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Linguistics
Department
Stanford
University |
Stanford
Humanities Center
Mellon
Foundation
Graduate
Research Workshop Program
Stanford
Semantics and Pragmatics Workshop:
THE
CONSTRUCTION OF MEANING
Tuesday, March 8, 2:30pm in 460-126:
Alternative Semantics for Definite NPs
Klaus von Heusinger (University of Stuttgart)
The paper investigates the semantics of association with focus in
complex definite NPs in the framework of Alternative Semantics. Three
main points will be discussed: First, Alternative Semantics correctly
captures the fact that the focus operator does not associate directly
with the focused expression, but with a larger constituent the
focused expression is part of. Second, the uniqueness condition of
the definite NP that contains a focus cannot be maintained in the
construction of alternatives. Third, the alternative function of the
definite article cannot be derived from its ordinary semantics.
Several modifications of the semantics of the article and its
contribution to the alternative function of the definite NP are
discussed. Eventually, it is concluded that the formation of the
alternative set of a definite NP is determined by general principles
of type shift operations, rather than by the semantics of the
definite article.
Please contact one of the workshop organizers
if you have suggestions for presentations or the workshop in general.
Back to the workshop homepage.
This workshop is sponsored by
the Stanford Humanities Center, and funded by a grant from the Mellon
Foundation.
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