On the temporal interpretation of certain surprise questions

This article considers a special kind of surprise questions, i.e. those introduced by the adversative particle ma (but), and compares it with surprise exclamations. The main issue addressed here concerns the obligatory presence in the questions of the imperfect verbal form, versus the obligatory presence in exclamations of a non-imperfect indicative. It will be shown that the special semantics associated with these structures determines the presence of a certain verbal form. Some syntactic issues will be addressed in the final section, having to do with the representation in the syntax of properties connected to the context

A Case for Phenomenal Experience in Natural Language

Model-theoretic semantics is grounded on the assumption that meaning is reference. In such a framework, defining the meaning of a natural language expression corresponds to defining the object to which it refers, a practice sometimes referred to as ‘Natural Language Metaphysics’. Typical objects of reference used in semantic modeling are individual entities and possible worlds. A number of linguistic facts have been explained by introducing novel classes of entities in the model. Relevant examples are times and events. In this contribution, we aim at producing a case for introducing phenomenal experiences among the set of objects natural language expressions refer to. We show that the truth conditions of some natural language expressions are best described as denoting phenomenal experiences, rather than objects of the world

A perspective-based account of the imperfective paradox

Kazanina and Phillips (Cognition (2007) 105:65−102) distinguish two accounts of the progressive and imperfective: the ‘perspective-based’ approach and the ‘event-based’ approach. The event-based approach maintains that imperfective and perfective refer to different classes of events. The perspective-based approach maintains that imperfective and perfective encode different perspectives towards otherwise ontologically and metaphysically equivalent events. The event-based approach is preferable over the perspective-based approach because it accounts for the imperfective paradox, that is, for the fact that imperfective and progressive morphology make it possible to use a telic predicate like ‘drive to Bordeaux’, which is defined by its endpoint, reaching Bordeaux, to describe an event that is only a partial event of driving to Bordeaux. The perspective-based approach, on the other hand, is supported by experimental findings on the acquisition of the meaning of the imperfective. In this article, we propose an alternative approach to the progressive/imperfective that can account both for the imperfective paradox and the experimental findings. The proposal is based on two main ideas: (i) as in the perspective-based approach, the role of the progressive and imperfective is to present events from an internal perspective, whereas the role of the perfective is to present events from an external perspective; (ii) progressive and imperfective sentences involve quantification over inertia worlds, as in the modal variant of the event-based approach; however, the modal import of progressive sentences is not brought about by the progressive operator, but is a property of telic predicates themselves

Person features and pronominal anaphora

This contribution aims at clarifying the role of Person at the interface between syntax and the interpretive systems. We argue that first-person interpretations of third-person pronouns (de se readings) stem from the option of leaving the referential index underspecified on the pronoun, thus accounting for the interplay of this phenomenon with the anaphoric usage of first-person indexicals (pronoun-shifting) and logophoric pronouns. The results include proposals on the connection between the semantics of first-person and the syntax of the left-periphery, a neo-Davidsonian treatment of the semantics of first-person indexicals, and a novel view of pronominal anaphora according to which Higginbotham\u2019s asymmetric relation of \u2018linking\u2019 involves a mechanism of thematic role inheritance tied to the semantics of first-perso

Towards an extension of 'de se' / 'de re' ambiguities: person features and reflexivization

In this contribution we argue in favor of a morphosyntactic analysis of the DE RE / DE SE ambiguity, based on the opposition between interpreted and non-interpreted 3-person features (as realized on pronouns). More specifically, we contend that non-interpreted person features encode, by means of a mechanism of thematic feature inheritance, the semantic properties typically encoded by interpreted 1-person features. The proposed analysis allows an extension of the DE RE / DE SE ambiguity to linguistic contexts that do not involve verbs of propositional attitude, such as reflexive constructions. Finally, elaborating on Reinhart and Siloni\u2019s (2003) proposal that reflexivization operations may apply either in syntax or in the lexicon, we demonstrate how the interpretive properties of inherently reflexive predicates can be formalized cross-linguisticall

Indexicality and left-periphery

In this contribution, we propose that: (a) indexical features (such as first-person features) are presuppositional (following Delfitto and Fiorin 2011, Hunter 2010, Maier 2010, Schlenker 2004); (b) indexicals features are hosted in the position in the left-periphery that is devoted to the representation of the context of utteranc

In defense of propositions: A presuppositional analysis of indexicals and shifted pronouns

In this contribution we offer a new original account of attitudes de se based on a propositional approach, and we discuss Quine's 'double-vision' parado

Syntactic gradients in compounding: Bemba associative nominals vs. prepositional and deverbal compounds

In this article we compare three classes of nominal constructions: Bemba so-called ‘associative nominals’, a class of nominal constructions found in several Bantu languages (though we will essentially concentrate on Bemba), Italian so-called ‘prepositional compounds’ (or ‘phrasal compounds’), a class of nominal constructions common to other Romance languages (such as French and Spanish), and a specific class of prepositionless deverbal compounds that is peculiar to Italian and is not found in the other Romance languages

Chomsky fra storia della scienza e filosofia del linguaggio

Introduzione critica all'edizione italian

Syntactic gradients in compounding: Bemba associative nominals vs. Italian prepositional and deverbal compounds

This contribution discusses some similarities between Romance prepositional compounds and Bemba (Bantu) so-called associative nominals. It also discusses potential similarities between the verbal nominals in Italian and associative nominals in Bemb