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Genitives - A case study. Appendix to Theo M.V. Janssen: Compositionality
... I propose that the ambiguity of sentences with 2-place NP-CQs follows from the fact that relational nouns, just like transitive verbs, can occur as either transitive (2-place: \e\e,t[ [) or intransitive (1-place: \e,t[) predicates (cf. Barker 1995; Partee 1983 Partee /1997), with the first type generating pair-list readings and the second set readings. The account of quantified CQs I propose is cast within the 'individual concept' approach (henceforth, IC-approach). ...
... I propose that the ambiguity of sentences with 2-place NP-CQs follows from the fact that relational nouns, just like transitive verbs, can occur as either transitive (2-place: \e\e,t[ [) or intransitive (1-place: \e,t[) predicates (cf. Barker 1995; Partee 1983 Partee /1997), with the first type generating pair-list readings and the second set readings. The account of quantified CQs I propose is cast within the 'individual concept' approach (henceforth, IC-approach). ...
... It is well known (cf. Barker 1995; Partee 1983 Partee /1997, a.o.) that relational nouns, like transitive verbs, do not necessarily require their internal argument to be overtly expressed. In the same way, one could leave the object of the verb ate unexpressed in (51), and there is no need to specify the internal argument of the relational noun enemy in (52). ...
This paper presents a novel treatment of quantified concealed questions (CQs), examining different types of NP predicates and deriving the truth conditions for pair-list and set readings. A generalization is proposed regarding the distribution of the two readings, namely that pair-list readings arise from CQs with relational head nouns, whereas set readings arise from CQs whose head nouns are not (or no longer) relational. It is shown that set readings cannot be derived under the ‘individual concept’ approach, one of the most influential analyses of CQs on the market. The paper offers a solution to this problem. It shows that once we adopt an independently motivated view of traces—according to which traces are copies with descriptive content (Fox, Linguist Inq 30:157–196, 1999; Fox, Linguist Inq 33:63–96, 2002)—nothing else needs to be postulated to derive set readings within an individual-concept-based analysis. Thus, what seemed to be a challenge for this type of analysis turns out to be an argument in its favor.
... Barker (2011) refers to such unspecified association between the possessor and the possessed as 'pragmatic', while Partee and Borschev (1998) call it a 'free' reading. Following Higginbotham (1983), Partee (1997), Partee andBorschev (1998, 2003), Kathol (2002), Nikolaeva and Spencer (2012), Ackerman and Nikolaeva (2013) and others, this vacuous possessive relation will be symbolized here as the semantically empty predicate R, so that the meaning of e.g. John's house can roughly be represented as lx.R(John, x)^house (x). ...
... Barker (2011) refers to such unspecified association between the possessor and the possessed as 'pragmatic', while Partee and Borschev (1998) call it a 'free' reading. Following Higginbotham (1983), Partee (1997), Partee andBorschev (1998, 2003), Kathol (2002), Nikolaeva and Spencer (2012), Ackerman and Nikolaeva (2013) and others, this vacuous possessive relation will be symbolized here as the semantically empty predicate R, so that the meaning of e.g. John's house can roughly be represented as lx.R(John, x)^house (x). ...
... that Tanaka wrote [1,87]. In view of such ambiguity, [4] assumes two syntactic types for John's depending on whether or not the following noun is inherently relational. If the following noun is a non-relational common noun (CN) such as car, John's composes with car which is regular (et) type, and the relation between John and car is contextually supplied (1a). ...
... The use of the operator follows its use for Japanese nouns in [2]. (4) boshi "hat": x.hat (x) : some x satisfying hat'(x), if there is one hito "person": ιy.person (y): the unique x satisfying person'(x), if there is such a thing ...
This paper proposes the elaboration of the qualia structure of the Generative Lexicon in [5] and the Extended Generative Lexicon theory [3]. My proposal is based on the Japanese genitive postposition no. The Japanese "NP1-no NP2" construction expresses a wider range of relations between two entities than does the English possessive "NP1's NP2," such that the Pustejovskian qualia roles encoded in NP2 do not supply the necessary relations between two entities, which [7] succeeded to certain degree. Possessive relation disambiguation requires enriching lexical entries by incorporating the HAVE relation into the CONSTITUTIVE role and listing other qualia such as the ACTIVITY and the SPATIO-TEMPORAL role with the subcategories of LOCATION and TIME.
... To capture the "aboutness" relation that holds between the gapless topic and the reminder of the clause, I propose that it can be accommodated by the logical form, extending Higginbotham (1983) and Partee's (1983Partee's ( /1997) treatment of possessives (see also Williams 1985). In particular, a free variable over relations, R, to nominals is postulated, and meiguihua 'roses' in (77) (78b) states that flowers have the property of being an x such that I like roses and roses are related in the R-way to x. ...
This dissertation is a theoretical investigation of wh-fronting phenomena in Mandarin couched in the Principles-and-Parameters (P&P) framework, and its recent developments within the Minimalist Program. Specifically, two constructions involving wh-fronting are investigated, including preposed wh-questions, and the parasitic gap (PG) construction. Close examination of their distributional patterns, interpretive, and syntactic properties reveals that they are best-analyzed as a type of contrastive focus construction, refuting the prevalent view that wh-fronting should be treated as an
instance of “wh-topicalization” with the pre-clausal wh-phrase either base-generated or moved to SPEC-Top (Xu & Langendoen 1985, Tang 1988, Li 1996, Wu 1999, Kuong 2006, Pan 2006, inter alia). Such a proposal is further supported by the distinctive morphological, syntactic, and semantic properties of topics and contrastive foci in the language. A desirable consequence of this proposal is that wh-fronting in Mandarin need not be viewed as a language-specific phenomenon nor should its coexistence with in-situ wh-questions be surprising, since the coexistence of contrastive focus constructions, such as clefted questions, and simple wh-questions, is very common crosslinguistically (Kiss 1998).
With respect to the syntax of wh-fronting, a specific question addressed in this dissertation is whether overt movement obligatorily applies to the wh-phrase bearing contrastive focus in Mandarin. Two different approaches have been proposed for it-clefts in English: the null operator movement and overt movement analyses advanced by Chomsky (1977) (see also Kiss 1998). It is argued that both strategies are independently motivated to accommodate the fact that wh-arguments in preposed wh-questions may undergo movement or employ operator movement, depending on the availability of an intrusive pronoun. Additionally, it proposes that PP wh-phrases and the wh-adverbial weishenme ‘why’ uniformly undergo overt movement to SPEC-Foc in preposed wh-questions. A typology of contrastive focus constructions is advanced accordingly, advocating that overt movement and null operator movement should be licensing mechanisms available to contrastive focus constructions in Universal Grammar (UG). The typology put forth in this dissertation also gains support from the PG construction, which crucially relies on overt movement to derive the licensing gap, and null operator movement to derive the parasitic gap.
... Assuming that syntax and semantics run in parallel from the bottom to top, three (sets of) times are potentially involved in the temporal interpretation of noun phrases: (i) the time of the predicate (or predication time), that is, the times at which a property like 'dog' or 'president' is asserted to hold of an individual, (ii) the time of the genitive/possessive relation 'R' (Higginbotham, 1983b; Partee, 1983), and (iii) the time of (existence of) the individual 12 . The corresponding syntactic domains are NP, n*P and DP, respectively. ...
It has been shown that, at least in certain languages, tense is represented in nominals (Lecarme, 1996, 2004). It is therefore
important to consider whether the interplay between tense and modality which is commonly found in clauses exists in the nominal
domain as well. This article investigates the non-temporal meanings of nominal tenses in Somali, an Afroasiatic language.
It explores the conditions under which nominal past morphology is interpreted in the modal dimension, contributing either
a quantificational reading of the past DP (comparable to English -ever in e.g., ‘whenever’) or an evidential reading focusing on the visible / non-visible distinction. It is argued that the common
abstract feature underlying the various meanings of past morphology in nominals is a more primitive feature of “exclusion/dissociation”
(Iatridou, 2000). To account for the link between direct evidentiality and visual perception in nominals, it is proposed to
extend Kratzer’s (1981, 1991) theory of ‘doubly relative’ modality to include a perceptual component. In this revised framework,
past morphology gives rise to ‘non-actual’, ‘unknown’ or ‘invisible’ modal meanings, depending on different choices of modal
base and ordering source.
... In view of such ambiguity, Partee (1997) assumes two syntactic types for John's depending on whether or not the following noun is inherently relational. If the following noun is a non-relational common noun (CN) such as car, John's composes with car which is regular (et) type, and the relation between John and car is contextually supplied (1a). ...
Heim [9] notes certain restrictions on quantifier intervention in comparatives and proposes an LF-constraint to account for
this. I show that these restrictions are identical to constraints on intervention in wh-questions widely discussed under the heading of weak islands. I also show that Heim’s proposal is too restrictive: existential quantifiers can intervene. Both of these facts follow from
the algebraic semantic theory of weak islands in Szabolcsi & Zwarts [25], which assigns different algebraic structures to
amounts and counting expressions. This theory also makes novel predictions about the interaction of degree operators with
conjunction and disjunction, which I show to be correct. Issues involving modal interveners [9], interval semantics for degrees
[23,1], and density [4] are also considered.
... In view of such ambiguity, Partee (1997) assumes two syntactic types for John's depending on whether or not the following noun is inherently relational. If the following noun is a non-relational common noun (CN) such as car, John's composes with car which is regular (et) type, and the relation between John and car is contextually supplied (1a). ...
We propose an analysis of extraction in the Lambek-Grishin calculus (LG): a categorial type logic featuring subtractions A ⊘ B and B
A, with proof-theoretic behavior dual to that of the usual implications A/B, B \ A. Our analysis rests on three pillars: Moortgat’s discontinuous type constructors [6]; their decomposition in LG as proposed by Bernardi and Moortgat [1]; and the polarity-sensitive double negation translations of [3] and [5], inspiring the Montagovian semantics of our analysis. Characteristic of the latter is the use of logical constants for existential quantification and identity to identify the extracted argument with its associated gap.
The possessive construction in Mandarin is similar to English prenominal possessives except that maximality is presupposed only for cases involving inherently relational nouns. In this paper, I adopt the hypothesized split of argument and modifier genitives proposed by Partee & Borschev ( 2001 , 2003 ) and argue that modifier-genitives can occur NP-internally in Mandarin possessives, whose appearance is restricted to cases with non-relational nouns. The discrepancy of the maximality presupposition observed in Mandarin can thus be captured since non-relational nouns can have a split of interpretations between argument and modifier genitives, resulting in a non-maximality reading.
In this paper I argue that the definiteness marking function of the possessive suffix of some Uralic languages is not the outcome of a grammaticalization pathway but has always been inherent to them. The possessive suffix has thus two main functions: establishing a relation between entities or a relation between an entity and the discourse and indicating the definiteness of the referent of the marked noun. The interpretation of the suffix as a marker of definiteness or a marker of possession depends on the conceptual noun type of the marked noun and on the context.
This paper presents the preliminary annotation guidelines and the results of the first empirical investigation of Löbner’s (Journal of Semantics 28(3): 279–333, 2011) semantic distinction of four basic conceptual noun types (sortal, relational, functional, and individual concepts). On the basis of two German fictional texts, we test the hypothesis that the concept types are more frequently used with semantically congruent determination than with incongruent determination with respect to definiteness marking, number and possession. The proposed annotation guidelines follow a two-level approach and comprise (i) the semantic analysis of the nouns in the texts followed by (ii) the annotation of their particular grammatical uses. The results provide first empirical evidence for the distinction of the four concept types.
Within the framework of Generative Lexicon theory (GL) we address some problems which subtype coercion poses for the type theory of classical formal semantics exemplified by pre-nominal genitive constructions and the coercion of sortal nouns into relational readings in such constructions. Relational interpretations of sortal nouns in genitive constructions depend on the ontological types of the referents of the two nominal expressions in these constructions and the way in which they interact. We propose to deal with ontological subtypes in the coercion of sortal nouns in terms of higher-order lambda calculus (∧-calculus), and we demonstrate how ∧-calculus operates on complex function types derived from an ontology of basic entity types.
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