens, NY 11367-1597 USA bSchool of English Literature, Language and Linguistics Percy Building, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK cDepartment of Language and Linguistic Science, University of York, Heslington, York, YO10 5DD, UK Abstract This paper analyzes English “wh-slifting” sentences (for example, How old is she do you think). We argue that these sentences are not scope-marking constructions nor are they derived by simple clausal pied piping as an alternative to wh-extraction. We show that such sentences are akin to declarative slifting sentences, but more restricted than the latter particularly in the kinds of evidential predicates they co- occur with. We argue that the slifted question is not first merged as the complement of the main clause, but that the relationship between the two clauses is mediated by an by an evidential morpheme, which takes the do you think-clause as its speci- fier. This analysis, which explains several properties of wh-slifting that distinguish it from scope-marking constructions and Basque-type clausal pied-piping, partially rec- onciles wh-slifting questions with paratactic approaches to quotative constructions. Keywords: slifting, wh-movement, embedded root phenomena, pied-piping, scope marking, parenthetical, evidential 1. Introduction This paper presents an analysis of sentences like (1) and (2), discussed parenthet- ically in several sources, but not analysedextensivelyinanypublishedworkasfar as we are aware (Ross, 1973; Kayne, 1998; Lahiri, 2002; Reis, 2002; Horvath, 2006).
    [Show full text]
  • The Syntax and Semantics of As-Parentheticals
    CHRISTOPHER POTTS THE SYNTAX AND SEMANTICS OF AS-PARENTHETICALS ABSTRACT. This paper is a detailed investigation of the syntax and semantics of a single type of cross-linguistically common parenthetical expression, here dubbed As- parentheticals (e.g., Ames, as you know, was a spy). I show that a treatment of such clauses as adverbial modifiers combines with a motivated semantic analysis to account for a wide range of ambiguities concerning negation in particular, but also tense, modal, and adverbial operators. I provide a principled explanation for the impossibility of variable binding into, and extraction from, As-parentheticals, and argue that this construction yields novel support for the view (of Ladusaw 1992, and others) that negative DPs like no one are actually non-negated indefinites licensed by an abstract, clause-level negation. Overall, the analysis shows that parentheticals, in addition to being a rich source of puzzles in their own right, provide a useful probe into clause structure in general. 1. INTRODUCTION Parentheticals, ubiquitous though they be, and absolutely vital to com- munication at all registers, have been sorely neglected by linguists, both traditional and modern. There are exceptions, among them Ross’s (1973) work on what he dubbed slifting, Emonds’s (1976, §2.9) general investig- ation, Culicover’s (1980, 1992), Stowell’s (1987), and Lapointe’s (1991) work on the internal syntax of such clauses, and McCawley’s (1982, 1987, 1989) attempts to tackle the issue of how such constituents should be rep- resented, but little is currently known about the syntax and semantics of this class of constructions.
    [Show full text]
  • Pseudo Wh-Copying As Wh-Slifting Introduction German Is Well-Known for Possessing Wh-Copying, Cf
    Andreas Pankau FU Berlin [email protected] Pseudo wh-copying as wh-slifting Introduction German is well-known for possessing wh-copying, cf. (1). (1) Wo glaubst du, wo Peter jetzt wohnt? where believe you where Peter now lives ‘Where do you think Peter now lives?’ In wh-copying, the target SpecCP-position contains the moved wh-phrase and the intermediate SpecCP- positions contain overtly realized “copies” of it; hence the name. There exists a variant of (1) where the finite verb of the embedded clause appears in second instead of its typical clause-final position, cf. (2). (2) Wo glaubst du, wo wohnt Peter jetzt? I will call this type pseudo wh-copying. The few sources mentioning it treat it as structurally similar to wh- copying (Reis 2000: 395). The aim of this talk is to show that pseudo wh-copying differs drastically from wh-copying. I will present a number of differences between the two types, argue on the basis of these for an analysis of pseudo wh-copying in terms of wh-slifting, and discuss some predictions of the analysis. Differences There are five differences between pseudo wh-copying and wh-copying. First, they differ prosodically. In wh-copying, the initial wh-phrase can bear stress and there can be a rise at the end of the sentence. In pseudo wh-copying, there is necessarily stress on both wh-phrases and a rise after each clause. (3) WO glaubst du ↑ WO wohnt er jetzt? ↑ Second, they differ pragmatically. In a context where one discusses that Peter constantly moves, one can use (1) but not (2).
    [Show full text]
  • Lin 2011 Squat, Zero and No/Nothing
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Ghent University Academic Bibliography SQUAT, zero and no/nothing: Syntactic negation vs. Semantic negation♣ UGent/GIST Karen De Clercq 1. Introduction In this paper I will propose a distinction between syntactic and semantic sentential negation. I will motivate the distinction by discussing some core properties of three downward entailing quantifiers: no/nothing, SQUAT, and the numeral zero. The syntactic tests I apply to these quantifiers demonstrate that no/nothing can give rise to both syntactic and semantic sentential negation, whereas SQUAT and zero can only give rise to semantic sentential negation. Beghelli’s (1995) clause structure for quantifier scope will be used to capture the available scope positions for these quantifiers based on their syntactic properties. 2. Prerequisites 2.1. SQUAT The terms ‘squatitive negation’ (Horn 2001) or ‘SQUAT’ for short (Postal 2004), refers to a class of taboo words that can be used to express negation, as shown in (1). Postal (2004) and Horn (2001) discuss the use of SQUAT (as a class) as a bare noun (BN-SQUAT). Postal (2004) provides a list of squatitive items; his list is 2 reproduced in (2) updated with some extra British English taboo- words with similar use. (1) Claudia saw squat. = ‘Claudia saw nothing.’ (2) SQUAT = squat, fuck-all, beans, crap, dick, diddley, diddley- poo, diddley-squat, jack, jack-shit, jack-squat, piss-all, poo, shit, shit-all (Postal 2004), sod-all, bugger-all, naff-all, crap-all. Neither Postal nor Horn mention the use of SQUAT as a determiner (from now on referred to as ‘D°-SQUAT’), as illustrated in (3).i (3) John bought fuck-all books.
    [Show full text]
  • Potts-Dissertation-2Up.Pdf
    UNIVERSITY of CALIFORNIA SANTA CRUZ THE LOGIC OF CONVENTIONAL IMPLICATURES A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in LINGUISTICS by Christopher Potts Copyright c by June 2003 Christopher Potts 2003 The Dissertation of Christopher Potts is ap- proved: Professor Geoffrey K. Pullum, Chair Professor William A. Ladusaw Professor James McCloskey Frank Talamantes Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies 2 A logic for conventional implicatures 56 2.1 Introduction . .............................. 56 2.2 Independence of truth values . ...................... 59 2.3 A meaning language distinction . .................. 62 Contents 2.4 At-issue and CI types . .......................... 68 2.5 Linguistic motivation for the limited set of types . .......... 72 2.5.1 At-issue never applies to CI . .................. 73 2.5.2 CI never applies to CI ...................... 76 Abstract ix 2.6 Modes of combination .......................... 79 Acknowledgements xi 2.6.1 One node structures . ...................... 80 2.6.2 At-issue functional application .................. 81 1 A preliminary case for conventional implicatures 1 2.6.3 At-issue intersection . ...................... 82 1.1 A fresh look at an old definition . .................. 1 2.6.4 CI application . .......................... 83 1.2 A brief history . .............................. 6 2.6.5 Isolated CIs . .......................... 84 1.3 Factual support for CIs .......................... 12 2.6.6 Features .............................. 85 1.3.1 Supplemental expressions . .................. 12 2.6.7 Parsetree interpretation ...................... 87 1.3.2 Expressives . .......................... 17 2.6.8 In sum .............................. 89 1.4 Kinds of meaning . .......................... 25 2.7 Remarks on appeals to a meaning language . .............. 90 1.4.1 CIs versus conversational implicatures .............. 30 2.8 Discourse structures .
    [Show full text]
  • Evidence from Evidentials
    UBCWPL University of British Columbia Working Papers in Linguistics Evidence from Evidentials Edited by: Tyler Peterson and Uli Sauerland September 2010 Volume 28 ii Evidence from Evidentials Edited by: Tyler Peterson and Uli Sauerland The University of British Columbia Working Papers in Linguistics Volume 28 September 2010 UBCWPL is published by the graduate students of the University of British Columbia. We feature current research on language and linguistics by students and faculty of the department, and we are the regular publishers of two conference proceedings: the Workshop on Structure and Constituency in Languages of the Americas (WSCLA) and the International Conference on Salish and Neighbouring Languages (ICSNL). If you have any comments or suggestions, or would like to place orders, please contact : UBCWPL Editors Department of Linguistics Totem Field Studios 2613 West Mall V6T 1Z4 Tel: 604 822 4256 Fax 604 822 9687 E-mail: <[email protected]> Since articles in UBCWPL are works in progress, their publication elsewhere is not precluded. All rights remain with the authors. iii Cover artwork by Lester Ned Jr. Contact: Ancestral Native Art Creations 10704 #9 Highway Compt. 376 Rosedale, BC V0X 1X0 Phone: (604) 793-5306 Fax: (604) 794-3217 Email: [email protected] iv TABLE OF CONTENTS TYLER PETERSON, ROSE-MARIE DÉCHAINE, AND ULI SAUERLAND ...............................1 Evidence from Evidentials: Introduction JASON BROWN ................................................................................................................9
    [Show full text]
  • Visible Meaning: Sign Language and the Foundations of Semantics
    Theoretical Linguistics 2018; 44(3-4): 123–208 Philippe Schlenker* Visible Meaning: Sign language and the foundations of semantics https://doi.org/10.1515/tl-2018-0012 Abstract: While it is now accepted that sign languages should inform and constrain theories of ‘Universal Grammar’,theirrolein‘Universal Semantics’ has been under-studied. We argue that they have a crucial role to play in the foundations of semantics, for tworeasons.First,insomecasessign languages provide overt evidence on crucial aspects of the Logical Form of sentences,ones that are only inferred indirectly in spoken language. For instance, sign lan- guage ‘loci’ are positions in signing space that can arguably realize logical variables, and the fact that they are overt makes it possible to revisit founda- tional debates about the syntactic reality of variables, about mechanisms of temporal and modal anaphora, and abouttheexistenceofdynamicbinding. Another example pertains to mechanisms of ‘context shift’,whichwerepostu- lated on the basis of indirect evidence in spoken language, but which are arguably overt in sign language. Second, along one dimension sign languages are strictly more expressive than spoken languages because iconic phenomena can be found at their logical core. This applies to loci themselves, which may simultaneously function as logical variables and as schematic pictures of what they denote (context shift comes with some iconic requirements as well). As a result, the semantic system of spoken languages can in some respects be seen as a simplified version of the richer semantics found in sign languages. Two conclusions could be drawn from this observation. One is that the full extent of Universal Semantics can only be studied in sign languages.
    [Show full text]
  • Parentheticality, Assertion Strength, and Discourse1 Todor KOEV — University of Dusseldorf¨
    Parentheticality, assertion strength, and discourse1 Todor KOEV — University of Dusseldorf¨ Abstract. Sentences with so-called SLIFTING PARENTHETICALS (e.g. The dean, Jill said, flirted with the secretary; Ross 1973) grammaticalize an intriguing interaction between speech act function and conventional meaning, one that is not found in regular embedding construc- tions (e.g. Jill said that the dean flirted with the secretary). In such sentences, the main clause is independently asserted and at the same time is interpreted in the scope of the parenthetical, which typically serves an evidential function. The discourse effect of this pragmasemantic set- up is that slifting parentheticals modulate the strength with which the main part of the sentence is asserted (Urmson 1952, Asher 2000, Rooryck 2001, Davis et al. 2007, Simons 2007, Maier and Bary 2015). Building on Davis et al. (2007), this paper proposes a probabilistic discourse model that captures the role of parentheticality as a language tool for qualifying speaker’s com- mitments. The model also derives two empirical properties that set apart slifting parentheticals from regular embedding constructions, i.e. (i) the fact that slifting parentheticals invariably ex- press upward entailing operators and (ii) the fact that they usually do not occur in subordinate clauses. Keywords: parentheticals, evidence, assertion, polarity, embedding, probability. 1. Introduction The interpretational properties of sentences with SLIFTING PARENTHETICALS (Ross 1973) are perhaps best illustrated by direct comparison to regular embedding constructions. Consider the minimal pair of sentences below. (1) The dean, Jill said, flirted with the secretary. (2) Jill said that the dean flirted with the secretary. The slifting sentence in (1) is largely synonymous with its embedding counterpart in (2).
    [Show full text]