Asymmetric anaphoric dependencies determine available readings for VP-ellipsis

2021 ◽  
pp. 320-339
Author(s):  
Andrew Kehler
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Account ◽  
Vp Ellipsis ◽  
Referential Form ◽  
Syntactic Binding

Dalrymple et al. (1991) was a landmark contribution to the theory of ellipsis. In addition to providing an elegant semantic account of the interaction between ellipsis and quantification, it demonstrates how strict and sloppy readings can be generated without having to posit an ambiguity between bound and free pronouns in antecedent clauses. A weakness of the theory, however, is its lack of representational sensitivity to choice of referential form: the fact that pronouns and names are represented the same way causes the account to overgenerate sloppy readings in some cases. In this chapter, Kehler discusses a set of examples that provide adequacy criteria for theories of ellipsis with respect to their treatment of anaphoric dependencies. These cases reveal that a more generalized notion of dependency needs to be represented beyond the more limited notion captured by syntactic binding relations, including dependencies that cross clause boundaries and that involve eventualities. A provisional account is offered that captures these cases.

VP-ellipsis, Stripping, and the Functions of the Delimiter –to in Korean

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-110
Author(s):  
So-Jee Kim ◽  
Sae Youn Cho
Keyword(s):  
Vp Ellipsis

Expressivism and Crossed Disagreements

2019 ◽  
Vol 86 ◽  
pp. 111-132
Author(s):  
Javier Osorio ◽  
Neftali Villanueva
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Theory ◽  
Semantic Level ◽  
Semantic Account ◽  
Evaluative Language ◽  
Truth Conditional ◽  
Pragmatic Strategies

AbstractThe purpose of this paper is to explore the connection between expressivism and disagreement. More in particular, the aim is to defend that one of the desiderata that can be derived from the study of disagreement, the explanation of ‘crossed disagreements’, can only be accommodated within a semantic theory that respects, at the meta-semantic level, certain expressivistic restrictions. We will compare contemporary dynamic expressivism with three different varieties of contextualist strategies to accommodate the specificities of evaluative language –indexical contextualism – truth-conditional pragmatics –, pragmatic strategies using implicatures, and presuppositional accounts. Our conclusion will be that certain assumptions of expressivism are necessary in order to provide a semantic account of evaluative uses of language that can allow us to detect and prevent crossed disagreements.

Interpretation of reflexive anaphora in second language VP-ellipsis: Relevance Theory and paradigms of explanation

2004 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 256-280 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xosé Rosales Sequeiros
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Relevance Theory ◽  
Experimental Results ◽  
Comprehension Strategies ◽  
Processing Cost ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Vp Ellipsis ◽  
Processing Effort ◽  
Maximal Relevance ◽  
The Impact

This article explores second language (L2) learners’ interpretation of reflexive anaphora in VP-Ellipsis by critiquing the work of Ying (2003), who applies Relevance Theory to explain elliptical anaphora. It argues against four claims made in his analysis: that L2 learners apply maximal relevance in anaphoric interpretation; that a procedural account of the impact of referential sentences on VP-ellipsis disambiguation is appropriate; that an account of anaphoric interpretation preferences should be based on processing cost; and that differences in experimental results between intermediate and advanced L2 learners are due to the use of different comprehension strategies (see Sperber, 1994). Instead, it argues: that it is not maximal but rather optimal relevance that is at work; that the key in disambiguating anaphora in VP-elliptical sentences is the achievement of an optimally relevant interpretation; that the role of contextual assumptions in anaphora resolution is to enable L2 learners to derive enough contextual effects to make it worth their effort and, in doing so, identifying (as a side effect) what they take to have been the intended referent; and that what is crucial in the use of comprehension strategies is not processing effort, but rather consistency with the second principle of relevance. Overall, all these factors provide the basis for an alternative and more comprehensive explanation of the experimental results discussed by Ying.

An Asymmetry in Voice Mismatches in VP-Ellipsis and Pseudogapping

2008 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 169-179 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Merchant
Keyword(s):  
Vp Ellipsis

Two puzzles on the nominative particle ga in Japanese

2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 223-243
Author(s):  
Noriko Kawasaki
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Semantic Content ◽  
Japanese Language ◽  
Conversational Implicature ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Nominative Case ◽  
Semantic Account ◽  
The Subject

Abstract Back in the 1970s, Kazuko Inoue observed that some active sentences in Japanese allow a prepositional subject. Along with impersonal sentences pointed out by S.-Y. Kuroda, such examples suggest that the nominative subject is not an obligatory element in Japanese sentences. While this observation supports the hypothesis that important characteristics of the Japanese language follow from its lack of (forced-)agreement, Japanese potential sentences require the nominative ga on at least one argument. The present article argues that the nominative case particle ga is semantically vacuous even where a ga-marked phrase is indispensable or the ga-marked phrase is construed as exhaustively listing. Stative predicates require a ga-marked phrase because they can ascribe a property to an argument only by function application. The exhaustive listing reading arises by conversational implicature when the presence of a ga-marked phrase signals that a topic phrase is being avoided. The discussion leads to a semantic account of subject honorification whereby the honorification only concerns the semantic content of the predicate, and does not involve agreement with the subject. It is also shown that sentences with a prepositional subject allow zibun only as a long-distance anaphor, which indicates that they do lack a subject with the nominative Case.

Knowledge of Variable Binding in VP-Ellipsis: Language Acquisition Research and Theory Converge

Syntax ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire Foley ◽  
Zelmira Nunez del Prado ◽  
Isabella Barbier ◽  
Barbara Lust
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Variable Binding ◽  
Vp Ellipsis

scholarly journals VP ellipsis without indices

2015 ◽  
pp. 239
Author(s):  
Daniel Hardt ◽  
Nicholas Asher ◽  
Julie Hunter
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Basis ◽  
Resolution Process ◽  
Process View ◽  
The Status ◽  
Discourse Relations ◽  
Vp Ellipsis ◽  
Node Labels

This paper compares two views on the status of indices in syntactic and logical representations: on a {\it structural view}, indices are syntactic formants on a par with node labels and phrase bracketings, and are thus a part of the logical forms that are derived from syntactic representations. On the {\it process view}, an index is not a syntactic object at all, but rather, an indication of the output of a resolution process. In this paper we argue that a recent body of data provides a clear empirical basis for distinguishing between these two views of indices. We argue that cases of sloppy VP ellipsis pose insurmountable problems for the structural view of indices, while these problems do not arise for the process view. Furthermore, we show that this resolution process is constrained by the semantics of various discourse relations.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document