Reference to individuals in natural language Henriëtte de Swart Barcelona, May 2005.

Reference to individuals in Reference to individuals in natural languagenatural language

Henriëtte de Swart

Barcelona, May 2005

What is this course about? What is this course about?

Reference to individuals in natural languageWhat is reference? Why study reference to individuals in

natural language? Across languages?Relevance for linguistics? For cognitive

science?

SemanticsSemantics

Semantics: study of meaning expressed by elements of a language or combinations thereof.

What is meaning?What is language?

What is meaning?What is meaning?

The red light means that you cannot go in.{a,b,c} means ‘the set consisting of the

elements a, b, and c.’The French word “chien” means ‘dog.’Do you know the meaning of the word

hypochondriac?To denote, to be described or defined as,

sense, significance, acceptation, denotation.

Not our job.. Not our job..

No deeper meaning or inner significance.What is the meaning of life?No intentions, purposes, etc.What do you mean by that look?No natural meaning. Those clouds mean rain.

Semantics in linguistic theorySemantics in linguistic theory

Natural language as a system of communication.

Function: transfer of information.Communication implies speaker and hearer.

Speaker-hearerSpeaker-hearer

speaker hearer

Intend Phrase Speak

Comprehend Understand Hear

Speech sound

Language-cognition-worldLanguage-cognition-world

cognition world

language

Concepts and denotationsConcepts and denotations

cognition world

language

concepts denotations

Truth conditional and Truth conditional and conceptual semantics conceptual semantics

cognition world

language

Conceptual semantics Truth-conditional semantics

Beyond words…Beyond words…

Lexical semantics: meaning of words.Beyond words: meaning of constituents,

sentences, even discourses.Relevance of structure:‘John hit Peter’ ‘Peter hit John’Word order Subject-Object relation

Agent-Patient relation.

CompositionalityCompositionality

Principle of Compositionality of meaning: the meaning of a complex whole is a function of the meaning of the composing parts, and the way in which they are put together.

Lexical and structural information jointly determine the meaning of constituents and sentences.

Variation across languagesVariation across languages

Natural languages vary: lexicon, sounds, syntactic structure.

Generative linguistics: universal grammar (innate) and parametrisation.

Optimality theory (OT): universal constraints (innate/learnt) and different orders of constraints.

Pro-dropPro-drop

Some languages allow ‘empty’ subjects (e.g. Italian), others don’t (e.g. English).

Piove [Italiaans]It is raining [English]Pro-drop parameter: on or off (child has to

learn the right setting). Assumes empty categories in linguistic representations.

Competition in OT: Competition in OT: ‘soft constraints’‘soft constraints’

Subject constraint: ‘Every sentence has a subject.’

Meaning constraint: ‘Every word in the sentence must be meaningful.’

Prince & Smolensky (1997): relative weight of constraints determines English vs. Italian.

English: Subject C >> Meaning CItalian : Meaning C >> Subject C.

Typology in OTTypology in OT

‘raining’ MeanC SubjC

piove *

‘it’ piove *

‘raining’ SubjC MeanC

is raining

*

It is raining

*

pro-drop no pro-drop

Variation in meaningVariation in meaning

Basic assumption: human cognition is universal.

Knowledge of first-order logic or equivalent leads to similar claims about entailments and other inference relations.

Prediction: semantics is always universal.No variation in meaning?????

Locus of semantic variationLocus of semantic variation

Semantic variation arises: (i) in the distribution of labor between

forms and meanings.(ii) at the syntax-semantics interface.(iii) at the semantics-pragmatics interface.

Semantic Variation ISemantic Variation I

Tense and aspect. E.g. English Progressive vs. French Simple Present tense.

John is eating an apple#John eats an apple/ John bikes to school.Jean est en train de manger une pomme.Jean mange une pomme/Jean va à l’école en

vélo.

Perfect TensesPerfect Tenses

‘Universal’ Perfect; for or sinceMary has lived in London for three years

(now).Marie a vécu à Londres pendant trois ans

(#maintenant).Marie vit à Londres depuis trois ans.Mary lives in London since three years.

Perfect tenses in discoursePerfect tenses in discourse

French uses Passé Composé to tell a story (e.g. Camus); English does not; Dutch does sometimes.

Aujourd’hui, maman est morte (PC). Ou peut-être hier, je ne sais pas (PR). J’ai reçu un télégramme de l’asile (PC) (…).

Mother died today (SP). Or maybe yesterday, I don’t know (PR). I had a telegram from the home (SP): (...).

Vandaag is moeder gestorven (VTT). Of misschien gisteren, ik weet het niet (OTT). Ik ontving een telegram uit het gesticht (OVT): (...)

Questions about tense/aspectQuestions about tense/aspect

Questions about tense and aspect in cross-linguistic semantics.

What forms are available in a language? How are truth-conditional meanings distributed

over available forms? Are certain meanings only available as ‘hidden’

aspectual shifts (coercion)? How are the forms used in discourse (dynamic

semantics, pragmatics)?

Semantic variation IISemantic variation II

Meaning of determiners. E.g. Dutch Sommige vs. English some.

Some flowers grew behind the shed.#Sommige bloemen groeiden achter de

schuur.‘Some do, others don’t’

Bare pluralsBare plurals

English bare plurals: existential or generic.Dogs were playing in the garden. Dogs like to play. GenBare plurals in Romance: existential, not

generic.

ItalianItalian

Elefanti di colore bianco hanno creato in passato grande curiosità.

Elephants of color white have raised in the past great curiosity.

*Ucelli di zone paludose sono intelligenti.Birds of the marshlands are intelligent.Gli ucelli di zone paludose sono intelligenti.

FrenchFrench

No bare plurals, but indefinite plurals.Only existential, not generic (like Italian).Des enfants jouaient dans la rue.Indef-pl children were playing in the street.*Des enfants aiment le chocolat.Indef-pl children like chocolate. Les enfants aiment le chocolat.

IncorporationIncorporation

Incorporation in West Greenlandic, Hindi, Hungarian, etc, not in English, Romance: direct relation between verb and object.

Arnajarq eqalut-tur-p-u-q. [WG]

A.abs salmon-eat-Ind-[-tr]-3sg.

‘Arnajaraq eats salmon/is a salmon-eater.’

Questions about bare pluralsQuestions about bare plurals

How are bare plurals related to other NPs/DPs (scope, anaphora, quantificational force, referential force, incorporation).

How are bare plurals related to bare singulars? To bare mass nouns? To indefinite plurals as in French?

If generic reference is strongly related to ‘bareness’, why do Romance bare plurals not allow generic readings?

Semantic Variation IIISemantic Variation III

“Despite the simplicity of the one-place connective of propositional logic (p is true if and only if p is not true) and of the laws of inference in which it participates (e.g. the Law of Double Negation: from p infer p, and vice versa), the form and function of negative statements in ordinary language are far from simple and transparent.” Horn (1989)

Negative quantifiers Negative quantifiers

‘Split’ scope in Germanic languages.Iedereen is geen genie. DutchEveryone is no genius (split: ) Jeder Arzt hat kein Auto.Every doctor has no car.

‘ ‘Split’ scope with modals.Split’ scope with modals.

Ze hoeven geen verpleegkundigen te ontslaan. They need no nurses to fire Hanna sucht kein Buch

– De re: there is no book that Hanna is looking for. – De dicto: the object of H’s quest is not a book. – ‘split’: it is not the case that what H. is looking for is a

book.

Double Negation and Double Negation and Negative ConcordNegative Concord

Multiple negations: DN and NCNobody said nothing. (Eng) xyNiemand zei niets. (Dutch) xyNadie miraba a nadie. (Spa) xyNessuno ha parlato con nessuno. (Ital)

xyPersonne n’a rien dit. (Fr) ambiguous

Questions about DN and NCQuestions about DN and NC

Negative Concord raises problems for the principle of compositionality of meaning: two negative expressions, but only one semantic negation.

How are double negation and negative concord languages related? (typology of negation).

Aims of this courseAims of this course

Learn semantic tools to address reference to individuals in natural language: type theory, lambda abstraction, type shift, DRT.

Learn to use these tools to address questions about reference to individuals in a particular language/ in a cross-linguistic perspective.

Enjoy doing natural language semantics!