Sabine Iatridou
Biographic Data
| ID | 750422 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Sabine Iatridou |
| GIVEN NAMES | Sabine |
| FAMILY NAME | Iatridou |
| SIGNATURE | IATRIDOU S |
| AFFILIATIONS | IIT@MIT |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8914-9212 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 153 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1993 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Prolegomena to a theory of X-marking
The morphological marking that distinguishes conditionals that are called “counterfactual” from those that are not, can also be found in other modal constructions, such as in the expression of wishes and oughts. We propose to call it “X-marking”. In this article, we lay out desiderata for a successful theory of X-marking and make some initial informal observations. Much remains to be done
Quexistentials and Focus
Many languages have words that can be interpreted either as question words or as existentials. We call such words quexistentials. It has been claimed in the literature (e.g., Haida 2007) that, across languages, quexistentials are (a) always focused on their interrogative interpretation and (b) never focused on their existential interpretation. We refer to this as the quexistential-focus biconditional. The article makes two contributions. The firs…
The Complex Beauty of Boundary Adverbials: In YearsandUntil
In this article, we discuss two negative polarity item (NPI) adverbials: in years (and its cousins in days, in months, etc.) and until. We argue that much is to be gained by analyzing the two in juxtaposition. We first explore in years, following our approach in Iatridou and Zeijlstra 2017 ; on the basis of our analysis of this item, we then explore until. Our approach permits a unified account of until, whose behavior has led researchers to cons…
Modals and Negation
This chapter investigates the interaction of negation with modals. In many—though not all—languages, modals have a fixed scope with respect to negation, which does not always reflect the overt linear order of the two elements. The modal flavor and strength are sometimes predictors of the scopal relations, but sometimes not. This complex distribution of patterns has received a certain amount of attention in the literature. The chapter divides the …
Negation-Licensed Commands
The main goal of this article is to argue for the existence and crosslinguistic stability of a phenomenon that I call “negation-licensed commands” (NLCs), in which commands can be interpreted as such only in the presence of negation. The article explores morphosyntactic properties of NLCs in a small number of unrelated languages. It stops short of an analysis of the phenomenon, which will have to await future research
About determiners on event descriptions, about time being like space (when we talk), and about one particularly strange construction
Negation, Polarity, and Deontic Modals
Universal deontic modals may vary with respect to whether they scope over or under negation. For instance, English modals like must and should take wide scope with respect to negation; modals like have to and need to take narrow scope. Similar patterns have been attested in other languages. In this article, we argue that the scopal properties of modals with respect to negation can be understood if (a) modals that outscope negation are positive po…
Negative DPs, A-Movement, and Scope Diminishment
Lasnik (1999) has claimed that NegDPs in derived subject position cannot be interpreted in the embedded clause and do not undergo A-chain reconstruction. We show that with a well-defined set of predicates, including deontic modals and raising predicates, scope diminishment of NegDP is observed. We argue, nevertheless, that scope diminishment in these cases is not produced by A-chain reconstruction. We also show that A-chain reconstruction of the …
Anatomy of a Modal Construction
Languages can express the existence of an easy way of achieving a goal in a construction we call the sufficiency modal construction (SMC), which combines a minimizing/exclusive operator like only or ne ... que and a goal-oriented necessity modal like have to or need to, asin To get good cheese, you only have to go to the North End. We show that the morphosyntactic makeup of the SMC is crosslinguistically stable. We show that the semantics of the …
Epistemic Containment
This article concerns a new constraint on the interaction of quantifier phrases and epistemic modals. It is argued that QPs cannot bind their traces across an epistemic modal, though it is shown that scoping mechanisms of a different nature are permitted to cross epistemic modals. The nature and source of this constraint are investigated
The Grammatical Ingredients of Counterfactuality
Counterfactual constructions convey the meaning that the speaker believes a certain proposition not to hold. This article investigates the morphosyntactic composition of counterfactual conditionals and counterfactual wishes and the question of how the form of counterfactuals is related to their meaning. Across languages, there are combinations of tense, mood, and aspect morphemes that are used repeatedly in the expression of counterfactuality. I …
Pseudoclefts Crosslinguistically
Apropos pro
Pro -drop languages have restrictions on the reference of pro not found with the overt pronominals of non- pro -drop languages. In particular, while the overt pronouns of non- pro -drop languages may take clausal antecedents, C/IPs, pro may not take these elements as linguistic antecedents. This restriction on the referential properties of pro follows from a mismatch in Phi-features; pro , which is or is licensed by Phi-features, cannot corefer w…
Control and Grammar
On the contribution of conditionalthen
The Grammatical Ingredients of Counterfactuality
Counterfactual constructions convey the meaning that the speaker believes a certain proposition not to hold. This article investigates the morphosyntactic composition of counterfactual conditionals and counterfactual wishes and the question of how the form of counterfactuals is related to their meaning. Across languages, there are combinations of tense, mood, and aspect morphemes that are used repeatedly in the expression of counterfactuality. I …
Negation, Polarity, and Deontic Modals
Universal deontic modals may vary with respect to whether they scope over or under negation. For instance, English modals like must and should take wide scope with respect to negation; modals like have to and need to take narrow scope. Similar patterns have been attested in other languages. In this article, we argue that the scopal properties of modals with respect to negation can be understood if (a) modals that outscope negation are positive po…
Epistemic Containment
This article concerns a new constraint on the interaction of quantifier phrases and epistemic modals. It is argued that QPs cannot bind their traces across an epistemic modal, though it is shown that scoping mechanisms of a different nature are permitted to cross epistemic modals. The nature and source of this constraint are investigated
Negative DPs, A-Movement, and Scope Diminishment
Lasnik (1999) has claimed that NegDPs in derived subject position cannot be interpreted in the embedded clause and do not undergo A-chain reconstruction. We show that with a well-defined set of predicates, including deontic modals and raising predicates, scope diminishment of NegDP is observed. We argue, nevertheless, that scope diminishment in these cases is not produced by A-chain reconstruction. We also show that A-chain reconstruction of the …
Apropos pro
Pro -drop languages have restrictions on the reference of pro not found with the overt pronominals of non- pro -drop languages. In particular, while the overt pronouns of non- pro -drop languages may take clausal antecedents, C/IPs, pro may not take these elements as linguistic antecedents. This restriction on the referential properties of pro follows from a mismatch in Phi-features; pro , which is or is licensed by Phi-features, cannot corefer w…
Anatomy of a Modal Construction
Languages can express the existence of an easy way of achieving a goal in a construction we call the sufficiency modal construction (SMC), which combines a minimizing/exclusive operator like only or ne ... que and a goal-oriented necessity modal like have to or need to, asin To get good cheese, you only have to go to the North End. We show that the morphosyntactic makeup of the SMC is crosslinguistically stable. We show that the semantics of the …
On the contribution of conditionalthen
Pseudoclefts Crosslinguistically
The Complex Beauty of Boundary Adverbials: In YearsandUntil
In this article, we discuss two negative polarity item (NPI) adverbials: in years (and its cousins in days, in months, etc.) and until. We argue that much is to be gained by analyzing the two in juxtaposition. We first explore in years, following our approach in Iatridou and Zeijlstra 2017 ; on the basis of our analysis of this item, we then explore until. Our approach permits a unified account of until, whose behavior has led researchers to cons…
Quexistentials and Focus
Many languages have words that can be interpreted either as question words or as existentials. We call such words quexistentials. It has been claimed in the literature (e.g., Haida 2007) that, across languages, quexistentials are (a) always focused on their interrogative interpretation and (b) never focused on their existential interpretation. We refer to this as the quexistential-focus biconditional. The article makes two contributions. The firs…
About determiners on event descriptions, about time being like space (when we talk), and about one particularly strange construction
On the contribution of conditionalthen
Control and Grammar
Apropos pro
Pro -drop languages have restrictions on the reference of pro not found with the overt pronominals of non- pro -drop languages. In particular, while the overt pronouns of non- pro -drop languages may take clausal antecedents, C/IPs, pro may not take these elements as linguistic antecedents. This restriction on the referential properties of pro follows from a mismatch in Phi-features; pro , which is or is licensed by Phi-features, cannot corefer w…
Pseudoclefts Crosslinguistically
The Grammatical Ingredients of Counterfactuality
Counterfactual constructions convey the meaning that the speaker believes a certain proposition not to hold. This article investigates the morphosyntactic composition of counterfactual conditionals and counterfactual wishes and the question of how the form of counterfactuals is related to their meaning. Across languages, there are combinations of tense, mood, and aspect morphemes that are used repeatedly in the expression of counterfactuality. I …
Epistemic Containment
This article concerns a new constraint on the interaction of quantifier phrases and epistemic modals. It is argued that QPs cannot bind their traces across an epistemic modal, though it is shown that scoping mechanisms of a different nature are permitted to cross epistemic modals. The nature and source of this constraint are investigated
Anatomy of a Modal Construction
Languages can express the existence of an easy way of achieving a goal in a construction we call the sufficiency modal construction (SMC), which combines a minimizing/exclusive operator like only or ne ... que and a goal-oriented necessity modal like have to or need to, asin To get good cheese, you only have to go to the North End. We show that the morphosyntactic makeup of the SMC is crosslinguistically stable. We show that the semantics of the …
Negative DPs, A-Movement, and Scope Diminishment
Lasnik (1999) has claimed that NegDPs in derived subject position cannot be interpreted in the embedded clause and do not undergo A-chain reconstruction. We show that with a well-defined set of predicates, including deontic modals and raising predicates, scope diminishment of NegDP is observed. We argue, nevertheless, that scope diminishment in these cases is not produced by A-chain reconstruction. We also show that A-chain reconstruction of the …
Negation, Polarity, and Deontic Modals
Universal deontic modals may vary with respect to whether they scope over or under negation. For instance, English modals like must and should take wide scope with respect to negation; modals like have to and need to take narrow scope. Similar patterns have been attested in other languages. In this article, we argue that the scopal properties of modals with respect to negation can be understood if (a) modals that outscope negation are positive po…
About determiners on event descriptions, about time being like space (when we talk), and about one particularly strange construction
Modals and Negation
This chapter investigates the interaction of negation with modals. In many—though not all—languages, modals have a fixed scope with respect to negation, which does not always reflect the overt linear order of the two elements. The modal flavor and strength are sometimes predictors of the scopal relations, but sometimes not. This complex distribution of patterns has received a certain amount of attention in the literature. The chapter divides the …
Negation-Licensed Commands
The main goal of this article is to argue for the existence and crosslinguistic stability of a phenomenon that I call “negation-licensed commands” (NLCs), in which commands can be interpreted as such only in the presence of negation. The article explores morphosyntactic properties of NLCs in a small number of unrelated languages. It stops short of an analysis of the phenomenon, which will have to await future research
The Complex Beauty of Boundary Adverbials: In YearsandUntil
In this article, we discuss two negative polarity item (NPI) adverbials: in years (and its cousins in days, in months, etc.) and until. We argue that much is to be gained by analyzing the two in juxtaposition. We first explore in years, following our approach in Iatridou and Zeijlstra 2017 ; on the basis of our analysis of this item, we then explore until. Our approach permits a unified account of until, whose behavior has led researchers to cons…
Prolegomena to a theory of X-marking
The morphological marking that distinguishes conditionals that are called “counterfactual” from those that are not, can also be found in other modal constructions, such as in the expression of wishes and oughts. We propose to call it “X-marking”. In this article, we lay out desiderata for a successful theory of X-marking and make some initial informal observations. Much remains to be done
Quexistentials and Focus
Many languages have words that can be interpreted either as question words or as existentials. We call such words quexistentials. It has been claimed in the literature (e.g., Haida 2007) that, across languages, quexistentials are (a) always focused on their interrogative interpretation and (b) never focused on their existential interpretation. We refer to this as the quexistential-focus biconditional. The article makes two contributions. The firs…
Linguistics (14 works) · Philosophy (14 works) · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation (14 works) · Computer Science (12 works) · Epistemology (8 works) · Linguistics and Discourse Analysis (8 works) · Mathematics (7 works) · Programming language (6 works) · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies (5 works) · Natural Language Processing Techniques (5 works)