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Next Homework: 8.1, 8.9, 8.10 due on Monday after the break (April 3rd)
Announcements: Semantics quiz in class on Wednesday, April 5th
Quiz review session to be held Tuesday, April 4th 6-7 pm, in Emerson 101
1. Conservativity
Therefore, whenever you see set B mentioned in the meaning description of a quantificational
determiner, it actually refers to A ∩ B, not the whole set B. Conservativity is shared by all natural
language determiners.
e.g.)
(1) every (A)(B) = 1 iff A⊆B (in other words, (A ∩ B) = A )
(2) no (A)(B) = 1 iff (A ∩ B) = ∅
(3) some (A)(B) =1 iff (A ∩ B) ≠ ∅
(4) at least n (A)(B) = 1 iff | A ∩ B| ≥ n
(5) at most n (A)(B) = 1 iff | A ∩ B| ≤ n
(6) most (A)(B) = 1 iff | A ∩ B| > 1/2 |A|
(7) exactly n (A)(B) = 1 iff | A ∩ B| = n
(8) both (A)(B) = 1 iff | A | = 2 & A ⊆ B (i.e. | A | = 2 & (A ∩ B) = A)
(9) neither (A)(B) = 1 iff | A | = 2 & (A ∩ B) = ∅
- a proposition p and a proposition q are equivalent iff p and q have exactly same truth-conditions.
- in other words, for p and q to be equivalent, (i) p must entail q and (ii) q must entail p.
(10a) and (10b) are equivalent (i.e. (10a) entails (10b) and (10b) entails (10a)). Therefore, ‘every’ is a
conservative determiner.
(11a) and (1b) are equivalent (i.e. (11a) entails (11b) and (11b) entails (11a)). Therefore, ‘no’ is a
conservative determiner.
1
Exercise) Let’s invent a hypothetical determiner: nevery
To take a concrete example, let’s assume A = the set of triangles and B = the set of things which have
stripes. For nevery to be conservative, [ nevery (A)(B) ] and [ nevery (A)(A∩B) ] must be equivalent.
Is this the case? Suppose we have the following two sentences.
(13) Nevery [[triangle]] [[is a triangle which has stripes]]. (= nevery (A) (A∩B))
: in plain English, this means “Everything which is not a triangle is a triangle which has stripes”.
Are (12) and (13) equivalent? NO! Note that for two propositions to be equivalent, the two
propositions must entail each other. In this case, (13) entails (12)1 but not vice versa. Therefore, (12)
and (13) are NOT equivalent. nevery is NOT conservative. A determiner with the meaning of nevery
given here cannot exist in natural languages.
Exercise) Which of the following determiners is decreasing: some and at most three?
Construct examples to show your point.
1
Because (13) is a contradiction, which is supposed to entail every proposition.
2
• Negative Polarity Item Licensing
- An NPI may be licensed by a c-commanding lexical item that has the decreasing property.
Q2: Does this NPI-licensor have the decreasing property (as predicted by our theory)?
Construct examples to defend your answer.
3. Scope Ambiguity
Paraphrase 1
(17) There are two students who talked to every professor.
Paraphrase 2
(18) For every professor, there are two students who talked to him or her.
This way, sentence (16), which contains more than one quantified expression, is semantically
ambiguous. In accordance with our general strategy to capture semantic ambiguity, let us consider if
there is any way to represent the semantic ambiguity of sentence (16) in terms of structural ambiguity.
One of the strategies that are often adopted in the literature is an operation called Quantifier Raising
(QR for short), which moves the lower quantifier up above the higher one covertly.
These two representations are called Logical Form (LF for short), which is the input to the component
for semantic interpretation.
3
Which LF representation yields which reading? We need a principle of semantic interpretation.
(21) When a quantified expression X c-commands another quantified expression Y at LF, X takes
scope over Y.
Of the two quantified expressions, the one that takes scope over the other plays a role of “sorting key”
in the interpretation, as seen in (17) and (18).
Thus, LF (19) yields the reading paraphrased in (17) and LF (20) the reading paraphrased in (18).
There are names to refer to the two LF representations such as those in (19) and (20).
Surface Scope
(22) Surface scope is the relative scope relation of two quantified expressions that obtain
from LF where QR did not apply and the surface c-commanding relation between the two
quantified expressions are carried over to LF.
Inverse Scope
(23) Inverse scope is the relative scope relation of two quantified expressions that obtain from LF
where the lower quantified expression underwent QR to a position from which it c-commands
what used to be the higher one.
Exercise
Consider the truth conditions of the following sentences and draw LF representations that yield the
relevant readings. Also consider how far quantified expressions can undergo QR as well as what kind
of expressions can undergo QR.