Download Semantics of Names, Referential Meaning, and Kinds in Linguistics and more Slides Formal Semantics in PDF only on Docsity!
Last Time
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(Section 5.3)
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Contrast
Novelty
indefinite
) and
Familarity
definite
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Example
-^
(6a) A dog (
new information
) came into the house
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(6b) The dog (
old information
) wanted some water
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(Section 5.4.1)^ Names = concealed descriptions
-^
Example
–^
(A) (
Name
) Confucius
–^
(B) (
Definite Description
) the most famous Chinese philosopher
–^
both seem to “pick out” or refer to a single individual but there is oneimportant difference:
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(B) gives you the criterion for computing or picking out the individual
Last Time
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(Section 5.4.2–3)
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Names are directly referential
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Variations:–
Kripke
: names are non-descriptive, names refer to things from historical reasons
(causal chain)
-^
Evans
:^ social context is important
(names can change wrt. referent)
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Examples
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Madagascar
-^
originally named part of mainland Africa
-^
as a result of Marco Polo’s mistake: the island off the coast of Africa
-^
kangaroo
-^
“I don’t understand” (aboriginal)
-^
ganjurru
（Guugu Yimidhirr word
）
-^
ono
(a fish: aka wahoo)
-^
“good to eat” (Hawaiian)
-^
livid
as in “livid with rage”
-^
pale
or
red
Last Time
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(Section 5.5) (Topic of Homework 4)
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Plural and Mass Terms
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Godehard Link
: Lattice structure
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Example
: possible worlds (w1,..,w4)
-^
a mapping from world to a set of individuals
•^
w
{A,B}
horse(a). horse(b).
•^
w
{B,C}
horse(b). horse(c).
•^
w
{A,B,C}
horse(a). horse(b). horse(c).
•^
w
Last Time
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W3:
horse:
{A,B,C}
horses
: {A+B,A+C,B+C,A+B+C}
•^
Lattice structure representation:
A+B+C
A+B
B+C
A+C
A
B
C
horses(X). horse(X).
threehorses^ chinese
ma
ma(X).
docsity.com
Computing Quantity
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One idea (
later to be modified for Chapter 6
–^
phrase
meaning
–^
furniture
furniture(X).
–^
piece of furniture
furniture(X), X is bounded.
–^
three pieces of furniture -
requires X to be bounded
–^
|X: furniture(X) | = 3, X is bounded.
–^
*three furniture
| X: furniture(X) | doesn’t compute
–^
Chinese:
ma
is like furniture, doesn’t come with bounded property
–^
phrase
meaning
–^
horses
horses(X), X is bounded.
–^
three horses
| X: horses(X) | = 3, X is bounded.
Kinds
•^
(Section 5.6)
•^
Bare plurals
:^
relation to quantification
- occur on their own, i.e. without some determiner or quantifier
•^
Examples:– (15) Horses are rare– (16) Horses are mammals– (17) Horses have tails– (18) Horses give birth to their foals in the spring– (19) Horses were galloping across the plain
•^
What is different about the meaning of horses in (15)–(19)?
Kinds
-^
Semantics:–
Gn(P) true of a kind iff P is true of typical instances of P
-^
here: iff =
if and only if
-^
Idea: stage-level–
object-level property
-^
not a permanent property
-^
applies during a time-slice
-^
Example–
(19) Horses were galloping across the plain
-^
predicate
were galloping across the plain
is stage-level
–^
coercion or shift needed to apply to some individual:
Silver
-^
Other predicates? Name some Adjectives
Pronouns and Anaphors
•^
(Section 5.7)
•^
Example:– (25) Shelby is cute. He is a Keeshond.– predicate saturation
•^
Referent of pronoun not always fully determined:– may be ambiguous
•^
Example: (ambiguity)– (26) Shelby met Bucky. He sniffed him.– possibilities for
he
and
him
