Dependent plural pronouns with Skolemized choice functions

Bibliographic Data

ID4569043
AuthorsYasutada Sudo (0000-0003-0248-9308, University College London, corresponding author)
Year2014
Volume22
Issue3
Pages265-297
Publication date2014-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueNatural Language Semantics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0925-854X • E-ISSN: 1572-865X
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1007/s11050-014-9107-3
OpenAlexW2050179229
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited32

The present paper discusses two interesting phenomena concerning phi-features on plural pronouns: (i) plural pronouns that denote atomic individuals (‘dependent plural pronouns’), and (ii) plural pronouns with more than one binder (‘partial binding’). A novel account of these two phenomena is proposed, according to which all occurrences of phi-features are both semantically and morphologically relevant. For such a ‘uniformly semantic account’ of phi-features, dependent plural pronouns constitute a theoretical challenge, while partial binding is more or less straightforwardly accounted for. In order to make sense of the semantic effects of the phi-features on dependent plural pronouns, the following idea is pursued: the phi-features on a dependent plural pronoun reflect the range of values that the pronoun takes, rather than the particular value it denotes at a time. This idea is implemented in a compositional semantics by making use of (Skolemized) choice functions. An appealing feature of the present account is that, unlike its predecessors, it accounts for dependent plural pronouns without c-commanding antecedents in essentially the same way as for those with c-commanding antecedents. It is also shown how this account of dependent plural pronouns can straightforwardly be augmented with set indices to account for partial binding

Linguistics · Natural language processing · Personal pronoun · Plural · Pronoun · Reflexive pronoun · Syntax · Computer Science · Mathematics · Natural Language Processing Techniques · Philosophy · Psychology · semigroups and automata theory · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation

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