scholarly journals empirical view on raising to subject

2010 ◽  
Vol 52 ◽  
pp. 83-109
Author(s):  
Scott Grimm
Keyword(s):  
Information Structure ◽  
Wide Scope ◽  
Empirical Methods ◽  
Subject Analysis ◽  
Narrow Scope ◽  
Truth Conditional ◽  
The Subject ◽  
New Evidence ◽  
Subject Raising

This paper employs empirical methods to examine verbs such as seem, for which the traditional raising to subject analysis relates pairs of sentences which differ by taking an infinitival or sentential complement. A corpus-driven investigation of the verbs seem and appear demonstrates that information structure and evidentiality both play a determinate role in the choice between infinitival or sentential complementation. The second half of the paper builds upon the corpus results and examines the implications for the standard claims concerning these constructions. First, pairs of sentences related by the subject-to-subject raising analysis of verbs are often viewed as equivalent. New evidence from indefinite generic subjects shows that whether an indefinite generic subject occurs in the infinitival or sentential complement construction leads to truth-conditional differences. Further implications are explored for the claim that subjects of the infinitival variant may take narrow-scope: once various confounds are controlled for, the subject of the infinitival construction is shown to most naturally take wide-scope.  

scholarly journals Information Structure and Scope Interactions: Disjunction Wide Scope Induced by Focus

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cécile Larralde ◽  
Alina Konradt ◽  
Kriszta Eszter Szendrői
Keyword(s):  
Information Structure ◽  
Wide Scope ◽  
Value Judgment ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Narrow Scope ◽  
Subject Design ◽  
Truth Value ◽  
Scope Interactions ◽  
Scope Reading ◽  
Prosodic Focus

In this paper we investigate the scopal reading of disjunctions in French negative sentences with pre-schoolers. We posit that the French disjunctor “ou” does not fit the traditional disjunction PPI/non-PPI dichotomy according to which a wide scope is taken by a PPI disjunction and a narrow scope when the disjunction is not a PPI. We hypothesized that focus could be a succesful scopal manipulator. Using Truth Value Judgment Tasks (TVJT), we tested French pre-schoolers' scopal reading of negated disjunctions in a neutral prosody condition and with prosodic focus on the disjunctor in a between subject design. We found that as predicted, prosodic focus often enduced participants to adopt a disjunction wide scope reading whereas a disjunction narrow scope reading was favored in the neutral prosody condition. This confirmed our hypothesis that focus can manipulate disjunction scope paramaters. It also shows that, when the disjunction is focalised, children have access to the disjunction wide scope reading earlier than previously thought. Finally, we can conclude that the distinction between PPI-disjunctor vs. non-PPI disjunctor languages needs to be more fine-grained.

Introduction and Delimitation of the Subject

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
El Far Ahmed
Keyword(s):  
International Trade ◽  
General Principle ◽  
Wide Scope ◽  
International Arbitration ◽  
Narrow Scope ◽  
Normal Means ◽  
The Subject ◽  
General Principles Of Law

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the principle of abuse of rights in international arbitration. It is now generally recognized that international arbitration is the preferred method for resolving disputes in international trade and the normal means for resolving commercial and investment disputes. However, in recent years, international arbitration has been plagued by different forms of procedural abuse. Abusive practices developed by parties may not only cause paramount prejudice to their opponents, but can also undermine the fair resolution of disputes and frustrate the administration of arbitral justice. The existing rules for the prevention of abuse have a defined and narrow scope, are inherently rigid in their application, and fail to remedy different forms of abuse. As such, a general principle of abuse of rights is vital in international arbitration. The virtue of a single theory with a wide scope and an overarching premise is that it is a principle which involves equity considerations, enjoys the flexibility of general principles of law, and can be used to address different abusive behaviours.

On the scope of quantifier phrases in Chinese passive construction

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-89
Author(s):  
Xiaolong Yang ◽  
Yicheng Wu
Keyword(s):  
Wide Scope ◽  
Quantifier Scope ◽  
Scope Ambiguity ◽  
Passive Construction ◽  
Single Sentence ◽  
Narrow Scope ◽  
Semantics And Pragmatics ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Quantifier Phrases ◽  
Semantic Properties

Abstract Quantifier phrases (QP) can co-occur in a single sentence, which may cause ambiguity in terms of scope relation, viz. wide scope and narrow scope interpretations. Aoun & Li (1993) claim that quantifier scope ambiguity also exists in Chinese passive construction, such as yige nűren bei meige ren ma ‘a woman was scolded by everyone’. Following Lee (1986)’s proposal, it is argued in this paper that the scopal relations of Chinese QPs are not purely syntactic as in Aoun & Li’s analysis, but should be determined by the interaction between syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. Based on naturalistic data, it is shown that (i) Chinese QPs can be classified into whQP, distributive-universal QP and group-denoting QP, whose semantic properties determine the scope relations between them; (ii) in general, a QP is devoid of referentiality, yet it can acquire referentiality depending on its co-occurrence with other QPs or contextual factors; (iii) the subject definiteness constraint in Chinese, a language-specific constraint, would affect the interpretation of subject QPs in Chinese passive construction.

On indefinite subjects in Mandarin

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yicheng Wu ◽  
Xuping Li
Keyword(s):  
Subject Position ◽  
Wide Scope ◽  
Existential Quantifier ◽  
Narrow Scope ◽  
Existential Interpretation ◽  
The Subject

Abstract This study investigates the licensing conditions and interpretational variability of indefinite subjects in Mandarin. Against the ‘definiteness’ constraint of subject in Mandarin (Chao 1968; Li and Thompson 1981), three types of indefinite subjects are identified in the subject position, but they exhibit different scope behaviors: (i) you-nominals are ambiguous between a wide scope and a narrow scope, and (ii) thetic subjects are narrow-scope taking, and (iii) ‘cardinal’ subjects are scopeless. Following Cohen and Erteschik-Shir (2002), we propose that the former two types of indefinite subjects are focus elements and they fall into the position of nuclear scope, where they receive an existential interpretation, and cardinal subjects are topics and they serve as restrictor to some generic operator. Moreover, the wide/narrow scope readings of you-nominals are distinguished from each other in terms of whether a topic domain is available or not, which may serve a domain restrictor to the existential quantifier bound to you-nominals (Portner 2002).

Scope and the development of epistemic modality: evidence from ought to

1997 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 295-317 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Nordlinger ◽  
Elizabeth Closs Traugott
Keyword(s):  
Epistemic Modality ◽  
Wide Scope ◽  
Narrow Scope ◽  
The Subject

Discussions of modality (e.g. Bybee, Perkins & Pagliuca, 1994; Coates, 1983; Lyons, 1977; Palmer, 1986; Traugott, 1989) typically center around two issues: deonticity vs. epistemicity, and degree of subjectivity. Using diachronic evidence from the quasi-modal ought to, this paper argues for the need to recognize a third, crosscutting these two: narrow vs. wide scope. We argue that the epistemic use of ought to developed out of a wide-scope deontic construction, in which the modal was used with deontic meaning, but with propositional scope (contra Bybee, 1988). Rather than attributing an obligation to the subject (i.e. having narrow scope), the modal in this construction makes an assertion about the proposition as a whole, like an epistemic. However, such ought to constructions are found some four hundred years before the first epistemic examples, and thus can be shown to be distinct from epistemic uses (contra Gamon, 1994).

Amâlî (Imla) As Arabic Writing Technique

Metahumaniora ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 128
Author(s):  
Dicky Rachmat Pauji
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Arabic Language ◽  
Wide Scope ◽  
Writing Style ◽  
Learning Space ◽  
Islamic School ◽  
Related Literature ◽  
Language And Literature ◽  
The Subject

Amâlî (Imla) is a methodology used in studying Arabic language and literature that has a very wide scope. Amâlî (Imla) itself can be translated as: to dictate, to add, to fill in and etc. Amâlî (Imla) may also be interpreted further by the following narration: A teacher (ustadz) comes to a place like a mosque, an Islamic school or any learning space in general. In the process of teaching and learning, all that are spoken by the teacher is written down by the students on pieces of paper they had prepared earlier then be compiled into a book which will be preserved. This paper presents a brief summary of Amâlî (Imla) as a methodology which is discussed in many Amâlî (Imla) related literature works written from the beginning of 7th century until the 14th century. The subject Amâlî (Imla) is written in exceedingly diverse manner, unique to each of numerous known authors. This paper also discusses about various meaning of the word Amâlî (Imla) that has been interpreted differently among authors. In addition, the method of separating chapters and other minor distinct writing style that each of various groups of Amâlî (Imla) authors had developed was presented in this work. And lastly, this paper discusses the fact that Amâlî (Imla) related textbook authors were not only originated from the Middle East, but also from regions such as Iran (Huzistan) and Andalusia

Pragmatics for Latin

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. M. Devine ◽  
Laurence D. Stephens
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Information Structure ◽  
Descriptive Analysis ◽  
Informational Content ◽  
Compositional Process ◽  
Association With Focus ◽  
Narrow Scope ◽  
Order Language ◽  
Free Word

Latin is often described as a free word order language, but in general each word order encodes a particular information structure: in that sense, each word order has a different meaning. This book provides a descriptive analysis of Latin information structure based on detailed philological evidence and elaborates a syntax-pragmatics interface that formalizes the informational content of the various different word orders. The book covers a wide ranges of issues including broad scope focus, narrow scope focus, double focus, topicalization, tails, focus alternates, association with focus, scrambling, informational structure inside the noun phrase and hyperbaton (discontinuous constituency). Using a slightly adjusted version of the structured meanings theory, the book shows how the pragmatic meanings matching the different word orders arise naturally and spontaneously out of the compositional process as an integral part of a single semantic derivation covering denotational and informational meaning at one and the same time.

The Myth of Structural Rationality

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Kiesewetter
Keyword(s):  
Wide Scope ◽  
Structural Requirements ◽  
Rational Requirements ◽  
Narrow Scope ◽  
Scope Interpretation

While Chapters 4 and 5 suggest that structural requirements of rationality cannot be normative, Chapter 6 argues for the stronger conclusion that there are no such requirements to begin with. The argument is that both narrow- and wide-scope interpretations of structural requirements face problems independently of whether these requirements are understood as being normative. Starting with the narrow-scope interpretation, the chapter discusses the problem that it licenses bootstrapping of rational requirements (6.1), that it entails inconsistent requirements (6.2), and that it entails requirements that undermine each other in a counterintuitive way (6.3). Turning to the wide-scope interpretation, the chapter discusses the charge that wide-scope requirements cannot capture an important asymmetry involved in structural irrationality (6.4–6.5), and that they are incapable of guiding our responses (6.6). It is argued that all of these objections pose serious problems for the respective accounts. This supports the conclusion that there are no structural requirements of rationality (6.7).

St’át'imcets intonation contours: a preliminary study

2016 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-155
Author(s):  
Marion Caldecott
Keyword(s):  
Information Structure ◽  
Northwest Coast ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
Intonational Meaning ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Preliminary Study ◽  
Interior Salish

AbstractAcoustic research on the prosody and intonation of Northwest Coast languages has until recently been under-researched. This paper joins the growing body of research on the subject and reports on the results of the first study of intonation in St’át'imcets (Lillooet Salish; Northern Interior Salish). It tests the generalization proposed by Davis (2007) that information structure is not correlated with prosody in Salish languages by comparing the intonation contours of declaratives and yes/no questions. Specifically, I ask two questions: is nuclear accent rightmost? And are yes/no questions associated with higher pitch, as predicted by the Universality of Intonational Meaning? Results are comparable to those reported for other Salish languages, namely Koch (2008, 2011) on Nɬeʔkepmxcín, Jacobs (2007) on Skwxwú7mesh and Benner (2004, 2006) and Leonard (2011) on SENĆOŦEN. Nuclear accent is associated with the rightmost stressed vowel, regardless of focus, and while no speaker signals yes/no questions with a final rise, each has higher pitch within typologically common parameters.

scholarly journals The structure of certain Jurassic holostean fishes, with special reference to their neurocrania

1948 ◽  
Vol 233 (601) ◽  
pp. 287-345 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Special Reference ◽  
Structural Grade ◽  
The Subject ◽  
New Evidence

The term Holostei is in the process of being transformed from one expressing (or intending to express) some phylogenetic type of classification into one denoting a structural grade— a transformation commonly suffered by a term of long standing as the essential characters of its component genera are better understood. Unfortunately, understanding of this particular stage in Actinopterygian evolution is far from complete, and at present it is not possible to replace the old classification by one that will not have to be thoroughly revised in a few years’ time. Since, therefore, the present work (which was essentially complete in 1940) deals primarily with the structure of a few Jurassic neurocrania the term Holostei may still serve conveniently to cover the families in which they are found, although the origin of these is largely unknown and their degree of relationship a matter of debate. It will be found that a study of neurocrania occasionally produces some new evidence on these problems, but for a more complete'discussion on classification reference may be made to those works expressly dealing with the subject, especially Brough (1939), Rayner (1941) and Westoll (1944)

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