The Semantics of Relative Position

No abstract

Ways of Going 'Back': A Case Study in Spatial Direction

BLS 39: General Session and Special Session on Space and Directionalit

Hitting the nail on the head: Force vectors in verb semantics

We present an analysis of force verbs, like hit, as involving paths with force-dynamic properties, modelled through force vectors. This allows us to explain a number of observations about the lexical meaning and composition of these verbs. For instance, force adverbs such as hard specify the magnitude of the force vectors, while certain prepositions contribute information about their direction. The interpretation of resultative sentences with force verbs can also be explained. Resultative sentences like to hit the nail into the door are analysed as complex events with caused results. This requires a force-dynamic computation with the force vectors involved in the first event, leading to the second event, and might explain otherwise mysterious incompatibilities of force modifiers and results that we observe for German

A Semantic Characterization of Locative PPs

No abstract

Weak definites and reference to kinds

Weak definite NPs do not presuppose the existence of uniquely identifiable entities. In addition, they display a range of other peculiar properties such as sloppy readings in VPs ellipsis, narrow scope interpretations, lexical restrictions and enriched meaning. In order to account for these, in this paper we analyze weak definites as expressions that refer to the same sort of kind individuals that definite generics refer to. We propose that the combination of weak definites with object-level predicates is made possible by a lexical rule that lifts object-level relations to 'enriched' kind-level relations

Weak definites refer to kinds

This paper presents an analysis of weak definites (e.g. to answer the phone) as introduced by Carlson and Sussman (2005). The proposal is that these definites refer to kinds, which are instantiated by ordinary individuals when they combine with object-level predicates. This combination is made possible by a lexical rule that lifts object-level predicates to kind-level predicates, and incorporates into their denotation a predicate that represents the stereotypical usages of the kinds. This analysis accounts for most of the peculiar properties of weak definites.Cet article présente une analyse des définis faibles (comme répondre au téléphone) introduits par Carlson et Sussman (2005). On y défend l’idée que les définis faibles font référence à des espèces, qui s’instancient dans des individus ordinaires quand ils se combinent avec des prédicats de type object-level. Cette composition est rendue possible par une règle lexicale qui change les prédicats de type object-level en prédicats de type kind-level et qui incorpore à leur dénotation un prédicat qui reflète les usages stéréotypiques de ces espèces. Cette analyse permet de rendre compte de la plupart des propriétés caractéristiques des définis faibles

'Have', 'with' and 'without'

The research reported in this paper is part of our attempt to get to a deeper understanding of why 'with' and 'without' are special prepositions in taking singular bare nouns more easily than other prepositions. The paper focuses on the semantics of existential and incorporation 'have', which we take to be the same and to constitute the verbal counterpart of 'with' and 'without'. We propose existential/incorporation 'have' builds relations: it selects one-place predicates and turns them into two-place predicates

Author's Reply - Getting to the Points of a Semantic Map

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