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Functions of English "man"
(2006)
This paper discusses the semantics of the English particle man. It is shown that this particle does different things when used sentence-initially and sentence-finally. The sentenceinitial use is further shown to separate into two distinct intonational types with different semantic content. A formal semantics is proposed for these types.
We propose a compositional analysis for sentences of the kind "You only have to go to the North End to get good cheese", referred to as the Sufficiency Modal Construction in the recent literature. We argue that the SMC is ambiguous depending on the kind of ordering induced by only. So is the exceptive construction – its cross-linguistic counterpart. Only is treated as inducing either a 'comparative possibility' scale or an 'implication-based' partial order on propositions. The properties of the 'comparative possibility' scale explain the absence of the prejacent presupposition that is usually associated with only. By integrating the scalarity into the semantics of the SMC, we explain the polarity facts observed in both variants of the construction. The sufficiency meaning component is argued to be due to a pragmatic inference.
The German causal preposition durch ('by', 'through') poses a challenge to formal-semantic analyses applying strict compositionality. To deal with this challenge, a formalism which builds on recent important developments in Discourse Representation Theory is developed, including a more elaborate analysis of presuppositional phenomena as well as the integration into the theory of unification as a mode of composition. It is argued that that the observed unificational phenomena belong in the realm of pragmatics, providing an argument for presuppositional phenomena at a sentence- and word-internal level.
This paper presents two experimental studies investigating the processing of presupposed content. Both studies employ the German additive particle auch (too). In the first study, participants were given a questionnaire containing bi-clausal, ambiguous sentences with 'auch' in the second clause. The presupposition introduced by auch was only satisfied on one of the two readings of the sentence, and this reading corresponded to a syntactically dispreferred parse of the sentence. The prospect of having the auch-presupposition satisfied made participants choose this syntactically dispreferred reading more frequently than in a control condition. The second study used the self-paced-reading paradigm and compared the reading times on clauses containing auch, which differed in whether the presupposition of auch was satisfied or not. Participants read the clause more slowly when the presupposition was not satisfied. It is argued that the two studies show that presuppositions play an important role in online sentence comprehension and affect the choice of syntactic analysis. Some theoretical implications of these findings for semantic theory and dynamic accounts of presuppositions as well as for theories of semantic processing are discussed.
The expressions few and a few are typically considered to be separate quantifiers. I challenge this assumption, showing that with the appropriate definition of few, a few can be derived compositionally as a + few. The core of the analysis is a proposal that few has a denotation as a one-place predicate which incorporates a negation operator. From this, argument interpretations can be derived for expressions such as few students and a few students, differing only in the scope of negation. I show that this approach adequately captures the interpretive differences between few and a few. I further show that other such pairs are blocked by a constraint against the vacuous application of a.
This paper employs empirical methods to examine verbs such as seem, for which the traditional raising to subject analysis relates pairs of sentences which differ by taking an infinitival or sentential complement. A corpus-driven investigation of the verbs seem and appear demonstrates that information structure and evidentiality both play a determinate role in the choice between infinitival or sentential complementation. The second half of the paper builds upon the corpus results and examines the implications for the standard claims concerning these constructions. First, pairs of sentences related by the subject-to-subject raising analysis of verbs are often viewed as equivalent. New evidence from indefinite generic subjects shows that whether an indefinite generic subject occurs in the infinitival or sentential complement construction leads to truth-conditional differences. Further implications are explored for the claim that subjects of the infinitival variant may take narrow-scope: once various confounds are controlled for, the subject of the infinitival construction is shown to most naturally take wide-scope.
The paper investigates the origins of the German/Dutch particle toch/doch) in the hope of shedding light on a puzzle with respect to doch/toch and to shed some light on two theoretical issues. The puzzle is the nearly opposite meaning of the stressed and unstressed versions of the particle which cannot be accounted for in standard theories of the meaning of stress. One theoretical issue concerns the meaning of stress: whether it is possible to reduce the semantic contribution of a stressed item to the meaning of the item and the meaning of stress. The second issue is whether the complex use of a particle like doch/toch can be seen as an instance of spread or whether it has to be seen as having a core meaning which is differentiated by pragmatics operating in different contexts.
We use the etymology of doch and doch as to+u+h (that+ question marker+ emphatic marker) to argue for an origin as a question tag checking a hearer opinion. Stress on the tag indicates an opposite opinion (of the common ground or the speaker) and this sets apart two groups of uses spreading in different directions. This solves the puzzle, indicates that the assumption of spread is useful and offers a subtle correction of the interpretation of stress. While stress always means contrast with a contrasting item, if the particle use is due to spread, it is not guaranteed that the unstressed particle has a corresponding use (or inversely).
This paper examines four German transportation verbs with the prefix weg-, concentrating on their syntax and their semantic and pragmatic interpretations. The empirical data investigated are from across-linguistic Corpus of German and Brazilian Portuguese as foreign languages. The analysis is based on the concept of focus, which is defined as a point on the path along which the patient of the process moves. The focus must be either mentioned or contextually evident. Each transportation verb will be able to establish a typical focus. German prefix-verbs with weg- are characterized by a focus-conflict that can be resolved through different interpretation strategies.
Aufgrund ihres spezifischen Verhaltens stellen Numeralia häufig ein Problem für die Wortartenklassifikation dar: Einerseits stimmen sie in Kernaspekten ihrer Bedeutung überein - alle Numeralia referieren wesentlich auf Zahlen -, andererseits bestehen zwischen den einzelnen Numeralklassen trotz enger lexikalisch-phonologischer Zusammengehörigkeit zum Teil große morpho-syntaktische Diskrepanzen. Es gibt im wesentlichen zwei Möglichkeiten, diesem Problem zu begegnen: Entweder nimmt man eine spezifische Wortart „Numeralia“ für diese Lexeme an, oder man subsumiert die einzelnen Numeralklassen unter verschiedene andere Wortarten. Beide Ansätze sind letztlich etwas unbefriedigend. Klassifiziert man Numeralia aufgrund morpho-syntaktischer Merkmale als Elemente unterschiedlicher Wortarten, so scheint der enge Zusammenhang der verschiedenen Numeralklassen nicht genügend berücksichtigt zu werden. Im anderen Fall, bei der Postulation einer eigenen Wortart, wird dagegen die morphosyntaktische Heterogenität von Numeralia kaum erfaßt. Aufgrund des charakteristischen Aufbaus von Numeralsequenzen ist darüber hinaus die Anzahl der Elemente einer solchen Wortart möglicherweise stark reduziert: Anders als andere Ausdrücke bilden Numeralia eine Reihe, deren Elemente eng auf einander bezogen sind; höhere Elemente bauen auf niedrigeren auf und erlangen ihre Bedeutung wesentlich erst durch diese. Man könnte daher argumentieren, daß Elemente einer Numeralklasse, beispielsweise die Kardinalia, keine Menge, sondern nur ein (komplexes) Element bilden, nämlich die Sequenz „ein-, zwei, drei,...“. Eine eigenständige Wortart „Kardinalia“, wie etwa Schmid (1987) sie vorschlägt, hätte dann streng genommen nur ein einziges Element.
Sprachvermögen und Zahlbegriff : zur Rolle der Sprache für die Entwicklung numerischer Kognition
(2004)
In welchem Zusammenhang stehen Sprache und Zahl als kognitive Domänen? Welche Rolle spielt das menschliche Sprachvermögen für die Entwicklung des Zahlbegriffs? In den letzten Jahrzehnten haben verschiedene Disziplinen aus dem Gebiet der Kognitionswissenschaft – darunter Psycholinguistik, Entwicklungspsychologie, Ethologie und kognitive Neurowissenschaft – wesentlich zu unserem Verständnis der Beziehung zwischen Sprache und numerischer Kognition beigetragen. Die unterschiedlichen Ergebnisse liefern Evidenz für eng verknüpfte ebenso wie für autonome Bereiche in den beiden Domänen.