Ling 391: Lesegruppe: Neue Literatur zu Quantoren in der natürlichen Sprache

LIN 391– Lesegruppe: Neue Literatur zu Quantoren in der natürlichen Sprache
Arnim von Stechow & Maribel Romero

Lesegruppe: Neue Literatur zu Quantoren in der natürlichen Sprache

Maribel Romero, Arnim von Stechow
Di, 18-20 Uhr, G 307

According to a prominant view (Generalized Quantifier Theory from Barwise and Cooper, 1981), a quantifier in natural language expresses a relation between sets. However, during the last years, much empirical evidence has been collected showing that only very few quantifiers – perhaps only the existential and the universal quantifier – fit into the syntactico-semantic scheme Quantifier + NP(-set) + VP(-set). We will investigate the following problematic cases:

Numerals (e.g. 2000 amerikanische Computer): plural semantics and cumulative readings. (Lewis, 1991), (Link, 1991), (Krifka, 1989), (Schwarzschild, 1996), (Heim, 1994), (Sternefeld, 1998), (Beck and Sauerland, 2000), (Kratzer, 2005).
Degree quantifiers in the positive (e.g. many/few books) and in the comparative (e.g. more books): (Hackl, 2000), (von Stechow, 2007)
Degree quantifiers in the superlative (e.g. die meisten Berge): proportional and relational readings. (Heim, 2004 (1999)) (Sharvit and Stateva, 2002), (Hackl, 2006).
(If time permits) Negative quantifiers (e.g. kein): (Zeijlstra, 2004), (Penka, 2007)

Literatur:

Barwise, John , and Cooper, Robin. 1981. Generalized Quantifiers and Natural Language. Linguistics and Philosophy 4:159-219.
Beck, Sigrid, and Sauerland, Uli. 2000. Cumulation is needed: A reply to Winter (2000). Natural Language Semantics:349-371.
Hackl, Martin. 2000. Comparative Quantifiers, Linguistics Department, MIT: PhD dissertation.
Hackl, Martin. 2006. On the Grammar and Processing of Proportional Quantifiers: 'Most' versus 'More than Half'. Ms. Pomona College.
Heim, Irene. 1994. Plurals. Ms. Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Heim, Irene. 2004 (1999). Notes on Superlatives. Ms. Draft, MIT.
Keenan, Edward L., and Westerståhl, Dag. 1997. Generalized quantifiers in linguistics and logic. In Handbook of logic and language, eds. Johan van Benthem and Alice ter Meulen, 837-894. Amsterdam: Elsevier.
Kratzer, Angelika. 2005. On the plurality of verbs: Semantics Archive.
Krifka, Manfred. 1989. Nominalreferenz und Zeitkonstitution: Studien zur Theoretischen Linguistik. München: Wilhelm Fink.
Lewis, David. 1991. Parts of Classes. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Link, Godehard. 1991. Plural. In Semantik. Ein internationales Handbuch zeitgenössischer Forschung, eds. Arnim von Stechow and Dieter Wunderlich, 418-440. Berlin/New York: Walter de Gruyter.
Penka, Doris. 2007. Negative Indefinites, Neuphilologische Fakultät der Universität Tübingen/Seminar für Sprachwissenschaft, Universität Tübingen: PhD Dissertation.
Schwarzschild, R. 1996. Pluralities: Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Sharvit, Yael, and Stateva, Penka. 2002. Superlative Expressions, Context, and Focus. Linguistics and Philosophy 25:453-504.
Sharvy, R. 1980. A More General Theory of Definite Descriptions. The Philosophical Review 89.4:607-624.
Sternefeld, Wolfgang. 1998. Reciprocity and Cumulative Predication. Natural Language Semantics:303-337.
von Stechow, Arnim. 2007. The temporal adjectices früh(er)/spät(er) and the semantics of the positve. In Quantification, Definiteness, and Nominalisation, eds. A. Giannakidou and M. Rathert, 17. Oxford: Oxford Press.
Zeijlstra, Hedde. 2004. Sentential Negation and Negative Concord. Utrecht: LOT.

Termine & Materialien

29.4.08	Organizational matters. We decided to move the class to half an hour earlier: 17:30-19:30.
6.5.08	Readings: Keenan 1996: The semantics of determiners. In Lappin (ed.) The Handbook of Contemporary Semantic Theory. Blackwell. Keenan 2006: Quantifiers: Semantics. Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics., vol. 10, 302-306
13.5.08	Readings: Penka, Doris. A crosslinguistic perspective on n-words.
20.5.08	No meeting.
27.5.08	No meeting.
3.6.08	Topic: The indefinability of proportional quantifiers in PL1
10.6.08	Reading: Sharvit and Stateva 2002.
17.6.08	No meeting.
24.6.08	Meeting cancelled.
1.7.08	Reading: We will continue with Sharvit and Stateva 2002.
8.7.08	Readings: Hackl 2006.
15.7.08	Arnim von Stechow summarizes his proposal on the fewest and the most.
23.7.08	IMPORTANT: We are meeting on Wednesday July 23 at 11h, room TBA. Reading: Geurts and Nouwen 2007. We will not have time for Krifka's paper this time.