Article
Dependent Plurality and the Theory of Scalar Implicatures: remarks on Zweig 2009
Following a recent discussion in Fox and Spector 2018, this paper provides an argument for a
particular view of the theory of scalar implicatures and exhaustification where exhaustification
is only allowed if it alters the overall sentence meaning without weakening it.
I show that this idea is helpful to make sense of the so-called dependent plural imterpreta-
tions, addressed within the theory of scalar implicatures in Zweig 2009 (see also Zweig 2008).
Even though Zweig’s account is based on insightful and plausible assumptions (most crucially,
the idea that the multiplcity component of the meaning of plurals is a scalar implicature), it
ultimately fails to derive dependent plural readings. The main reason for this is the use of the
Strongest Candidate Principle of Chierchia 2006 that happens to filter out the needed interpreta-
tion. Replacing the Strongest Candidate Principle with a weaker constraint on exhaustification
along the lines of Fox and Spector 2018 resolves the issue, while keeping most of Zweig’s insights
intact.
"Sinn und Bedeutung" is a leading European conference on formal semantics and formal pragmatics, held annually at different universities across Europe. The present volume contains a collection of papers presented at the 21st “Sinn und Bedeutung” at the University of Edinburgh on September 4th–6th, 2016.
The paper discusses the results of a series of experimental studies on scalar inferences, which is part of linguistic pragmatics. The findings argue for intrascalar and interscalar diversity of scalar inferences. Moreover, it shows that adjectival scalar inferences are derived at a relatively low rate.
This paper focuses on the connection between “four-category ontologies” (which are based on Aristotle’s ontological square) and modern type-theoretical semantics. Four- category ontologies make a distinction between four types of entities: substantial universals, substantial particulars, accidental universals and accidental particulars. According to B. Smith, “fantology is a doctrine to the effect that the key to the ontological structure of reality is captured syntactically in the ‘Fa’ ”. Smith argues that predicate logic cannot adequately describe these four types of entities, which are reduced to just two kinds — the general (‘F’) and the particular (‘a’). B. Smith has criticized G. Frege’s predicate logic. He argues that Frege, being the father of modern logic, simultaneously became the father of “fantology” with its ontological commitments. Smith transforms the ontological square to the ontological sextet (which also involves universal and particular events) and proposes a set of predicates for different ontological relations connecting these six types of entities. However, Smith’s approach has a number of limitations: he suggests a theory that describes only predicates of different types as universals. We argue for another formalization for the ontological square’s entities. This approach i based on modern type-theoretical semantics, according to which, the difference between substantial universals and accidental universals can be expressed. In first-order logic the sentences “Socrates is a man” and “Socrates is wise” share the same logical form. However, this fact is not consistent with “ontological square” metaphysics (“being a man” is a substantial universal and “being wise” is an accidental universal). Whereas, according to the type-theoretical approach, relations to accidental universals are expressed by judgments about type (a : A), but relations to accidental universals are expressed by predication (‘P a’).
We present experimental evidence showing that there is considerable variation between the rates at which scalar expressions from different lexical scales give rise to upper-bounded construals. We investigated two factors that might explain the variation between scalar expressions: first, the availability of the lexical scales, which we measured on the basis of association strength, grammatical class, word frequencies and semantic relatedness, and, secondly, the distinctness of the scalemates, which we operationalized on the basis of semantic distance and boundedness. It was found that only the second factor had a significant effect on the rates of scalar inferences.
The paper is focused on the study of reaction of italian literature critics on the publication of the Boris Pasternak's novel "Doctor Jivago". The analysys of the book ""Doctor Jivago", Pasternak, 1958, Italy" (published in Russian language in "Reka vremen", 2012, in Moscow) is given. The papers of italian writers, critics and historians of literature, who reacted immediately upon the publication of the novel (A. Moravia, I. Calvino, F.Fortini, C. Cassola, C. Salinari ecc.) are studied and analised.
In the article the patterns of the realization of emotional utterances in dialogic and monologic speech are described. The author pays special attention to the characteristic features of the speech of a speaker feeling psychic tension and to the compositional-pragmatic peculiarities of dialogic and monologic text.