Dependent Plurality and the Theory of Scalar Implicatures

Remarks on Zweig 2009

Dados Bibliográficos

ID22882004
AutoresNatalia Ivlieva (0000-0002-4194-8952, National Research University Higher School of Economics, autor correspondente)
Ano2020
Volume37
Fascículo3
Páginas425-454
Data de publicação2020-08-13
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJournal of Semantics (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0167-5133 • E-ISSN: 1477-4593
EditoraOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1093/jos/ffaa004
OpenAlexW3030964195
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas4
Referências citadas33

Following a recent discussion in Fox & Spector 2018, this paper provides an argument for a particular view of the theory of scalar implicatures and exhaustification where exhaustification is only allowed if it alters the overall sentence meaning without weakening it. I show that this idea is helpful to make sense of the so-called dependent plural interpretations, addressed within the theory of scalar implicatures in Zweig 2009 (see also Zweig 2008). Even though Zweig’s account is based on insightful and plausible assumptions (most crucially, the idea that the multiplicity component of the meaning of plurals is a scalar implicature), it ultimately fails to derive dependent plural readings. The main reason for this is the use of the Strongest Candidate Principle of Chierchia 2006 that happens to filter out the needed interpretation. Replacing the Strongest Candidate Principle with a weaker constraint on exhaustification along the lines of Fox & Spector 2018 resolves the issue, while keeping most of Zweig’s insights intact.

Argument (complex analysis) · Epistemology · Implicature · Interpretation (philosophy) · Linguistics · Mathematical economics · Meaning (existential) · Physics · Plural · Pragmatics · Scalar (mathematics) · Sentence · Theoretical physics · Computer Science · Historical Linguistics and Language Studies · Linguistics and Discourse Analysis · Mathematics · Philosophy · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation