Semantic Plurality

Semantic Plurality
Author: Laure Gardelle
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Total Pages: 227
Release: 2019-11-07
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027261741

This monograph proposes a comparative approach to all the ways of denoting ‘more than one’ entity, from collective and aggregate nouns (with the first-ever typology), to count plurals, partly substantivised adjectives and conjoined NPs. This semantic feature approach to plurality, which cuts across number, the count/non-count distinction, and lexical/NP levels, reveals a very consistent Scale of Unit Integration, which establishes clear-cut boundaries for collective nouns, and accommodates cases such as three elephant, cattle or a chain of islands. The study also offers a refined understanding of aggregate nouns (a category nearly as large as that of collective nouns) and quantification in pseudo-partitives, develops Guillaume’s notion of ‘internal plurality’, and proposes the innovative concept of ‘hyperonyms of plural classes’ (e.g. furniture). The Animacy Hierarchy is also found to be influential, beyond hybrid agreement. The book aims to be accessible to scholars of any theoretical background interested in these topics.

The Cambridge Handbook of Formal Semantics

The Cambridge Handbook of Formal Semantics
Author: Maria Aloni
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 1239
Release: 2016-07-07
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 131655273X

Formal semantics - the scientific study of meaning in natural language - is one of the most fundamental and long-established areas of linguistics. This Handbook offers a comprehensive, yet compact guide to the field, bringing together research from a wide range of world-leading experts. Chapters include coverage of the historical context and foundation of contemporary formal semantics, a survey of the variety of formal/logical approaches to linguistic meaning and an overview of the major areas of research within current semantic theory, broadly conceived. The Handbook also explores the interfaces between semantics and neighbouring disciplines, including research in cognition and computation. This work will be essential reading for students and researchers working in linguistics, philosophy, psychology and computer science.

Plurality, Conjunction and Events

Plurality, Conjunction and Events
Author: P. Lasersohn
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 319
Release: 2013-03-09
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9401585814

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.

Non-definiteness and Plurality

Non-definiteness and Plurality
Author: Svetlana Vogeleer
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 369
Release: 2006-11-08
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027293171

This collection of studies by leading scholars in the field focuses on the semantics of non-definite (bare and indefinite) plural NPs. The contributions in the first part concentrate on bare plurals and their cross-linguistic counterparts. They discuss applicability of the notion of ‘semantic incorporation’ to bare plurals by contrasting them to bare singulars, with the aim of accounting for the interaction between the semantics of number and the degree of (in)dependency of the NP with respect to the verb. The articles in the second part examine the relationship between the semantics of number and the semantics of aspect. The contributions in the third part concentrate on non-definite numerical noun phrases by addressing a range of fundamental questions such as: the semantics of indefinite time-phrases, numericals in classifier- and non-classifier languages, scope interactions, the at least- and exactly-readings, referential properties of numericals. The volume will be welcomed by linguists interested in the semantics of number in non-definite NPs.

Non-definiteness and Plurality

Non-definiteness and Plurality
Author: Svetlana Vogeleer
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 367
Release: 2006-01-01
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027233594

This collection of studies by leading scholars in the field focuses on the semantics of non-definite (bare and indefinite) plural NPs. The contributions in the first part concentrate on bare plurals and their cross-linguistic counterparts. They discuss applicability of the notion of 'semantic incorporation' to bare plurals by contrasting them to bare singulars, with the aim of accounting for the interaction between the semantics of number and the degree of (in)dependency of the NP with respect to the verb. The articles in the second part examine the relationship between the semantics of number and the semantics of aspect. The contributions in the third part concentrate on non-definite numerical noun phrases by addressing a range of fundamental questions such as: the semantics of indefinite time-phrases, numericals in classifier- and non-classifier languages, scope interactions, the at least- and exactly-readings, referential properties of numericals. The volume will be welcomed by linguists interested in the semantics of number in non-definite NPs.

Unity and Plurality

Unity and Plurality
Author: Massimiliano Carrara
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 276
Release: 2016
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 019871632X

Unity and Plurality presents novel ways of thinking about plurality while casting new light on the interconnections among the logical, philosophical, and linguistic aspects of plurals. The volume brings together new work on the logic and ontology of plurality and on the semantics of plurals in natural language. Plural reference, the view that definite plurals such as 'the students' refer to several entities at once (the individual students), is an approach favoured by logicians and philosophers, who take sentences with plurals ('the students gathered') not to be committed to entities beyond individuals, entities such as classes, sums, or sets. By contrast, linguistic semantics has been dominated by a singularist approach to plurals, taking the semantic value of a definite plural such as 'the students' to be a mereological sum or set. Moreover, semantics has been dominated by a particular ontological view of plurality, that of extensional mereology. This volume aims to build a bridge between the two traditions and to show the fruitfulness of nonstandard mereological approaches. A team of leading experts investigates new perspectives that arise from plural logic and non-standard mereology and explore novel applications to natural language phenomena.

Lexical Plurals

Lexical Plurals
Author: Paolo Acquaviva
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 311
Release: 2008-03-06
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0191538620

This book explores the wide variety of cases in which the plural of nouns is lexical. When a plural is lexicalized it becomes part of what it is to know a certain word: pence, for example, is lexical because it means a plurality of a certain kind - a multiple value, not a set of physical objects like pennies - and knowing this reading is knowing the word. Languages exhibit countless examples of similar word-dependent irregularities in the form and meaning of plural, but these have never been analyzed in depth from a unified perspective. Dr Acquaviva aims to do just that, using analytic tools from formal semantics and theoretical morphology to shed light on the relation between grammar and the lexicon. After an introduction setting out his approach he divides the book into two parts. The first gives a structured description of the ways plurality can be lexicalized with an emphasis on description and categorization. The second analyzes in depth different types of lexical plurals in Italian, Irish, Arabic and Breton. A final chapter spells out the theoretical consequences for the analysis of the lexicon. The book is unusual in combining a broad typological classification with a unified morphological and semantic analysis based on a formal framework.

Events and Grammar

Events and Grammar
Author: Susan Rothstein
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 404
Release: 2001-11-30
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9781402002892

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.

Theoretical and Crosslinguistic Approaches to the Semantics of Aspect

Theoretical and Crosslinguistic Approaches to the Semantics of Aspect
Author: Susan D. Rothstein
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 466
Release: 2008-03-20
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027291586

The papers in this volume investigate the semantics of aspect from both a theoretical and a crosslinguistic point of view, in a wide range of languages from a number of different language families. The papers are all informed by the belief that a thorough exposure to the expression of aspect crosslinguistically is crucial for progress in understanding how the semantics of aspect works and what the semantic basis of aspectual distinctions is. The languages discussed include Russian, English, Dutch, Hebrew, Mandarin, Japanese and Kalaallisut. The issues discussed in this volume include the centrality of measuring and counting in an understanding of telicity; the importance of the singular/plural distinction in the study of aspect; the importance of homogeneity as a property of event types; the flexibility of lexical classes; and the interaction between expressions of aspect and the particular morphosyntactic structure of a language.