Louise Mcnally
Dados Biográficos
| ID | 612828 |
|---|---|
| NOME | Louise Mcnally |
| PRENOMES | Louise |
| SOBRENOME | Mcnally |
| ASSINATURA | MCNALLY L |
| AFILIAÇÕES | Universitat Pompeu Fabra |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3355-913X |
| VERIFICADO | Sim |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 20 |
| TOTAL DE CITAÇÕES | 236 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 17 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 4 |
| PRIMEIRO ANO DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 1993 |
| ANO MAIS RECENTE DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2024 |
| ÍNDICE H | 6 |
Two approaches to the semantic decomposition of change of state verbs, how they differ, and why it matters
In this paper, I contrast two broad decompositional approaches to verb semantics. One, especially associated with David Dowty, involves translating verbs using a set of precisely interpreted primitive predicates such as CAUSE and BECOME, in order to facilitate semantic generalizations such as patterns of entailment between sentences. Another, with multiple origins in both temporal semantics and theories of the syntax/semantics interface (includin…
It’s time for a complete theory of partial predictability in language
Given the centrality of partial predictability to linguistic experience, it plays a strikingly minor role in theoretical linguistics. For many, partial predictability is to be set aside: the job of linguistic theory is to explain the infinite generative capacity of language and the semantic compositionality that accompanies it. For others, partial predictability is evidence that such an approach is missing the point. But surprisingly little atten…
Grammatically relevant aspects of meaning and verbal polysemy
The debate over the relation between grammatically relevant (specifically, what we term event referential ) and idiosyncratic aspects of verb meaning has produced a considerable literature. Some authors, such as Levin and Rappaport Hovav, have appealed to figurative uses of verbs as a source of data when the analysis of their literal uses has been controversial, a move that has sometimes been criticized. However, the question of whether figurativ…
Nominalization and Natural Language Ontology
Nominalization (e.g., sleeping, that we slept, sleepiness) allows speakers to refer and ascribe properties to whatever sorts of entities clauses, verbs, or adjectives typically denote. Characterizing these relatively abstract entities has challenged semanticists and philosophers of language for over 50 years, thanks especially to Zeno Vendler's early work. Vendler took different kinds of English nominalization constructions to support positing fa…
There be- and have-sentences
Edward Keenan coined the term “existential- have ” for have -sentences containing a relational noun in object position that present a definiteness effect (DE) similar to the one in there be -sentences. We begin this paper by showing in detail that the DE in these sentences is in fact different from the one found with there be -sentences. We then explain how these contrasts reflect differences in the semantics of the two sorts of sentences that we…
Idioms and the syntax/semantics interface of descriptive content vs. reference
The syntactic literature on idioms contains some proposals that are surprising from a compositional perspective. For example, there are proposals that, in the case of verb-object idioms, the verb combines directly with the noun inside its DP complement, and the determiner is introduced higher up in the syntactic structure, or is late-adjoined. This seems to violate compositionality insofar as it is generally assumed that the semantic role of the …
The Semantics of Gradability, Vagueness, and Scale Structure
Existential Sentences Crosslinguistically
Though the term “existential sentence” goes back at least as far as Jespersen (1924 , p. 155) and is used in descriptions of many languages to refer to a designated construction, it is difficult to identify exactly what these constructions have in common crosslinguistically. Following McNally (2011 , p. 1829), the term is used here to refer to sentence types that are “noncanonical,” whether due to some aspect of their syntax or the presence of a …
Distributional modification
We argue that distributional modification is one strategy that language affords for composing propositions about the quantity of entities that participate in a given situation. Distributional modifiers apply to kind descriptions, contributing the entailment that the kind is instantiated by a set of tokens with a particular distribution. As a case study, we analyze frequency adjectives (FAs, e.g. occasional ). We show that previous work, including…
Telicity, Change, and State
This volume presents new work by leading researchers on a central theme in study of event structure: the nature and representation of telicity, change, and the notion of state, and the relation between them. The goal is to advance our understanding of these aspects of event structure by bringing foundational semantic research together with a series of case studies from a variety of languages that broaden the empirical base for testing theories of…
Telicity Change and State Oxford Studies in Theoretical Linguistics Hardcover
Inchoativity, change of state, and telicity
Color, context, and compositionality
Bare nominals and incorporating verbs in Spanish and Catalan
This paper presents an analysis of bare nominals unmarked for number (BNs) occurring in object position in Spanish and Catalan, on which the BN is a syntactic complement to the verb, but not a semantic argument. After describing the properties that distinguish BNs from other indefinite expressions (bare plurals, indefinite singulars preceded by un ‘a’, and bare mass terms), we argue that these BNs occur in a monadic syntactic configuration in the…
Adjectives and Adverbs
In this volume leading researchers present new work on the semantics and pragmatics of adjectives and adverbs, and their interfaces with syntax. Its concerns include the semantics of gradability; the relationship between adjectival scales and verbal aspect; the relationship between meaning and the positions of adjectives and adverbs in nominal and verbal projections; and the fine-grained semantics of different subclasses of adverbs and adverbs. I…
Adjectives and adverbs
DP-Internal Only, Amount Relatives, and Relatives out of Existentials
In this squib, I argue that facts involving DP-internal only cast serious doubt/non the viability of explaining these similarities via an obligatory/namount relative analysis for relatives out of existentials
On the property analysis of opaque complements
In this paper, we regard Zimmermann’s/n(1993) property analysis of verbs of absence as a/nspecial case of the/nindependent ability of verbs to take property-type complements (see Ladusaw, 1994)./nBy integrating into this analysis a Quinian decomposition/nof verbs of absence we can tease apart the/ndistinction between opaque and/ntransparent, nonspecific complements, as well as the distinction between/nde dicto and de re readings of/nnonspecific c…
Scale Structure, Degree Modification, and the Semantics of Gradable Predicates
In this article we develop a semantic typology of gradable predicates, with special emphasis on deverbal adjectives. We argue for the linguistic relevance of this typology by demonstrating that the distribution and interpretation of degree modifiers is sensitive to its twomajor classificatory parameters: (1) whether a gradable predicate is associated with what we call an open or closed scale, and (2) whether the standard of comparison for the app…
Comitative coordination
The Limits of Syntax
Scale Structure, Degree Modification, and the Semantics of Gradable Predicates
In this article we develop a semantic typology of gradable predicates, with special emphasis on deverbal adjectives. We argue for the linguistic relevance of this typology by demonstrating that the distribution and interpretation of degree modifiers is sensitive to its twomajor classificatory parameters: (1) whether a gradable predicate is associated with what we call an open or closed scale, and (2) whether the standard of comparison for the app…
Bare nominals and incorporating verbs in Spanish and Catalan
This paper presents an analysis of bare nominals unmarked for number (BNs) occurring in object position in Spanish and Catalan, on which the BN is a syntactic complement to the verb, but not a semantic argument. After describing the properties that distinguish BNs from other indefinite expressions (bare plurals, indefinite singulars preceded by un ‘a’, and bare mass terms), we argue that these BNs occur in a monadic syntactic configuration in the…
On the property analysis of opaque complements
In this paper, we regard Zimmermann’s/n(1993) property analysis of verbs of absence as a/nspecial case of the/nindependent ability of verbs to take property-type complements (see Ladusaw, 1994)./nBy integrating into this analysis a Quinian decomposition/nof verbs of absence we can tease apart the/ndistinction between opaque and/ntransparent, nonspecific complements, as well as the distinction between/nde dicto and de re readings of/nnonspecific c…
Inchoativity, change of state, and telicity
Color, context, and compositionality
Distributional modification
We argue that distributional modification is one strategy that language affords for composing propositions about the quantity of entities that participate in a given situation. Distributional modifiers apply to kind descriptions, contributing the entailment that the kind is instantiated by a set of tokens with a particular distribution. As a case study, we analyze frequency adjectives (FAs, e.g. occasional ). We show that previous work, including…
Comitative coordination
Existential Sentences Crosslinguistically
Though the term “existential sentence” goes back at least as far as Jespersen (1924 , p. 155) and is used in descriptions of many languages to refer to a designated construction, it is difficult to identify exactly what these constructions have in common crosslinguistically. Following McNally (2011 , p. 1829), the term is used here to refer to sentence types that are “noncanonical,” whether due to some aspect of their syntax or the presence of a …
Idioms and the syntax/semantics interface of descriptive content vs. reference
The syntactic literature on idioms contains some proposals that are surprising from a compositional perspective. For example, there are proposals that, in the case of verb-object idioms, the verb combines directly with the noun inside its DP complement, and the determiner is introduced higher up in the syntactic structure, or is late-adjoined. This seems to violate compositionality insofar as it is generally assumed that the semantic role of the …
DP-Internal Only, Amount Relatives, and Relatives out of Existentials
In this squib, I argue that facts involving DP-internal only cast serious doubt/non the viability of explaining these similarities via an obligatory/namount relative analysis for relatives out of existentials
Nominalization and Natural Language Ontology
Nominalization (e.g., sleeping, that we slept, sleepiness) allows speakers to refer and ascribe properties to whatever sorts of entities clauses, verbs, or adjectives typically denote. Characterizing these relatively abstract entities has challenged semanticists and philosophers of language for over 50 years, thanks especially to Zeno Vendler's early work. Vendler took different kinds of English nominalization constructions to support positing fa…
Comitative coordination
On the property analysis of opaque complements
In this paper, we regard Zimmermann’s/n(1993) property analysis of verbs of absence as a/nspecial case of the/nindependent ability of verbs to take property-type complements (see Ladusaw, 1994)./nBy integrating into this analysis a Quinian decomposition/nof verbs of absence we can tease apart the/ndistinction between opaque and/ntransparent, nonspecific complements, as well as the distinction between/nde dicto and de re readings of/nnonspecific c…
Scale Structure, Degree Modification, and the Semantics of Gradable Predicates
In this article we develop a semantic typology of gradable predicates, with special emphasis on deverbal adjectives. We argue for the linguistic relevance of this typology by demonstrating that the distribution and interpretation of degree modifiers is sensitive to its twomajor classificatory parameters: (1) whether a gradable predicate is associated with what we call an open or closed scale, and (2) whether the standard of comparison for the app…
Adjectives and Adverbs
In this volume leading researchers present new work on the semantics and pragmatics of adjectives and adverbs, and their interfaces with syntax. Its concerns include the semantics of gradability; the relationship between adjectival scales and verbal aspect; the relationship between meaning and the positions of adjectives and adverbs in nominal and verbal projections; and the fine-grained semantics of different subclasses of adverbs and adverbs. I…
Adjectives and adverbs
DP-Internal Only, Amount Relatives, and Relatives out of Existentials
In this squib, I argue that facts involving DP-internal only cast serious doubt/non the viability of explaining these similarities via an obligatory/namount relative analysis for relatives out of existentials
Color, context, and compositionality
Bare nominals and incorporating verbs in Spanish and Catalan
This paper presents an analysis of bare nominals unmarked for number (BNs) occurring in object position in Spanish and Catalan, on which the BN is a syntactic complement to the verb, but not a semantic argument. After describing the properties that distinguish BNs from other indefinite expressions (bare plurals, indefinite singulars preceded by un ‘a’, and bare mass terms), we argue that these BNs occur in a monadic syntactic configuration in the…
Inchoativity, change of state, and telicity
Telicity, Change, and State
This volume presents new work by leading researchers on a central theme in study of event structure: the nature and representation of telicity, change, and the notion of state, and the relation between them. The goal is to advance our understanding of these aspects of event structure by bringing foundational semantic research together with a series of case studies from a variety of languages that broaden the empirical base for testing theories of…
Telicity Change and State Oxford Studies in Theoretical Linguistics Hardcover
Existential Sentences Crosslinguistically
Though the term “existential sentence” goes back at least as far as Jespersen (1924 , p. 155) and is used in descriptions of many languages to refer to a designated construction, it is difficult to identify exactly what these constructions have in common crosslinguistically. Following McNally (2011 , p. 1829), the term is used here to refer to sentence types that are “noncanonical,” whether due to some aspect of their syntax or the presence of a …
Distributional modification
We argue that distributional modification is one strategy that language affords for composing propositions about the quantity of entities that participate in a given situation. Distributional modifiers apply to kind descriptions, contributing the entailment that the kind is instantiated by a set of tokens with a particular distribution. As a case study, we analyze frequency adjectives (FAs, e.g. occasional ). We show that previous work, including…
The Semantics of Gradability, Vagueness, and Scale Structure
Idioms and the syntax/semantics interface of descriptive content vs. reference
The syntactic literature on idioms contains some proposals that are surprising from a compositional perspective. For example, there are proposals that, in the case of verb-object idioms, the verb combines directly with the noun inside its DP complement, and the determiner is introduced higher up in the syntactic structure, or is late-adjoined. This seems to violate compositionality insofar as it is generally assumed that the semantic role of the …
There be- and have-sentences
Edward Keenan coined the term “existential- have ” for have -sentences containing a relational noun in object position that present a definiteness effect (DE) similar to the one in there be -sentences. We begin this paper by showing in detail that the DE in these sentences is in fact different from the one found with there be -sentences. We then explain how these contrasts reflect differences in the semantics of the two sorts of sentences that we…
Nominalization and Natural Language Ontology
Nominalization (e.g., sleeping, that we slept, sleepiness) allows speakers to refer and ascribe properties to whatever sorts of entities clauses, verbs, or adjectives typically denote. Characterizing these relatively abstract entities has challenged semanticists and philosophers of language for over 50 years, thanks especially to Zeno Vendler's early work. Vendler took different kinds of English nominalization constructions to support positing fa…
Grammatically relevant aspects of meaning and verbal polysemy
The debate over the relation between grammatically relevant (specifically, what we term event referential ) and idiosyncratic aspects of verb meaning has produced a considerable literature. Some authors, such as Levin and Rappaport Hovav, have appealed to figurative uses of verbs as a source of data when the analysis of their literal uses has been controversial, a move that has sometimes been criticized. However, the question of whether figurativ…
The Limits of Syntax
Two approaches to the semantic decomposition of change of state verbs, how they differ, and why it matters
In this paper, I contrast two broad decompositional approaches to verb semantics. One, especially associated with David Dowty, involves translating verbs using a set of precisely interpreted primitive predicates such as CAUSE and BECOME, in order to facilitate semantic generalizations such as patterns of entailment between sentences. Another, with multiple origins in both temporal semantics and theories of the syntax/semantics interface (includin…
It’s time for a complete theory of partial predictability in language
Given the centrality of partial predictability to linguistic experience, it plays a strikingly minor role in theoretical linguistics. For many, partial predictability is to be set aside: the job of linguistic theory is to explain the infinite generative capacity of language and the semantic compositionality that accompanies it. For others, partial predictability is evidence that such an approach is missing the point. But surprisingly little atten…
Computer Science (19 obras) · Linguistics (19 obras) · Philosophy (18 obras) · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation (15 obras) · Epistemology (7 obras) · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition (7 obras) · Natural Language Processing Techniques (7 obras) · Philosophy (7 obras) · Programming language (7 obras) · Artificial Intelligence (6 obras)