15,733 research outputs found
Secondary predication in Russian
The paper makes two contributions to semantic typology of secondary predicates. It provides an explanation of the fact that Russian has no resultative secondary predicates, relating this explanation to the interpretation of secondary predicates in English. And it relates depictive secondary predicates in Russian, which usually occur in the instrumental case, to other uses of the instrumental case in Russian, establishing here, too, a difference to English concerning the scope of the secondary predication phenomenon
Papers on predicative constructions : Proceedings of the workshop on secundary predication, October 16-17, 2000, Berlin
This volume presents a collection of papers touching on various issues concerning the syntax and semantics of predicative constructions.
A hot topic in the study of predicative copula constructions, with direct implications for the treatment of he (how many he's do we need?), and wider implications for the theories of predication, event-based semantics and aspect, is the nature and source of the situation argument. Closer examination of copula-less predications is becoming increasingly relevant to all these issues, as is clearly illustrated by the present collection
Logicism, Possibilism, and the Logic of Kantian Actualism
In this extended critical discussion of 'Kant's Modal Metaphysics' by Nicholas Stang (OUP 2016), I focus on one central issue from the first chapter of the book: Stangâs account of Kantâs doctrine that existence is not a real predicate. In §2 I outline some background. In §§3-4 I present and then elaborate on Stangâs interpretation of Kantâs view that existence is not a real predicate. For Stang, the question of whether existence is a real predicate amounts to the question: âcould there be non-actual possibilia?â (p.35). Kantâs view, according to Stang, is that there could not, and that the very notion of non-actual or âmereâ possibilia is incoherent. In §5 I take a close look at Stangâs master argument that Kantâs Leibnizian predecessors are committed to the claim that existence is a real predicate, and thus to mere possibilia. I argue that it involves substantial logical commitments that the Leibnizian could reject. I also suggest that it is danger of proving too much. In §6 I explore two closely related logical commitments that Stangâs reading implicitly imposes on Kant, namely a negative universal free logic and a quantified modal logic that invalidates the Converse Barcan Formula. I suggest that each can seem to involve Kant himself in commitment to mere possibilia
Two Indian dialectical logics: saptabhangi and catuskoti
A rational interpretation is proposed for two ancient Indian logics: the Jaina saptabhaáš
gÄŤ, and the MÄdhyamika catuᚣkoáši. It is argued that the irrationality currently imputed to these logics relies upon some philosophical preconceptions inherited from Aristotelian metaphysics. This misunderstanding can be corrected in two steps: by recalling their assumptions about truth; by reconstructing their ensuing theory of judgment within a common conceptual framewor
Measure instrumental in russian
We will argue that some seemingly adverbial free DPs in the instrumental in Russian which are traditionally termed measure instrumental are best understood as secondary predicates. We present the relevant syntactic assumptions and propose a semantics of this use of DPs in the instrumental. This proposal hears on the distinction between adjunct modification and secondary predication
Predication at the interface
We try to show that predication plays a greater role in syntax than commonly assumed. Specifically, we wil argue that predication to a large extent determines both the phrase structure of clauses and trigger syntactic processes that take place in clauses. If we are on the right path, this implies that syntax is basically semantically driven, given that predication is semantically construed
Complex copula systems as suppletive alomorphy
Languages are known to vary in the number of verbs they exhibit corresponding to English "be", in the distribution of such copular verbs, and in the presence or absence of a
distinct verb for possession sentences corresponding to English
"have". This paper offers novel
arguments for the position that such differences should be modeled in terms of suppletive
allomorphy of the same syntactic element (here dubbed v BE), employing a Late Insertion-
based framework. It is shown that such a suppletive allomorphy approach to complex copula
systems makes three predictions that distinguish it from non-suppletion-based alternatives
(concerning decomposition, possible and impossible syncretisms, and Impoverishment), and that these predictions seem to be correct (although a full test of the possible and impossible syncretisms prediction is not possible in the current state of knowledge)
Chomskyan Arguments Against Truth-Conditional Semantics Based on Variability and Co-predication
In this paper I try to show that semantics can explain word-to-world relations and that sentences can have meanings that determine truth-conditions. Critics like Chomsky typically maintain that only speakers denote, i.e., only speakers, by using words in one way or another, represent entities or events in the world. However, according to their view, individual acts of denotations are not explained just by virtue of speakersâ semantic knowledge. Against this view, I will hold that, in the typical cases considered, semantic knowledge can account for the denotational uses of words of individual speakers
Paradoxes and Their Resolutions
Paradoxes and their Resolutions is a âthematic compilationâ by Avi Sion. It collects in one volume the essays that he has written in the past (over a period of some 27 years) on this subject. It comprises expositions and resolutions of many (though not all) ancient and modern paradoxes, including: the Protagoras-Euathlus paradox (Athens, 5th Cent. BCE), the Liar paradox and the Sorites paradox (both attributed to Eubulides of Miletus, 4th Cent. BCE), Russellâs paradox (UK, 1901) and its derivatives the Barber paradox and the Master Catalogue paradox (also by Russell), Grellingâs paradox (Germany, 1908), Hempel's paradox of confirmation (USA, 1940s), and Goodmanâs paradox of prediction (USA, 1955). This volume also presents and comments on some of the antinomic discourse found in some Buddhist texts (namely, in Nagarjuna, India, 2nd Cent. CE; and in the Diamond Sutra, date unknown, but probably in an early century CE)
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