Stanford
Humanities Center
MellonFoundation
Graduate
ResearchWorkshopProgram
Stanford
Semantics and Pragmatics Workshop
THE
CONSTRUCTION OF MEANING
Cleo Condoravdi,
Dick Crouch, Martin van den Berg
Counting Concepts
Abstract:
Singular indefinite
NPs in prevention statements give rise to an
ambiguity between
a general and a specific reading. In order to
account for this ambiguity,
we extend Zimmermann's 1993 proposal for
referential concept
NPs to also allow for quantificational concept
NPs. We further
motivate the need for quantificational concept NPs on
the basis of the interpretation
of indefinite NPs with numeral
determiners in prevention
contexts. We treat numerals as generalized
determiners quantifying
over concepts and propose a way of counting
concepts by counting
maximally specific instantiated concepts.
This workshop is sponsored by the
Stanford Humanities Center, and funded by a grant from the Mellon Foundation.
Ê
This page is maintained by Itamar
Francez
Mail comments to ifrancez@stanford.edu
|