Universität Konstanz
Fachbereich Sprachwissenschaft

Course Description

Indefinites (e.g. "ein Mann", "jemand", "irgendjemand", "wer") present interesting semantic and distributional properties. On the one hand, languages make subtle yet consistent distinctions between the meaning of different indefinite items, giving rise e.g. to freechoice and epistemic effects. On the other hand, some of these indefinite items have distributional limitations, being able to occur only in certain syntactico-semantic environments. This course investigates the formal characterisation of the different meaning components of indefiniteness, with special emphasis on typological diversity and diachronic variation.

Schedule and room: Tuesday 14-16h, G420

Start date: 28.04.2009

Language of the course: English

Semester plan: Syllabus (tentative!)

Readings & Handouts

28.04.09	Overview.
05.05.09	Main reading: Kratzer 1998: Scope or pseudoscope? Are there wide-scope indefinites? In S. Rothstein (ed.), Events and Grammar. Kluwer, pp. 163-196. Extra readings: Fodor, J. D., and I. Sag. 1982. Referential and quantificational indefinites. L&P 5. Reinhart, T. 1997. Quantifier scope: how labor is divided between QR and choice functions. L&P 20.
12.05.09	Readings: Reinhart, T. 1997. Quantifier scope: how labor is divided between QR and choice functions. L&P 20. (From last week.) Matthewson, L. 1999. On the interpretation of wide-scope indefinites. NALS 7.
19.05.09	Readings: Finish Kratzer 1998 on intermediate reading with because. Chierchia, G. 2001.A puzzle about indefinites. In: Semantic Interfaces: reference, anaphora and aspect. CSLI. In e-Semesterapparat Romero.
26.05.09	Readings: Schwarz, B. 2001. Two kinds of long distance indefinites. In R. van Rooy and M. Stokhof, (eds.) Proceedings of the Thirteenth Amsterdam Colloquium, 192-197. Short AC version for the course and longer version. Schwarzschild, R. 2002. Singleton indefinites, Journal of Semantics 19.3.
02.06.09	Readings: We will finish Schwarzschild, R. 2002. Singleton indefinites, Journal of Semantics 19.3. Farkas, Donka. 2002. Specificity Distinctions, Journal of Semantics 19, 1-31.In e-Semesterapparat Romero.
09.06.09	Readings: We finish Farkas, Donka. 2002. Specificity Distinctions, Journal of Semantics 19, 1-31.In e-Semesterapparat Romero.
16.06.09	Readings: Portner, P. and K. Yabushita. 2001. Specific indefinites and the information structure theory of topics, Journal of Semantics 18.3.In e-Semesterapparat Romero. Optional background reading: Portner, P. and K. Yabushita. 1998. The semantics and pragmatics of topic phrases, Linguistics and Philosophy 21.In e-Semesterapparat Romero.
23.06.09	Readings: Brief introduction ot Centering Theory. Walker at el. 1998. Centerinng in Naturally Occurring Discourse: An Overview. In e-Semesterapparat Romero, in folder Ling216 Pragmatics II. We will finish Portner, P. and K. Yabushita. 2001. Specific indefinites and the information structure theory of topics, Journal of Semantics 18.3.In e-Semesterapparat Romero.
30.06.09	Readings: Ebert, Christian and Cornelia Endriss. 2004. Topic Interpretation and Wide Scope Indefinites, in Proceedings of NELS 34.
07.07.09	Readings: Portner, P. 2004. What can we learn about information structure from imperatives? The absence of specific indefinites. Workshop on information structure and grammar, Tuebingen. In e-Semesterapparat Romero. Optional background readings: Portner, P. 2003. The Semantics of Mood. In The Second Glot International State-of-the-Article Book , Lisa Cheng and Rint Sybesma, ed., Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Portner, P. 2007. Imperatives and Modals. Natural Language Semantics 15(4), 351-383.
14.07.09	Readings: Kratzer, A. and J. Shimoyama. 2004. Indeterminate pronouns: the view from Japanese. Proceedings of the Third Tokyo Conference on Psycholinguistics, ed. by Yukio Otsu, 1-25. Tokyo: Hituzi Syobo. von Fintel, K. 2000. Whatever. Proceedings of Semantics and Linguistic Theory, 10: 27?40.
21.07.09	Readings: Choi, J. and M. Romero. 2008. Rescuing existential free choice in episodic sentences, in O. Bonami and P. Cabredo-Hofherr (eds.), Empirical Issues in Syntax and Semantics. Pp. 77-98.