Linguistic Plurality and the Conceptualization of Part Structure
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 23214619 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Paolo Acquaviva (0000-0002-7402-8984, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2016 |
| Pages | 194-218 |
| Publication date | 2016-03-17 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | CHAPTER |
| Venue | Unity and Plurality (SOURCE_BOOK) |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198716327.003.0009 |
| OpenAlex | W2484184541 |
| ISBN | 9780198716327 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
This chapter examines plurality as a category of natural language, arguing that its fundamental semantic value on nouns is to express the property of having a complex part structure. First, it documents values of plurality that depart from the simple 'more-than-one' reading. Examples from typologically diverse languages show that plural often leads to a conceptualization of lexical nouns as denoting continuous masses, or granular substances, or entities defined by their spatial or temporal extension. In all such cases the denotational domain has a complex part structure, possibly grounded in that of the spatial or temporal context. Secondly, the chapter relates the observed non-canonical plural readings to recent syntactic analyses, and offers a structural interpretation. Finally, this analysis is placed within an internalist approach to semantics, with the claim that the properties expressed by plurality determine a conceptualization, rather than directly reflecting the part structure of the nouns' referents.
Conceptualization · Linguistics · Sociology · Computer Science · Linguistic research and analysis · Philosophy · Psychology
| Citations per year | 0.29 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2019 - 2026 (8) |
| Highly cited | No |