L'A. propose une explication du phenomene de l'etendue de l'argument en allemand, en ... more L'A. propose une explication du phenomene de l'etendue de l'argument en allemand, en termes d'interaction entre l'information syntaxique et l'information semantique. A partir de l'affirmation selon laquelle la semantique lexicale du verbe induit un ordre hierarchique de ses arguments, il propose que cette hierarchie et l'organisation de la hierarchie de la structure syntaxique, definissent la configuration de l'etendue de base
Developments in computational linguistics lead to the conception of sense extension rules in the ... more Developments in computational linguistics lead to the conception of sense extension rules in the lexicon as a theory of regular polysemy. Lexical rules are defined only on such semantic information as is in the lexicon with the desired effect of restricting the amount of semantic information in the lexical representation of ambiguous items. The paper presents some examples which indicate difficulties for this approach, argues for pragmatically based rules which use conceptual information, and proposes a programmatic partial formalization of this approach in the framework of abductive interpretation.
The paper makes two contributions to semantic typology of secondary predicates. It provides an ex... more The paper makes two contributions to semantic typology of secondary predicates. It provides an explanation of the fact that Russian has no resultative secondary predicates, relating this explanation to the interpretation of secondary predicates in English. And it relates depictive secondary predicates in Russian, which usually occur in the instrumental case, to other uses of the instrumental case in Russian, establishing here, too, a difference to English concerning the scope of the secondary predication phenomenon.
Sentences with two constituents in predicative function being predicated of one and the same cons... more Sentences with two constituents in predicative function being predicated of one and the same constituent, like in (1) (1) Ann came home angry occur in many languages. The phenomenon in English was called
Dynamically oriented theories of semantics emphasize the context change potential of sentences. C... more Dynamically oriented theories of semantics emphasize the context change potential of sentences. Context change potential depends on the context in which
The paper explains the absence of resultative secondary predication in Russian as arising from a ... more The paper explains the absence of resultative secondary predication in Russian as arising from a con°ict of inferential interpretations. It formalises the framework necessary to express this proposal in terms of abductive reasoning with Poole systems in Gricean contexts. The con°ict is shown to arise for default rules regulating alternative realisation of verb-internally speci¯ed consequent states. The paper thus indicates that typological variation may be due not only to di®erent parameter values but to general inferential properties of the syntax-semantics mapping. The proposed theory also contradicts some widespread proposals that the absence of resultative secondary predication is due to the absence of some particular language feature. 1
The paper explains the absence of resultative secondary predication in Russian as arising from a ... more The paper explains the absence of resultative secondary predication in Russian as arising from a conflict of inferential interpretations. It formalises the framework necessary to express this proposal in terms of abductive reasoning with Poole systems in Gricean contexts. The conflict is shown to arise for default rules regulating alternative realisation of verb-internally specified consequent states. The paper thus indicates that typological variation may be due not only to different parameter values but to general inferential properties of the syntaxsemantics mapping. The proposed theory also contradicts some widespread proposals that the absence of resultative secondary predication is due to the absence of some particular language feature.
occur in many languages. The phenomenon in English was called secondary predica t ion . The intui... more occur in many languages. The phenomenon in English was called secondary predica t ion . The intuitive understanding of (1) seems clear, but already in English it is not clear which phenomena are to be called secondary predication in general. Things get even more difficult when other languages are considered. The problem is not merely one of the term extension. The emphasis is on the relation between systematic devices in or across languages and their accidental aspects. The problem has some relevance to typological studies: which patterns does language X use which are systematically marked by its grammar?
We will argue that some seemingly adverbial free DPs in the instrumental in Russian which are tra... more We will argue that some seemingly adverbial free DPs in the instrumental in Russian which are traditionally termed measure instrumental are best understood as secondary predicates. We present the relevant syntactic assumptions and propose a semantics of this use of DPs in the instrumental. This proposal hears on the distinction between adjunct modification and secondary predication.
The paper proposes an explanation of some argument scope phenomena in German in terms of interact... more The paper proposes an explanation of some argument scope phenomena in German in terms of interaction of syntactic and semantic information. On the assumption that lexical semantics of a verb induces a hierarchical ordering on its arguments, it is proposed that this hierarchy together with the mapping of the hierarchy to syntactic structure define a basic scope configuration. The mapping is controlled both by syntactic and by semantic information. Another hypothesis proposes that changes in the syntactic structure caused by topicalizarion and scrambling extend the mapping by assigning a specific role to the traces of the moved DPs. The traces can either have the semantic type of DPs or the type of individuals. This typing ambiguity yields two options: either the DP is semantically reconstructed into its original argument position, or the domain of the mapping of verbal arguments is extended. The options correspond to the narrow and the wide scopes of an argument, scope being expressed at the level of Discourse Representation Structures. This treatment of German facts is more restrictive than the ones based on Cooper storage, Logical Form, or Flexible Type Assignment
Dynamically oriented theories of semantics emphasize the context change potential of sentences. C... more Dynamically oriented theories of semantics emphasize the context change potential of sentences. Context change potential depends on the context in which it is computed, since lexical expressions in any natural language tend to display a great number of contextually determined different readings. As context change potential is realized via update operations, updates of discourse record by sentences with such lexical expressions require computing contextual variants. Thus there is a need for a theory (or theories) of how to code the dependency of contextual variants on the context. In a number of theories dealing with this problem the point of departure is a very general underspecified lexical meaning which is seen as the contextual invariant of the semantics of a lexical expression and is made more specific according to the demands of the communication situation. Attempts to characterize this assumed more general kind of meaning are usually based on deductive mechanisms, using sometimes second-order logic, sometimes more general type systems, and designed so that The U {c_variantLd 1= semLE and The U {semLE} 1=t.J, ... , & c_variantLE hold, where 1= is the relation of semantic entailment, The context, semLE semantic invariant of lexical expression LE, c_variantLE its variant in context c, and t.J, ... ,t.n are the stipulated rules of contextual variation which extend 1= by allowing the necessary inference. A simple theory of this kind would postulate the invariant to be the disjunction of its contextual variants, and infer the meaning in a context by letting those disjuncts which do not provide a reading in this particular context be false, i.e. let semLE B AJvA2vA3 and let Th e entail-,AJ&-,A2. Then c_variantLE B A3. Note that AJ and A2 are simply fa lse in this context, which is a poor rendering of the unavailability of a reading. More sophisticated theories use more sophisticated rules. The rules and the invariant are sources of difficulties, if contextual variation is strong. The meaning of the German preposition mit, which roughly corresponds to the English with, in its use as the head of a verbal modifier-PP shows a great contextual variability and depends in its meaning on the meaning of the verb it modifies, i.e. on the thematic structure of the situation. Simple-minded canceling of incompatible disjuncts is insuffi cient to characterize either its variation or this dependence. Moreover, even more sophisticated theories which use direct deduction seem to be ill equipped to provide such a characterization. Therefore, this paper proposes that update operations wrt. lexical items are based not on merely deductive, but on abductive inferential behavior, subsuming default
L'A. propose une explication du phenomene de l'etendue de l'argument en allemand, en ... more L'A. propose une explication du phenomene de l'etendue de l'argument en allemand, en termes d'interaction entre l'information syntaxique et l'information semantique. A partir de l'affirmation selon laquelle la semantique lexicale du verbe induit un ordre hierarchique de ses arguments, il propose que cette hierarchie et l'organisation de la hierarchie de la structure syntaxique, definissent la configuration de l'etendue de base
Developments in computational linguistics lead to the conception of sense extension rules in the ... more Developments in computational linguistics lead to the conception of sense extension rules in the lexicon as a theory of regular polysemy. Lexical rules are defined only on such semantic information as is in the lexicon with the desired effect of restricting the amount of semantic information in the lexical representation of ambiguous items. The paper presents some examples which indicate difficulties for this approach, argues for pragmatically based rules which use conceptual information, and proposes a programmatic partial formalization of this approach in the framework of abductive interpretation.
The paper makes two contributions to semantic typology of secondary predicates. It provides an ex... more The paper makes two contributions to semantic typology of secondary predicates. It provides an explanation of the fact that Russian has no resultative secondary predicates, relating this explanation to the interpretation of secondary predicates in English. And it relates depictive secondary predicates in Russian, which usually occur in the instrumental case, to other uses of the instrumental case in Russian, establishing here, too, a difference to English concerning the scope of the secondary predication phenomenon.
Sentences with two constituents in predicative function being predicated of one and the same cons... more Sentences with two constituents in predicative function being predicated of one and the same constituent, like in (1) (1) Ann came home angry occur in many languages. The phenomenon in English was called
Dynamically oriented theories of semantics emphasize the context change potential of sentences. C... more Dynamically oriented theories of semantics emphasize the context change potential of sentences. Context change potential depends on the context in which
The paper explains the absence of resultative secondary predication in Russian as arising from a ... more The paper explains the absence of resultative secondary predication in Russian as arising from a con°ict of inferential interpretations. It formalises the framework necessary to express this proposal in terms of abductive reasoning with Poole systems in Gricean contexts. The con°ict is shown to arise for default rules regulating alternative realisation of verb-internally speci¯ed consequent states. The paper thus indicates that typological variation may be due not only to di®erent parameter values but to general inferential properties of the syntax-semantics mapping. The proposed theory also contradicts some widespread proposals that the absence of resultative secondary predication is due to the absence of some particular language feature. 1
The paper explains the absence of resultative secondary predication in Russian as arising from a ... more The paper explains the absence of resultative secondary predication in Russian as arising from a conflict of inferential interpretations. It formalises the framework necessary to express this proposal in terms of abductive reasoning with Poole systems in Gricean contexts. The conflict is shown to arise for default rules regulating alternative realisation of verb-internally specified consequent states. The paper thus indicates that typological variation may be due not only to different parameter values but to general inferential properties of the syntaxsemantics mapping. The proposed theory also contradicts some widespread proposals that the absence of resultative secondary predication is due to the absence of some particular language feature.
occur in many languages. The phenomenon in English was called secondary predica t ion . The intui... more occur in many languages. The phenomenon in English was called secondary predica t ion . The intuitive understanding of (1) seems clear, but already in English it is not clear which phenomena are to be called secondary predication in general. Things get even more difficult when other languages are considered. The problem is not merely one of the term extension. The emphasis is on the relation between systematic devices in or across languages and their accidental aspects. The problem has some relevance to typological studies: which patterns does language X use which are systematically marked by its grammar?
We will argue that some seemingly adverbial free DPs in the instrumental in Russian which are tra... more We will argue that some seemingly adverbial free DPs in the instrumental in Russian which are traditionally termed measure instrumental are best understood as secondary predicates. We present the relevant syntactic assumptions and propose a semantics of this use of DPs in the instrumental. This proposal hears on the distinction between adjunct modification and secondary predication.
The paper proposes an explanation of some argument scope phenomena in German in terms of interact... more The paper proposes an explanation of some argument scope phenomena in German in terms of interaction of syntactic and semantic information. On the assumption that lexical semantics of a verb induces a hierarchical ordering on its arguments, it is proposed that this hierarchy together with the mapping of the hierarchy to syntactic structure define a basic scope configuration. The mapping is controlled both by syntactic and by semantic information. Another hypothesis proposes that changes in the syntactic structure caused by topicalizarion and scrambling extend the mapping by assigning a specific role to the traces of the moved DPs. The traces can either have the semantic type of DPs or the type of individuals. This typing ambiguity yields two options: either the DP is semantically reconstructed into its original argument position, or the domain of the mapping of verbal arguments is extended. The options correspond to the narrow and the wide scopes of an argument, scope being expressed at the level of Discourse Representation Structures. This treatment of German facts is more restrictive than the ones based on Cooper storage, Logical Form, or Flexible Type Assignment
Dynamically oriented theories of semantics emphasize the context change potential of sentences. C... more Dynamically oriented theories of semantics emphasize the context change potential of sentences. Context change potential depends on the context in which it is computed, since lexical expressions in any natural language tend to display a great number of contextually determined different readings. As context change potential is realized via update operations, updates of discourse record by sentences with such lexical expressions require computing contextual variants. Thus there is a need for a theory (or theories) of how to code the dependency of contextual variants on the context. In a number of theories dealing with this problem the point of departure is a very general underspecified lexical meaning which is seen as the contextual invariant of the semantics of a lexical expression and is made more specific according to the demands of the communication situation. Attempts to characterize this assumed more general kind of meaning are usually based on deductive mechanisms, using sometimes second-order logic, sometimes more general type systems, and designed so that The U {c_variantLd 1= semLE and The U {semLE} 1=t.J, ... , & c_variantLE hold, where 1= is the relation of semantic entailment, The context, semLE semantic invariant of lexical expression LE, c_variantLE its variant in context c, and t.J, ... ,t.n are the stipulated rules of contextual variation which extend 1= by allowing the necessary inference. A simple theory of this kind would postulate the invariant to be the disjunction of its contextual variants, and infer the meaning in a context by letting those disjuncts which do not provide a reading in this particular context be false, i.e. let semLE B AJvA2vA3 and let Th e entail-,AJ&-,A2. Then c_variantLE B A3. Note that AJ and A2 are simply fa lse in this context, which is a poor rendering of the unavailability of a reading. More sophisticated theories use more sophisticated rules. The rules and the invariant are sources of difficulties, if contextual variation is strong. The meaning of the German preposition mit, which roughly corresponds to the English with, in its use as the head of a verbal modifier-PP shows a great contextual variability and depends in its meaning on the meaning of the verb it modifies, i.e. on the thematic structure of the situation. Simple-minded canceling of incompatible disjuncts is insuffi cient to characterize either its variation or this dependence. Moreover, even more sophisticated theories which use direct deduction seem to be ill equipped to provide such a characterization. Therefore, this paper proposes that update operations wrt. lexical items are based not on merely deductive, but on abductive inferential behavior, subsuming default
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