In my thesis I defence a descriptive theory of reference of proper names against Kripke's objections. In the second part of the papper I argue that a descriptive content associated with a proper name can serve as truth-conditionally... more
In my thesis I defence a descriptive theory of reference of proper names against Kripke's objections. In the second part of the papper I argue that a descriptive content associated with a proper name can serve as truth-conditionally relevant adjunct and be an additional contribution of the name into the truth-conditions. Definite descriptions the so-and-so associated by speakers with a proper name can be used as qualifying prepositional phrases as so-and-so, so the sentences containing a proper name NN is doing something could be understood as NN is doing something as NN (which means as so-and-so). Used as an adjunct, the descriptive content of a proper name expresses the additional circumstances of action (a manner, reason, goal, time or purpose) and constitute a part of a predicate. I argue that qualifying prepositional phrases should be analyzed as predicate modifiers and propose a formal representation of modified predicates. The additional truth-conditional relevance of the descriptive content of a proper name helps to explain the phenomenon of substitution failure of coreferential names in simple sentences (The Superman Puzzle).
It is now the communis opinio in the field of Anatolian studies that there is in Neo-Hittite no Ionger a formal distinction between the nominative and the accusative plural communis as there was in the older language (Old and Middle... more
It is now the communis opinio in the field of Anatolian studies that there is in Neo-Hittite no Ionger a formal distinction between the nominative and the accusative plural communis as there was in the older language (Old and Middle Hittite). Instead, a syncretic case form (Einheitskasus) with two allomorphs, either -eš (former nom.pl.c.) or -uš (former acc.pl.c.), is used for both functions. The two allomorphs are distributed with regard to the respective stem class. This system applies to ordinary nouns and to pronominal stems but not to participles. In this article it will be shown that there is a different system applying to participles: In the domain of verbal usage (predicative or adverbial function [= conjunct participle]) the participle only exhibits the syncretic desinence -ant-eš, whereas in the nominal domain (attributive or substantival function) there is still a distinction between -ant-eš, for the nominative, and -and-uš, for the accusative.
In this article I will argue for an ellipsis derivation for parenthetical adjuncts. Adjuncts include adverbs, prepositional phrases, and infinitival clauses, among other types of constituents. All adjuncts can be parenthetical, but they... more
In this article I will argue for an ellipsis derivation for parenthetical adjuncts. Adjuncts include adverbs, prepositional phrases, and infinitival clauses, among other types of constituents. All adjuncts can be parenthetical, but they need not be. In (1) to (3), the adjuncts in the (a) examples are integrated into their host clauses, whereas the same adjuncts in the (b) examples are parenthetical. (1) a. Max drank two bottles of gin last night on an empty stómach. b. Max drank two bottles of gín last night, on an empty stomach. (2) a. The rebels have been defeated decísively. b. The rebels have been deféated, decisively. (3) a. Napoleon attacked the city to prove his invincibílity. b. Napoleon attacked the cíty, to prove his invincibility.
This chapter examines adverb ordering within polysynthetic words in Inuit to shed light on the formation of these words. I argue that this adverb -ordering data poses a challenge to the ‘standard’ account of the Mirror Principle (Baker... more
This chapter examines adverb ordering within polysynthetic words in Inuit to shed light on the formation of these words. I argue that this adverb -ordering data poses a challenge to the ‘standard’ account of the Mirror Principle (Baker 1985, 1988b) whereby these complex words are derived via head movement, particularly if other common assumptions regarding antisymmetry (Kayne 1994) and adverb licensing (Cinque 1999) are maintained. Instead, I propose that the variable ordering of these adjuncts is expected if the words containing them are right-headed XPs, following arguments for the existence of right-headed structures by Abels and Neeleman (2012), XP-sized words by Compton and Pittman (2012), and in favour of semantically based licensing of adjuncts by Ernst (2002).
In this paper an account is given of three well-defined subtypes of oriented adjuncts in two Germanic languages, namely English and Swedish.We first propose a concise typology of the subtypes of oriented adjuncts as discerned in the... more
In this paper an account is given of three well-defined subtypes of oriented adjuncts in two Germanic languages, namely English and Swedish.We first propose a concise typology of the subtypes of oriented adjuncts as discerned in the literature (Section 2). The subsequent sections will present an in-depth account of the three main subtypes, viz. the WISELY-type (Section 3) and ANGRILY/WILLINGLY-types (Sections 4 and 5 respectively). The paper will round off with a summary of the main findings.
