Definiteness and determinacy

This paper distinguishes between definiteness and determinacy. Definiteness is seen as a morphological category which, in English, marks a (weak) uniqueness presupposition, while determinacy consists in denoting an individual. Definite descriptions are argued to be fundamentally predicative, presupposing uniqueness but not existence, and to acquire existential import through general type-shifting operations that apply not only to definites, but also indefinites and possessives. Through these shifts, argumental definite descriptions may become either determinate (and thus denote an individual) or indeterminate (functioning as an existential quantifier). The latter option is observed in examples like ‘Anna didn’t give the only invited talk at the conference’, which, on its indeterminate reading, implies that there is nothing in the extension of ‘only invited talk at the conference’. The paper also offers a resolution of the issue of whether possessives are inherently indefinite or definite, suggesting that, like indefinites, they do not mark definiteness lexically, but like definites, they typically yield determinate readings due to a general preference for the shifting operation that produces them.We thank Dag Haug, Reinhard Muskens, Luca Crnic, Cleo Condoravdi, Lucas Champollion, Stanley Peters, Roger Levy, Craige Roberts, Bert LeBruyn, Robin Cooper, Hans Kamp, Sebastian Lobner, Francois Recanati, Dan Giberman, Benjamin Schnieder, Rajka Smiljanic, Ede Zimmerman, as well as audiences at SALT 22 in Chicago, IATL 29 in Jerusalem, Going Heim in Connecticut, the Workshop on Bare Nominals and Non-Standard Definites in Utrecht, the University of Cambridge, the University of Gothenburg, the University of Konstanz, New York University, the University of Oxford, Rutgers University, the University of Southern California, Stanford University, and the University of Texas at Austin. Beaver was supported by NSF grants BCS-0952862 and BCS-1452663. Coppock was supported by Swedish Research Council project 2009-1569 and Riksbankens Jubileumsfond's Pro Futura Scientia program, administered through the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study. (BCS-0952862 - NSF; BCS-1452663 - NSF; 2009-1569 - Swedish Research Council; Riksbankens Jubileumsfond's Pro Futura Scientia program

'Humanising' construction? The languages of industrial relations reform, full employment and productivity after 1945

The impact of “human relations” ideology remains contentious. This article examines how such ideas were deconstructed in the British building industry during the postwar battle to raise productivity. Construction offers a useful testing bed for a strategy based on organic, workplace co-operation: it has the dichotomous attributes of past “human neglect” within a reputed industrial relations framework of harmonious mutuality. The industry suffered heavily from unemployment before 1939. It might be expected, therefore, that mindsets changed significantly with the onset of full employment. But did a common understanding of “human relations” exist to disable workplace antagonisms and past insecurity? Indeed were such constructs viewed as a priority, and in that sense have meaning? This article concludes that the past continued to haunt the industry, and that meanings were ambiguous and misconstrued, but that nevertheless a new purposeful, common agenda arose

Anmeldelser

Indholdsfortegnelse Litteraturanmeldelser: FYSISK GEOGRAFI M. M.F. A. Vening Meinesz: The Earth's Crust und Mantle (K. Hansen) ........ 105L. U. de Sitter: Structural Geology (K. Hansen) .......................... 106R. Brinkmann: Lehrbuch der Allgemeinen Geologie (K. Hansen) ........ 122Observer’s Handbook (Kr. M. Jensen) ..................................... 107The Marine Observer’s Handbook (Kr. M. Jensen) ....................... 107G. T. Trewartha: An Introduction to Climate (Kr. M. Jensen) ............ 106J. Bucknell: Climatology: an introduction (Kr. M. Jensen) ............. 107F. Baur: Grosswetterkunde und Langfristige Witterungsvorhersage(Kr. M. Jensen) ....................................................... 108J. Kakas: Einfluss der Karpaten auf die Witterungserscheinungen(Kr. M. Jensen) ............... 108H. H. Lamb: The English Climate (Kr. M. Jensen).......................... 107J. Blüthgen: Allgemeine Klimageographie (Kr. M. Jensen) ............... 120H. A. Gleason & A. Cronquist: The Natural Geography of Plants(Kr. M. Jensen) ....................................................... 108H. Walter: Die Vegetation der Erde in öko-physiologischer Betrachtung(Kr. M. Jensen) ....................................................... 109A. W. Kiichler: Potential Natural Vegetation of the Conterminous UnitedStates (N. Nielsen) .................................................... 109G. Millot: Géologie des Argiles (K. Hansen) .............................. 105D. G. Frey: Remains of animals in Quaternary lake and bog sedimentsand their interpretation (K. Hansen) ................................ 106 KULTUR- OG ERHVERVSGEOGRAFIH. Boesch: A Geography of World Economy (H. Kuhlman) ............. 116W. Warntz: Geography now and then (N. Nielsen) ........................ 121R. W. Steel & R. M. Prothero: Geographers and the Tropics: LiverpoolEssays (Aa. Aagesen) ................................................ 118Advances in Agronomy (H. Kuhlman) ..................................... 125F. Bartz: Die grossen Fischereiräume der Welt, Bd. I. (N. Nielsen) ..... 117F. Bartz: Die grossen Fischereiräume der Welt, Bd. II. (N. Nielsen) ...... 121Colloque National de Géographie Appliquée (N. Nielsen) ................. 102 EUROPA OG SOVJETUNIONENF. J. Monkhouse: A Regional Geography of Western Europe (V. Hansen) 112J. M. Houston: The Western Mediterranean World (V. Hansen) .......... 112R. Millward: Scandinavian Lands (N. Nielsen) ............................ 110N. Rrantzeg: Riant Frender pä Fzeroyene (Aa. H. Kampp) ............... 110E. Rehhen: Essor et Problemes de 1’Agriculture danoise (N. Nielsen) . ... 110O. F. Geyer & M. P. Gwinner: Einführung in die Geologie von Raden-Württemberg (K. Hansen) ............................................ 122W. Czajka: Der Schlesische Landrücken (N. Nielsen) ..................... 104D. Rartels: Das Maures-Rergland (N. Nielsen) ............................ 105R. H. Rest & J. T. Coppock: The Changing Use of Land in Britain(V. Hansen) ........................................................... 111J. Rird: The Major Seaports of the United Kingdom (V. Hansen) ........ 111J. P. Cole & F. C. German: A Geography of the USSR (V. Hansen) ........ 112P. E. Lydolph: Geography of the U.S.S.R. (V. Hansen) ................... 113R. E. H. Mellor: Geography of the U.S.S.R. (V. Hansen) ................. 113 FREMMEDE VERDENSDELEC. L. White, E. J. Foscue & T. L. McKnight: Regional Geography of Anglo-America (N. Nielsen) ................................................ 114J. P. Powelson: Latin America (R. H. Jensen) ............................ 116H. Wilhelmy & W. Rohmeder: Die La Plata-Länder. Argen.tinien-Paraguay-Uruguay (Aa. Aagesen) .............................................. 119P. Camu, E. P. Weeks, Z. W. Sametz: Economic Geography of Canada(V. Hansen) ............................................................ 115L. Dudley Stamp: Africa. A Study in Tropical Development. 2nd. ed.(Aa. Aagesen) ......................................................... 119R. J. Harrison Church m. fl.: Africa and the Islands (Aa. Aagesen) ...... 123W. Hcllmich: Khumbu Himal (N. Nielsen) ................................. 103E. Kaempfer: Geschichte und Reschreibung von Japan I II (N. Nielsen) . . 114S. Wadham, R. Kent Wilson & J. Wood: Land Utilization in Australia(R. H. Jensen) ....................................................... 121 POLAREGNENEW. Dege: Grönland ohne Eskimos (B. Fristrup) ........................ 124Axel Heiberg Islands Research Reports (N. Nielsen) ...................... 103M. Mellor: Antarctic Snow and Ice Studies (B. Fristrup) ................. 124Antarctic Research. A Review’ of British Scientific Achievement in Antarctica(B. Fristrup) ......................................................... 123Soviet Antarctic Expedition (B. Fristrup) ................................ 123 ATLASVJERKER OG KORTA. Ortelius: Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, 1570 (N. Nielsen) ................. 101L. Jansz Waghenaer: De Spieghel der Zeevaerdt. 1584-85 (N. Nielsen) . .. . 101T. Eastwood: Stanford’s Geological Atlas of Great Britain (K. Hansen) . . . . 122J .T. Coppock: An Agricultural Atlas of England and Wales (V. Hansen) 102Deutscher Planungs Atlas (N. Nielsen) ..................................... 100 NYE TIDSSKRIFTER M. M.Geophysik und Geologie (K. Hansen) ..................................... 105 B0GER INDGÅET TIL REDAKTIONEN ................ 12

Implicatures of modified numerals: quantity or quality?

We propose a new analysis of modified numerals that allows us to: (i) predict ignorance with respect to the prejacent of at least (and thereby avoid to Bernard Schwarz's recent criticism of Coppock and Brochhagen 2013), (ii) get a three-way contrast between superlative modifiers, comparative modifiers, and numerals, without appeal to a two-sided analysis of numerals, and (iii) avoid the prediction that at least should produce quantity implciatures when only is not a grammatical alternative. With it, we reconcile Westera and Brasoveanu's (2014) findings with the achievements of the Coppock and Brochhagen account, bring that work in line with recent theorizing in inquisitive semantics using downward-closed possibilities, and show that inquisitive sincerity can interact with Horn-based quantity in a non-trivial way, something that may be fruitful to consider in other domains as well.https://4f669968-a-62cb3a1a-s-sites.googlegroups.com/site/sinnundbedeutung21/proceedings-preprints/modified-numerals-sub-2016-final.pdf?attachauth=ANoY7cp1Q88YF1lYnJLBxpbbMXxIReQLbjxbyfwsP3Dv0qStClh5zYCtiMY7oAffAskO4UIYw6zMQdQsLC51Szi9TVOkc2R-u24FpZ2Kxynell_DpHjqNGsvjzr4pn_sCZW_Zh7IuhuPtq1BvO_Qhr3GD0edCikCRvmXyduRelK7rMAl5SiQoQA4owH7XZgPb2UzcSrB-usqdQ5lUe6d4wevpSEM1M8AqgtmWwDMWfkSeWZ6iF5T_aAPRuLWJg5ate1CWzhwRqsS_gXl8hWNNKvB3-KRsLfRtw==&attredirects=0Published versio

Evaluational adjectives

This paper demarcates a theoretically interesting class of "evaluational adjectives." This class includes predicates expressing various kinds of normative and epistemic evaluation, such as predicates of personal taste, aesthetic adjectives, moral adjectives, and epistemic adjectives, among others. Evaluational adjectives are distinguished, empirically, in exhibiting phenomena such as discourse-oriented use, felicitous embedding under the attitude verb `find', and sorites-susceptibility in the comparative form. A unified degree-based semantics is developed: What distinguishes evaluational adjectives, semantically, is that they denote context-dependent measure functions ("evaluational perspectives")—context-dependent mappings to degrees of taste, beauty, probability, etc., depending on the adjective. This perspective-sensitivity characterizing the class of evaluational adjectives cannot be assimilated to vagueness, sensitivity to an experiencer argument, or multidimensionality; and it cannot be demarcated in terms of pretheoretic notions of subjectivity, common in the literature. I propose that certain diagnostics for "subjective" expressions be analyzed instead in terms of a precisely specified kind of discourse-oriented use of context-sensitive language. I close by applying the account to `find x PRED' ascriptions

Quantification of sleep in dairy cows in three different stages of lactation

The aim of this project was to quantify the total sleep time in modern dairy cows during 24-hour periods and to investigate whether the total amount of sleep as well as time spent in different sleep stages varies between the dry period, early- and peak lactation. The distribution of sleep time between night and day was also examined. Furthermore, correlations between sleep and lying time, fluctuations in body temperature and heart beat were included in the aim. Eight dairy cows of the Swedish Red breed were used in this study, which was carried out between June and September 2010. In order to quantify sleep non-invasive electrophysiological recordings were performed. Simultaneously with collecting sleep data, body position and body temperature were also recorded. No heart rate data was obtained due to difficulties of maintaining electrodes for heart beat measurements attached to the skin. One 24-hour data collection was performed on each cow in the three different stages of lactation. The electrophysiological data was visually scored according to definitions of human sleep. Electrophysiological data from one of the eight cows mainly contained artefacts and all her data was excluded from the data set. Shorter sleep time was obtained in early- and peak lactation compared with the dry period. The rapid eye movement (REM) sleep time and REM sleep time in proportion of total sleep was higher in peak lactation compared to early lactation. It could also be concluded that cows sleep during larger proportion of the night compared with the day. Indications of a possible correlation between total sleep time and total lying time was found, but no relationship between sleep and fluctuations in body temperature. Possible correlations between sleep and heart beat could not be investigated since no heart rate measurements was not obtained

'Most' vs. 'the most' in languages where 'the more' means 'most'

This paper focuses on languages in which a superlative interpretation is typically indicated merely by a combination of a definiteness marker with a comparative marker, including French, Spanish, Italian, Romanian, and Greek ('DEF+CMP languages'). Despite ostensibly using definiteness markers to form the superlative, superlatives are not always definite-marked in these languages, and the distribution of definiteness-marking varies from language to language. To account for the cross-linguistic variation, we iden- tify conflicting pressures that all of the languages in consideration may be subject to, and suggest that different languages prioritize differently in the resolution of these conflicts. What these languages have in common, we suggest, is a mechanism of Definite Null Instantiation for the degree-type standard argument of the comparative. Among the parameters along which languages are proposed to differ is the relative importance of marking uniqueness vs. avoiding determiners with predicates of entities that are not individuals.http://eecoppock.info/CoppockStrand-DAL.pdfhttp://eecoppock.info/CoppockStrand-DAL.pdfAccepted manuscrip

STOCHASTIC WEALTH DYNAMICS AND RISK MANAGEMENT AMONG A POOR POPULATION

The literature on economic growth and development has focused considerable attention on questions of risk management and the possibility of multiple equilibria associated with poverty traps. We use herd history data collected among pastoralists in southern Ethiopia to study stochastic wealth dynamics among a very poor population. These data yield several novel findings. Although covariate rainfall shocks plainly matter, household-specific factors, including own herd size, account for most observed variability in wealth dynamics. Despite longstanding conventional wisdom about common property grazing lands, we find no statistical support for the tragedy of the commons hypothesis. It appears that past studies may have conflated costly self-insurance with stocking rate externalities. Such self-insurance is important in this setting because weak livestock markets and meager social insurance cause wealth to fluctuate largely in response to biophysical shocks. These shocks move households between multiple dynamic wealth equilibria toward which households converge following nonconvex path dynamics. The lowest equilibrium is consistent with the notion of a poverty trap. These findings have broad implications for the design of development and relief strategies among a poor population extraordinarily vulnerable to climatic shocks.common property, covariate risk, Ethiopia, idiosyncratic risk, poverty traps, social insurance, Risk and Uncertainty, O1, Q12,