Pseudo Incorporation and Anaphoricity: Evidence from Persian

The paper investigates the discourse effects of bare nominal pseudo-incorporated objects in Persian. Contrary to claims that such nominals cannot be antecedents to anaphora, experimental results show that that their anaphoric potential is only somewhat reduced, compared to indefinites. This is consonant with Krifka & Modarresi (2016), according to which they are interpreted like functional definites that are dependent on the event denoted by the verb that undergo existential closure.

Pseudo-Incorporated Antecedents and Anaphora in Persian: The Influence of Stereotypical Knowledge

There are different theories about the nature of pseudo-incorporated nouns (PINs), which feature a non-specific, number-neutral interpretation. For a proper analysis it is crucial to take their anaphoric potential into account. This paper investigates if and how PINs introduce discourse referents, with evidence from Persian, and which theory matches this behavior best. We report on experiments in which the stereotypical enrichment of the number-neutral interpretation was systematically varied with two types of biases — towards a singular or a plural interpretation — and in the neutral case, when such a bias is lacking. The results of the experiments are compatible with Krifka & Modarresi (2016), which considers PIN objects as dependent singular definites (similar to weak definites) within existential closure over an event variable.

pro as a Minimal nP: Toward a Unified Approach to Pro-Drop

In this article, I examine the properties of the partial null subject languages (NSLs) when compared with the consistent and the discourse pro-drop languages and argue that the same basic mechanism underlies pro-drop in partial as well as discourse pro-drop: namely, null NP anaphora, as originally proposed in Tomioka 2003 for discourse pro-drop. The two sets of languages show a correlation between the occurrence of null arguments and the availability of a bare nominal in argument position. I suggest that the null element is a default, minimally specified nominal—the same item that arguably appears as a complement of D in pronouns. It is a proform that minimally consists of the categorizing head n, lacking a root, the meaning of which is ‘entity’ (a property that is trivially true of any individual in the domain). nP introduces a variable that may be bound under Existential Closure, yielding the impersonal interpretation; otherwise, its denotation is type-shifted to an individual (ɩ) under the appropriate conditions. The crosslinguistic differences found in the interpretation of the null subject depend on the resources available in particular languages for application of ɩ type-shifting: the (bare NP) languages that lack such resources only have quasi-argumental and impersonal null subjects (semi pro-drop languages). Finally, I show that the idea that pro reduces to [nP e] can also be successfully extended to the consistent NSLs, provided it is assumed that, in this type of NSL, the head bearing agreement morphology bears a D-feature and interpretable ϕ-features.

Lexicalizing disjunction scope

Tiwa (Tibeto-Burman; India) has two disjunctive particles, which give rise to different interpretations in sentences with other operators. I argue that this semantic distinction is not one of inclusive vs. exclusive disjunction, but one of scope. I provide an analysis that captures this scopal distinction: one particle lexicalizes a choice function variable (subject to existential closure high in the structure), and the other lexicalizes an alternative-set former which interacts with higher operators. I also show that wide scope disjunction in Tiwa behaves differently from wide scope readings of English "or", and suggest that they warrant different analyses.

Number Neutrality and Anaphoric Update of Pseudo-Incorporated Nominals in Persian (and Weak Definites in English)

Persian shows differential object marking. We argue that objects withoutthe object marker rā are pseudo-incorporated in the verbal predicate. Specifically,we argue for an existential closure operator over the vP that binds the eventvariable of the verbal predicate, and that nominals within the vP are interpretedas dependent definites with respect to the event. We show that this results in anapparent number neutrality of such nominals, and a maximality interpretation ofanaphoric uptakes typical of E-type pronouns. The semantic contribution of nominalswithin and outside of the vP is modeled in DRT. We also argue that weakdefinites in English make use of the same strategy as pseudo-incorporated nominalsin Persian, and offer an explanation why they are restricted to readings referringto institutionalized activities.

A PSEUDOEXPONENTIAL-LIKE STRUCTURE ON THE ALGEBRAIC NUMBERS

Pseudoexponential fields are exponential fields similar to complex exponentiation which satisfy the Schanuel Property, i.e., the abstract statement of Schanuel’s Conjecture, and an adapted form of existential closure.Here we show that if we remove the Schanuel Property and just care about existential closure, it is possible to create several existentially closed exponential functions on the algebraic numbers that still have similarities with complex exponentiation. The main difficulties are related to the arithmetic of algebraic numbers, and they can be overcome with known results about specialisations of multiplicatively independent functions on algebraic varieties.

Overt Existential Closure in Bura (Central Chadic)

No abstract.

The emergence of middle voice structures with and without agents

This article presents evidence that, cross-linguistically or within the same language (family), there appears to be no morphosyntactic properties and/or structures specifically designated for the formation of middle voice constructions. What has been labeled a ‘middle voice construction’ is a semantic interpretation that, crucially, is blocked when an event variable is existentially closed by T. This article focuses on two ways of expressing a middle statement; namely (i) middle voice readings that occur with lexical-s passives, and (ii) adjectival middles – in Mainland Scandinavian, showing that properties such as the availability of an agent in middles pattern with whether an event variable is present (in the structure) or not. These are the result of two equally valid and productive grammatical structures: one where an event variable is present, an agent is projected and a modal operator blocks existential closure of the event variable, and another one where the event variable is not present in the structure, and therefore the operator is not necessary – hence impossible.