Plurality, Conjunction and Events
Plurality, Conjunction and Events

Author: P. Lasersohn

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2013-03-09

Total Pages: 319

ISBN-13: 9401585814

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Plurality, Conjunction and Events presents a novel theory of plural and conjoined phrases, in an event-based semantic framework. It begins by reviewing options for treating the alternation between `collective' and `distributive' readings of sentences containing plural or conjoined noun phrases, including analyses from both the modern and the premodern literature. It is argued that plural and conjoined noun phrases are unambiguously group-denoting, and that the collective/distributive distinction therefore must be located in the predicates with which these noun phrases combine. More specifically, predicates must have a hidden argument place for events; the collective/distributive distinction may then be represented in the part/whole structure of these events. This allows a natural treatment of `collectivizing' adverbial expressions, and of `pluractional' affixes; it also allows a unified semantics for conjunction, in which conjoined sentences and predicates denote groups of events, much like conjoined noun phrases denote groups of individuals.

Events and Plurality
Events and Plurality

Author: Fred Landman

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 397

ISBN-13: 9401143595

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JERUSALEM LECTURES In 1992, I was a Lady Davis Fellow in the English Department at the Hebrew Univer sity of Jerusalem. In the context of this, Edit Doron asked me to present a series of weekly evening lectures. The idea was that I would be talking about my own current research on plurality in an event based theory, without the restraints that a nonnal seminar fonnat would im pose: i.e. the idea was that I would actually get to the part where I would talk about my own work. At the same time, Edit added, it would be nice if, rather than just presupposing or presenting a neo-Davidsonian framework to develop my analysis of plurality, I could provide a more general setting of the problems by discussing in some depth the archi tecture of event arguments and thematic roles. In particular, Terry Parsons' book, Par sons 1990, had appeared relatively recently, and there was real interest among the audience in discussing Parsons' arguments for events and roles.

Events and Grammar
Events and Grammar

Author: Susan Rothstein

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2013-12-01

Total Pages: 382

ISBN-13: 9401139695

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This volume covers a broad spectrum of research into the role of events in grammar. It addresses event arguments and thematic argument structure, the role of events in verbal aspectual distinctions, events and the distinction between stage and individual level predicates, and the role of events in the analysis of plurality and scope relations. It is of interest to scholars and students of theoretical linguistics, philosophers of language, computational linguists, and computer scientists.

Plurality and Quantification
Plurality and Quantification

Author: F. Hamm

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2013-03-14

Total Pages: 386

ISBN-13: 9401727066

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The papers in this volume address central issues in the study of Plurality and Quantification from three different perspectives: • Algebraic approaches to Plurals and Quantification • Distributivity and Collectivity: Theoretical Foundations • Distributivity and Collectivity: Empirical Investigations Algebraic approaches to the semantics of natural languages were in dependently introduced for the study of generalized quantification, pred ication, intensionality, mass terms and plurality. The most prominent modern advocate for an algebraic theory of plurality (and mass terms) is certainly Godehard Link. It is indicative of the Wirkungsgeschichte of Link's work that most of the contributions in this volume take the logic of plurals proposed by Godehard Link (Link 1983, 1987) as their foundation or, at the very least, as their point of reference. Link's own paper in this volume provides a concise summary of many of the central research issues that have engaged semanticists during the last decade. Link's paper also contains an extensive bibliography that provides an excellent resource for scholars interested in the semantics of plurals. Since we can refer readers to Link's paper for an excellent survey of the subject matter of this book, we will limit our attention in this in troduction to summarizing the individual contributions in this volume. The book is organized into three main sections; within each section the papers are ordered alphabetically. However, as in much of linguistic the orizing, there is an exception: for reasons pointed out above, Godehard Link's article appears as Chapter 1.

Plurals and Events
Plurals and Events

Author: Barry Schein

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 1993

Total Pages: 412

ISBN-13: 9780262193344

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Barry Schein proposes combining a second-order treatment of plurals with Donald Davidson's suggestion that there are positions for reference to events in ordinary predicates in order to account for several of the more puzzling features of plurals without invoking plural objects, with its attendant metaphysics, and also provide an absolute truth-theoretic characterization of the semantics of sentences with plurals in them. How do we make sense of sentences with plural noun phrases in them? In Plurals and Events, Barry Schein proposes combining a second-order treatment of plurals with Donald Davidson's suggestion that there are positions for reference to events in ordinary predicates in order to account for several of the more puzzling features of plurals without invoking plural objects, with its attendant metaphysics, and also provide an absolute truth-theoretic characterization of the semantics of sentences with plurals in them. Schein's highly original argument should have significant impact on how natural-language semantics is done, with repercussions for philosophy and logic. The book opens with foundational arguments that the logical language should have four major features: reduction to singular predication via a Davidsonian logical form, amereology of events, a logical syntax that allows the constituents of a Davidsonian analysis to be predicated of distinct events and separated from one another by other logical elements, and descriptive anaphors that cross-refer to the events described by antecedent clauses. A semantics for plurality and quantification is developed in the remaining chapters, which address some of the empirical and formal questions raised by the variety of interpretations in which plurals and quantifiers participate.

Plural Logic
Plural Logic

Author: Alex Oliver

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 399

ISBN-13: 0198744382

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Alex Oliver and Timothy Smiley provide a new account of plural logic. They argue that there is such a thing as genuinely plural denotation in logic, and expound a framework of ideas that includes the distinction between distributive and collective predicates, the theory of plural descriptions, multivalued functions, and lists.

Event Structures in Linguistic Form and Interpretation
Event Structures in Linguistic Form and Interpretation

Author: Johannes Dölling

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter

Published: 2013-12-06

Total Pages: 556

ISBN-13: 3110925443

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This volume addresses the problem of how language expresses conceptual information on event structures and how such information can be reconstructed in the interpretation process. The papers present important new insights into recent semantic and syntactic research on the topic. The volume deals with the following problems in detail: event structure and syntactic construction, event structure and modification, event structure and plurality, event structure and temporal relation, event structure and situation aspect, and event structure and language ontology. Importantly, the topic is discussed not only on the basis of English and German but on the basis of other languages including Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, and Igbo as well. This volume thus provides solid evidence towards clarifying the empirical use of event based analyses.

Verbal Plurality and Distributivity
Verbal Plurality and Distributivity

Author: Patricia Cabredo Hofherr

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter

Published: 2012-10-01

Total Pages: 236

ISBN-13: 3110293501

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This volume brings together novel analyses of verbal plurality and distributivity. The contributions draw on a wide range of new empirical data from languages as diverse as Arabic, Cusco Quechua, European Portuguese, Hausa, Karitiana, Modern Hebrew and Russian. The introductory chapter gives an overview of the central issues that underlie much recent research on the semantics of event plurality. The papers on verbal plurality explore the interaction between verbal plurality and plural arguments in Arabic and European Portuguese, the semantics of additive particles in Modern Hebrew, the semantics of a range of pluractional markers in Cusco Quechua and the morphological variability of pluractional markers cross-linguistically. The papers on distributivity examine the syntax and semantics of reduplicated numerals in Karitiana and adnominal distributive markers. This volume will be of interest to researchers and students in syntax, formal semantics, and language typology.

Event Arguments: Foundations and Applications
Event Arguments: Foundations and Applications

Author: Claudia Maienborn

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter

Published: 2011-12-22

Total Pages: 377

ISBN-13: 3110913798

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Since entering the stage, Davidsonian event arguments have taken on a central role in linguistic theorizing. Recent years have seen a continuous extension of possible applications for them, not only in semantics but also in syntax. At the same time questions concerning the ontological status of events have received renewed attention. This collection of articles provides new evidence for the virtually ubiquitous presence of event arguments in linguistic structure and sheds new light on their nature. The volume is organized into four sections: Events - states - causation; Event nominals; Events in composition; Measuring events.