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Unscrambling the lexical nature of weak definites

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Abstract

This volume brings together studies in the domain of weak referentiality, the phenomenon that a definite or indefinite noun phrase lacks its usual referential force. Several papers investigate syntactic or semantic properties of indefinite noun phrases, such as modality, number neutrality, narrow scope, incorporation, predication, and case marking, and that in a range of languages (Arabic, Brazilian Portuguese, Catalan, German, Papiamentu, Russian). Other papers deal with weakly referential definite noun phrases in various languages (Basque, Dutch, English, French) involving scrambling, modification, possession, and accessibility. The papers demonstrate a range of empirical methods and theoretical models. This volume will not only be of interest to researchers and students in syntax and semantics, but also in psycholinguistics and language typology.

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... 'that I still have to take a piss.' (van der Does & de Hoop, 1998: 396) Since the scrambled definite object in (2b) is not interpreted as familiar, anaphoric, or topical in the discourse, van der Does & de Hoop conclude that scrambling is not obligatory, nor prohibited, for definite objects by any property of the object or of the general context. Further evidence for this view is provided by a sentence judgment task in de Swart & van Bergen (2014). Participants rated sentences with a definite object and a temporal adverb on a 7-point scale. ...
... Each condition was represented by seven sentences per list. Each list contained 56 fillers most of which were taken and adjusted from the experiment in de Swart & van Bergen (2014). Fillers consisted of transitive and ditransitive sentences without adverbs. ...
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It has often been observed in the literature that when a language allows for scrambling definite noun phrases may freely scramble whereas indefinites are subject to certain restrictions. Many have assumed that scrambling is related to the structure of the surrounding discourse such that familiar or topical (anaphoric) noun phrases must scramble whereas new or non-topical (non-anaphoric) are not allowed to scramble. We will show, however, that in similar discourse configurations certain indefinites are not allowed to scramble, whereas definites freely scramble. We account for the difference in scrambling behaviour between definites and indefinites within a version of what might be called Optimality Theoretic Semantics (OTS). Our version of OTS gives a new twist to the strategy of Partee and Rooth (1983) to assign NPs a preferred type-often the simplest type possible-by using the preferences to phrase soft constraints. In this way one obtains a means to judge correct type-theoretic derivations as more or less optimal, and to vary the grammaticality judgment of the output accordingly. This is in stark contrast with the older strategy, where the output of correct derivations on the basis of unpreferred types would still be judged grammatical. More in particular our explanation of scrambling behaviour will be along the following lines. Different types of NPs come with different basic word orders, a variation which is consistent with the frequency of use of these constructions. Deviation of basic word order yields a shift in meaning. Definites, unlike indefinites, allow for an interpretation in the scrambled and in the unscrambled position without change of meaning. Accordingly, scrambling of definites is truly optional. Scrambled indefinites, on the other hand, are either infelicitous or may induce a change in interpretation; they cannot be optional. This is especially clear for inputs consisting of an (indefinite with a light verb. Then, definites are free to scramble, whereas indefinites cannot scramble. We show how the interpretive tendencies that arise with scrambling can be modelled using a notion of optimal derivation, phrased in terms of the preferred types of (in)definites and verbs. Two appendices provide the technical details of the semantic insight on which our approach is based.
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Chapter
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Weak definite NPs do not presuppose the existence of uniquely identifiable entities. In addition, they display a range of other peculiar properties such as sloppy readings in VPs ellipsis, narrow scope interpretations, lexical restrictions and enriched meaning. In order to account for these, in this paper we analyze weak definites as expressions that refer to the same sort of kind individuals that definite generics refer to. We propose that the combination of weak definites with object- level predicates is made possible by a lexical rule that lifts object-level relations to ‘enriched’ kind-level relations.
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