On Existential Bare Plural ‘Subjects’

2005 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 29-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dalina Kallulli
Keyword(s):  
A Priori ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
External Argument ◽  
Bare Plural ◽  
Bare Plurals ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Plural Subject ◽  
Plural Subjects ◽  
Central Claim

Drawing on Strawson’s (1971) definition of the subject as performing the function of identifying the object of the speaker’s assertion and of the predicate as applying to this object without having to identify it, this article argues that being a predicate and being (part of) the focus are two ways of talking about one and the same thing, namely assertion, and not identification or presupposition. Assuming that syntax and semantics are isomorphic, the most far-reaching consequence of this view and the central claim that I make is that there are no existential bare plural subjects. What is generally and a priori taken to be an existential bare plural subject is a (wh-moved) predicate nominal. The genuine external argument in sentences with existential bare plurals in what appears to be the subject position is in fact the Davidsonian event argument. Consequently, the Extended Projection Principle (EPP) should be defined as a requirement on predication. The syntax-semantics isomorphism is emphasized as part of an attempt to show that syntactically, generic and existential bare plurals differ with respect to the D-feature: while generic bare plurals are DPs with a morphologically null D, existential bare plurals, like bare singulars, are NPs altogether lacking a D-projection.

Backgrounding and suppression of reciprocal participants

2007 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 327-408 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leila Behrens
Keyword(s):  
Reciprocal Relation ◽  
Structural Constraints ◽  
Reciprocal Relations ◽  
Modern Greek ◽  
Semantic Fields ◽  
Argument Mapping ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Plural Subject ◽  
Linguistic Approach ◽  
Plural Subjects

According to traditional wisdom, reciprocal predicates can only occur with plural subjects. This is assumed either because the reciprocal predicates in question are constructed by means of a reciprocal anaphor, which is considered as being inherently plural and hence requiring a plural antecedent, or, if there is no binding requirement, the following principle of argument mapping is implicitly assumed: all participants of a reciprocal situation need an overt realization by the same highest syntactic argument. Since a reciprocal relation minimally involves the existence of two participants, and since (in the languages considered so far) the highest syntactic argument is the subject, this mapping principle leads to the idea that the subjects of reciprocal predicates should be confined to plural or conjoined phrases. In this paper, I will show that this principle turns out to be unrealistically strong, once real discourse data are considered, in particular from a cross-linguistic perspective. Under certain structural and pragmatic conditions, participants of reciprocal relations may be backgrounded and also suppressed, with the result that, in the second case, they will lack an overt realization altogether. It will be argued that there is a typological correlation between the following three phenomena: discontinuous reciprocals (where one participant is backgrounded and hence realized as an oblique phrase), “true” singular subject reciprocals (where only one participant is realized overtly, while the other is suppressed), and plural subject reciprocals, admitting the interpretation that each individual among the subject’s referents participates in a reciprocal relation with some other (unknown or arbitrary) individual that is, however, suppressed, i.e. not referred to by the subject phrase or any other phrase in the sentence. I will present data from four languages: Hungarian, German, (Modern) Greek and Serbian/Croatian. In general, a cross-linguistic approach will be favored which considers differences and similarities at all relevant levels of description, e.g. discourse pragmatics, verbal aspect, lexical-semantic fields, interfering effects of ambiguity, etc. in addition to structural constraints in marking reciprocity.

scholarly journals As Infecções Sexualmente Transmissíveis em livros didáticos de biologia do ensino médio: uma análise de conteúdo

2021 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
pp. e43
Author(s):  
Halana Rafaela Alves da Silva ◽  
Thaís Soares da Silva ◽  
Gemilton De Freitas Mesquita ◽  
Isabella Macário Ferro Cavalcanti
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
A Priori ◽  
The Other ◽  
Ministry Of Education ◽  
Thematic Content Analysis ◽  
Biology Textbooks ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
School Books ◽  
Didactic Planning

The aim of this study was to analyze the content of STIs in the didactic collections of Biology of 2018 recommended by the National High School Textbook Program (NHSTP) of the Ministry of Education. Eight didactic collections of biology of NHSTP were selected and analyzed. The methodology of the study was thematic content analysis, with the definition of five categories a priori: location of the theme; structure and formatting; content; language and visual resources that were divided into criteria and subcriteria. The other books evaluated did not address the subject to the satisfaction, being flawed/superficial, which shows that the theme STIs can still be better explored in some biology textbooks in high school. Therefore, it is still important to encourage teachers to explore the subject better with their students, going beyond textbooks. Thus, the study concluded that most of the high school books recommended by NHSTP do not address the theme STIs effectively, generating the need for complementary didactic planning by teachers in order to broaden the debate on this subject in the classroom.

Pedagogical conditions for the development of the competence of the teacher's self-improvement

2020 ◽  
pp. 100-105
Author(s):  
Larisa V. Abdalina ◽  
Lyudmila V. Ivanova
Keyword(s):  
Personal Growth ◽  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Advanced Training ◽  
Self Development ◽  
Pedagogical Competence ◽  
Self Worth ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Growth Development ◽  
Definition Of

Based on the analysis of current scientific literature on the problems of self-improvement of the teacher, we formulated the definition of the concept "competence of self-improvement of the teacher". We considered this competence of the teacher as an important component of his vocational and pedagogical competence; we specified understanding of essence and structure of self-improvement as activity, process, result of personal growth and development of teacher acting as its competent subject, initiator. We disclosed an understanding of the essence of pedagogical conditions as an essential component of the pedagogical process, integrating into itself a certain set of measures aimed at achieving the desired goal; defined and formulated a set of external and internal pedagogical conditions, having a certain potential for influencing the development of the competence of self-improvement of the teacher in the process of intra-school advanced training. In detail, we considered the internal pedagogical conditions, the creation of which ensured the development of the competence of the teacher's self-improvement: increasing the motivation for professional and personal growth; development of the self-worth of education (self-development); strengthening the subject position. We noted important aspects of increasing motivation in the form of a productive form of self-development of a teacher; we disclosed developing possibilities of self-worth of education for formation of competence of self-improvement of teacher; we indicated the relevance of strengthening the subject position of the teacher in conditions of purposeful advanced training.

Variation between singular and plural subject-verb agreement in German: A usage-based approach

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Juliana Goschler
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Approach ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Systematic Variation ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Verb Agreement ◽  
Determining Factors ◽  
Proper Name ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Syntactic Properties ◽  
Plural Subject

AbstractAt first glance, subject-verb-agreement seems to be straightforward in German: In the case of simplex NPs, the subject always agrees with the verb syntactically in person and number. However, with coordinated NPs in subject position, there is considerable variation in usage. If both conjuncts are singular NPs, the verb may display singular agreement - as would be expected, since coordinated structures inherit their syntactic properties from their individual components - but much more frequently, the verb displays plural agreement. On the basis of the LIMAS-corpus, a one-million-word corpus of written German, I will show that there is systematic variation between the two options. Among the determining factors are the position of the verb (preceding or following the subject), the type of NP (pronoun, proper name, lexical NP) and the internal syntactic structure of the subject (coordination of full NPs vs. coordination of partial NPs sharing a determiner, and definiteness vs. indefiniteness of the coordinated parts of the subject). I will discuss the results from the perspective of usage-based approaches and argue for an integration of semantic, pragmatic, and frequency factors in any theoretical approach to grammar.

The Production of Indigeneity: Contemporary Indigenous Literature in Taiwan and Trans-cultural Inheritance

2009 ◽  
Vol 200 ◽  
pp. 1071-1087 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kuei-fen Chiu
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous People ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Binary Opposition ◽  
Indigenous Literature ◽  
Tribal Culture ◽  
Taiwanese Identity ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractThis study investigates the complicated interplay between indigenous and mainstream discourse in the production of Taiwanese indigeneity. Via the case study of Syaman Rapongan 夏曼藍波安, an indigenous writer in Taiwan known for his ethnographic portrayal of his tribal culture, I examine how the production of indigeneity in Taiwan involves not only inscription of resistance from indigenous people but also strategic exploitations of transnational legacies by different social groups as they struggle over the definition of indigeneity to formulate their own specific agendas. It is the contention of this article that the question of Taiwanese indigeneity is not just about indigenous self-representation, that is, claiming the subject position of the indigenous people and seeking to restore declining, oppressed indigenous cultural heritages. The study shows that we need to go beyond the familiar scheme of binary opposition to deal with the complexity of the question of indigeneity. The article ends with a re-theorization of the relationship between indigenous and new Taiwanese identity discourse in terms of Jacques Derrida's notion of “inheritance.”

Ergativity and Transitivity

2015 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 489-531 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen Woolford
Keyword(s):  
Type A ◽  
The Other ◽  
Direct Object ◽  
Nez Perce ◽  
External Argument ◽  
Object Shift ◽  
Shift Type ◽  
Ordinary Notion ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Definition Of

Ergative case is said to mark transitive subjects, and it is widely assumed that this is true under the ordinary definition of transitive; however, Bittner and Hale (1996) propose that ergative languages fall into two types, neither of which is based on the ordinary notion of transitivity. In one, a direct object is not necessary for ergative case: any verb with an external argument counts as transitive, following Hale and Keyser 1993 (e.g., Warlpiri). In the other, a direct object is necessary, but not sufficient: the subject gets ergative case only if the object moves out of the VP (e.g., Inuit). This article argues that Niuean, Dyirbal, and Nez Perce are also of this object shift type. A search yielded no language where ergative case is clearly governed only by ordinary transitivity; languages that do fit the stereotype have only ergative agreement. A formal account of the correlation between object shift and ergative case is proposed, under which ergative case can be used as a ‘‘last resort,’’ as one of three ways to avoid the locality violation that object shift creates.

scholarly journals IX. Memoir on the theory of the partitions of numbers. - Part VI. Partitions in two-dimensional space, to which is added an adumbration of the theory of the partitions in three-dimensional space

1912 ◽  
Vol 211 (471-483) ◽  
pp. 345-373 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Generating Function ◽  
Functional Equations ◽  
Dimensional Space ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Large Measure ◽  
Lattice Function ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Definition Of

I Resume the subject of Part V. of this Memoir by inquiring further into the generating function of the partitions of a number when the parts are placed at the nodes of an incomplete lattice, viz., of a lattice which is regular but made up of unequal rows. Such a lattice is the graph of the line partition of a number. In Part V. I arrived at the expression of the generating function in respect of a two- row lattice when the past magnitude is unrestricted. This was given in Art. 16 in the form GF ( ∞ ; a, b ) = (1) + x b +1 (a - b) / (1) (2) ... (a+1). (1) (2) ... (b). I remind the reader that the determination of the generating function, when the part magnitude is unrestricted, depends upon the determination of the associated lattice function (see Art. 5, loc . cit .). This function is assumed to be the product of an expression of known form and of another function which I termed the inner lattice function (see Art. 10, loc . cit .), and it is on the form of this function that the interest of the investigation in large measure depends. All that is known about it à priori is its numerical value when x is put equal to unity (Art. 10, loc cit . The lattice function was also exhibited as a sum of sub-lattice functions, and it was shown that the generating function, when the part magnitude is restricted, may be expressed as a linear function of them. These sub-lattice functions are intrinsically interesting, hut it will be shown in what follows that they are not of vital importance to the investigation. In fact, the difficulty of constructing them has been turned by the formation and solution of certain functional equations which lead in the first place to the required generating functions, and in the second place to an exhibition of the forms of the sub-lattice functions. To previous definitions I here add the definition of the inner lattice function when there is a restriction upon the part magnitude, and it will be shown that the generating, lattice, and inner lattice functions satisfy certain functional equations both when there is not and when there is a restriction upon the part magnitude.

scholarly journals Generic bare plurals in Russian and beyond

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 33-54
Author(s):  
Daria Seres
Keyword(s):  
Subject Position ◽  
Linguistic Variation ◽  
Definite Article ◽  
World Knowledge ◽  
Argument Position ◽  
Bare Plural ◽  
Bare Plurals ◽  
The World ◽  
Indirect Reference

This paper focuses on indirect reference to kinds achieved by means of bare plural nominal expressions in Russian, which is a language without articles. These NPs refer to sums of individuals, whose denotation is built on Number. Their default interpretation is indefinite, while generic and definite readings are a result of a pragmatic strengthening, i.e. these readings appear only in certain environments (argument position of k-level predicates, subject position of characterising statements) and depend on the world knowledge of interlocutors. Generically and definitely interpreted expressions are similar to each other, being characterised by maximality, identifiability and presupposition of existence. However, the former ones cannot be spatiotemporally localised or anaphorically anchored. Going beyond Russian, it is suggested that in some languages genericity (along with definiteness) may be encoded semantically by means of a definite article, while in others it is pragmatically inferred on bare NPs; this difference can account for the inter- and intra- linguistic variation in the expression of genericity.

Typologization of security regulation

2020 ◽  
pp. 20-27
Author(s):  
Denis Tikhomirov
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
Procedural Understanding ◽  
Limited Ability ◽  
Methodological Basis ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Legal Understanding

The purpose of the article is to typologize terminological definitions of security, to find out the general, to identify the originality of their interpretations depending on the subject of legal regulation. The methodological basis of the study is the methods that made it possible to obtain valid conclusions, in particular, the method of comparison, through which it became possible to correlate different interpretations of the term "security"; method of hermeneutics, which allowed to elaborate texts of normative legal acts of Ukraine, method of typologization, which made it possible to create typologization groups of variants of understanding of the term "security". Scientific novelty. The article analyzes the understanding of the term "security" in various regulatory acts in force in Ukraine. Typological groups were understood to understand the term "security". Conclusions. The analysis of the legal material makes it possible to confirm that the issues of security are within the scope of both legislative regulation and various specialized by-laws. However, today there is no single conception on how to interpret security terminology. This is due both to the wide range of social relations that are the subject of legal regulation and to the relativity of the notion of security itself and the lack of coherence of views on its definition in legal acts and in the scientific literature. The multiplicity of definitions is explained by combinations of material and procedural understanding, static - dynamic, and conditioned by the peculiarities of a particular branch of legal regulation, limited ability to use methods of one or another branch, the inter-branch nature of some variations of security, etc. Separation, common and different in the definition of "security" can be used to further standardize, in fact, the regulatory legal understanding of security to more effectively implement the legal regulation of the security direction.

Antonio Negri

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ingrid Diran
Keyword(s):  
Critical Distance ◽  
Middle Voice ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Antonio Negri

Agamben describes his posture as a reader as one of seeking a text’s Entwicklungsfähigkeit, or capacity for elaboration.1 In examining Agamben’s practices of reading, we can attend to the opposite phenomenon: the counter-elaboration that a text, in having being read by the philosopher, performs upon Agamben’s own thought. This reciprocal elaboration might constitute a paradigm for Agamben’s use of reading, according to his own idiosyncratic definition of use as an event in the middle voice, in which (according to a definition of Benveniste) the subject ‘effects an action only in affecting itself (il effectue en s’affectant)’ (UB 28). With this definition in mind, we could say that Agamben effects a text (he writes) only to the extent that he is also affected by another text (he reads). This is why Agamben’s position as a reader proves particularly important to any assessment of his work, quite aside from the problem of influence or intellectual genealogy. For this same reason, however, assessing Agamben’s relation to Antonio Negri – a figure with whom, by most measures, he is at odds – poses an unexpected challenge: how can Agamben’s thought be a use of Negri? Answering this question means not only assessing the critical distance between the two thinkers, but also taking this distance as a measure, in the Spinozan sense, of mutual affection.

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