Iceberg Semantics for Mass Nouns and Count Nouns: A New Framework for Boolean Semantics

385 Pages·2020·8.973 MB·English

by  Fred Landman

Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy 105
Fred Landman
Iceberg
Semantics
for Mass Nouns
and Count Nouns
A New Framework for Boolean
Semantics
Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy
Volume 105
SeriesEditors
CleoCondoravdi,StanfordUniversity,Stanford,CA,USA
OrinPercus,UniversityofNantes,France
ZoltanSzabo,YaleUniversity,NewHaven,CT,USA
EditorialBoardMembers
JohanvanBentham,UniversityofAmsterdam,Amsterdam,TheNetherlands
GregoryN.Carlson,UniversityofRochester,Rochester,NY,USA
DavidDowty,TheOhioStateUniversity,Columbus,OH,USA
GeraldGazdar,UniversityofSussex,Brighton,UK
IreneHeim,MassachusettsInstituteofTechnology,Cambridge,MA,USA
EwanKlein,ICCS,Edinburgh,UK
BillLadusaw,CowellCollege,UniversityofCalifornia,SantaCruz,CA,USA
TerrenceParsons,UniversityofCalifornia,Irvine,CA,USA
Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy publishes monographs and edited volumes
that focus on issues related to structure and meaning in natural language, as
addressed in the semantics, philosophy of language, pragmatics and related disci-
plines,inparticularthefollowingareas:
(cid:129) philosophical theories of meaning and truth, reference, description, entailment,
presupposition,implicatures,context-dependence,andspeechacts
(cid:129) linguistictheoriesofsemanticinterpretationinrelationtosyntacticstructureand
prosody,ofdiscoursestructure,lexicalsemanticsandsemanticchange
(cid:129) psycholinguistic theories ofsemantic interpretation and issues ofthe processing
andacquisitionofnaturallanguage,andtherelationofsemanticinterpretationto
othercognitivefaculties
(cid:129) mathematical and logical properties of natural language and general aspects of
computationallinguistics
(cid:129) philosophicalquestionsraisedbylinguisticsasascience.
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Fred Landman
Iceberg Semantics for Mass
Nouns and Count Nouns
A New Framework for Boolean Semantics
FredLandman
LinguisticsDepartment
TelAvivUniversity
TelAviv,Israel
ISSN0924-4662 ISSN2215-034X (electronic)
StudiesinLinguisticsandPhilosophy
ISBN978-3-030-42710-8 ISBN978-3-030-42711-5 (eBook)
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Acknowledgements
Inthespringof2001,ItaughtaseminaratTelAvivUniversityonthesemanticsof
mass nouns, focussing on Chierchia 1998, a paper that Gennaro Chierchia, Susan
Rothstein,andIhadbeendiscussingintheyearsbeforeandafteritspublicationin
1998.Attheendofthissemester,Iputtogetheramanuscriptwhichalreadyhadinit
in some form or other the ideas of sets generated by a base, the mass-count
distinction as a horizontal distinction of overlap versus disjointness, and the idea
that the base of mass denotations overlaps because it collects simultaneously
different disjoint variant partitionings of its sum. In the next 7 years, while I was
workingonothertopics,Ikeptaversion(actually,asequenceofversions)alwayson
mydeskinview,tothinkaboutinsparemoments,becauseIkeptfeelingthatIwas
ontosomething‘big’,eventhough,yearafteryear,Icouldgetneitherthetechnique
togethernorfindacoherentstoryline.Inthemeantime,themanuscriptbulgedoutin
alldirectionsbutagainneveracquiredenoughformorsatisfactorytechnicalcontent
formetoevenstartpresentingitincolloquiumtalks.
ThischangedwhenwewereonsabbaticalinAmsterdamin2008–2010.Atthat
time, SusanRothstein hadstartedtoworkon hertheory ofthemass-count distinc-
tion,andwewereonadailybasisdiscussingthematerialthatbecameher2010paper
andthematerialinmymanuscript.Bythistimetoo,theissuesIhadbeenwrestling
with were becoming ‘topical’, which, in the life of an academic researcher, adds
some ‘urgency’ to it. In short, at some point during this period, the mass-count
distinctionandIcebergsemanticsmanoeuvreditselfintofirstpositionofmyresearch
interests,wheretheyhavestayeduntilnow.
IfoundmystorylinethatyearandgaveafirstpresentationatPALMYRIX:Logic
andtheUseofLanguageinJune2010atILLCinAmsterdam.Thatwasthefirstofa
whole series of presentations at conferences, workshops, and in departmental
colloquia in 2010, culminating in a presentation I gave at the conference Formal
SemanticsandPragmatics:Discourse,Context,andModels,organizedbyMichael
Glanzberg, Barbara Partee, and Jurģis Šķilters in Riga in November 2010, which
resulted inthefirstpublicationonthetopic,Landman2011a,apaper focussing on
themass-countandneat-messdistinctions.
v
vi Acknowledgements
Thecompositional detailsofIceberg semanticswereworked outfora presenta-
tionataWorkshoponCountabilityattheHeinrichHeineUniversityofDüsseldorf,
organized by Hana Filip and Christian Horn in 2013. The material on classifier
phrasesandmeasurephraseswasdevelopedforapaperIgaveattheconferenceon
Number:Cognitive,SemanticandCross-linguisticApproaches,organizedbySusan
Rothstein and Jurģis Šķilters in Riga in December 2015, and our joint paper,
Khrizman, Landman, Lima, Rothstein, and Schvarcz 2016, presented a few days
lateratthe20thAmsterdamColloquiumatILLC.
The material on count comparison for mess mass nouns in Dutch was first
presented at the second workshop on countability organized by Hana Filip and
Peter Sutton at the Heinrich Heine University of Düsseldorf. The material from
bothDüsseldorftalksistobepublishedinLandman2020.
Ihavelistedtheworkshopsandconferencesherethatcorrespondmostclearlyto
developmentstagesinthiswork,butIhavetalkedabout thismaterial atnumerous
other workshops and departmental colloquiums at the universities of Tel Aviv,
Bar-Ilan,Jerusalem,Tübingen,Düsseldorf,Frankfurt,Berlin,Stuttgart,andVienna
andanOhioStateUniversity-organizedconferenceinDubrovnik.Special mention
should be made of the yearly 1-day semantics workshops organized by Susan
RothsteinatBar-IlanUniversitywhereIhavepresentedregularly.
I give warm thanks to the organizers and all the participants of these events for
stimulating discussions, critical comments, their own talks, companionship, and
lovely dinners. I also thank the referees that commented on the papers out of
whichthisbookgrewandtherefereesthatcommentedondraftsofthisbook.
IlistforspecialthanksVolodjaBorschev,GennaroChierchia,EditDoron,Hana
Filip, Scott Grimm, Alex Grosu, Keren Khrizman, Omer Korat, Manfred Krifka,
Beth Levin, Xu Ping Li, Suzi Lima, Barbara Partee, Roberta Pires de Oliveira,
BrigittaSchvarcz,AvivSchoenfeld,andPeterSutton.
IhavelecturedonthismaterialingraduateseminarsatTelAvivUniversity;atthe
winter school of the Brazilian Association for Linguistics, Abralin, in Curitiba, in
2011; at the 7th International School in Cognitive Sciences and Semantics at the
University of Latvia in Riga in 2015, organized by Susan Rothstein and Jurģis
Šķilters;andatthesummerschoolofVilniusUniversityandtheAcademiaSalensis
inSalos,Lithuania,organizedbyAlexHolvoet.
Hereagain,Iwarmlythanktheorganizers,butthistimeaboveallthestudents:I
know that you were forced attimesto put on your seatbelt to follow me down my
semanticrollercoasters,butyourhelphasbeenessentialincarvingoutastructurein
thismaterial.
Next, my thanks for institutional support. First of all, my colleagues in the
Linguistics Department at Tel Aviv University have allowed me to take, in the
course of 17 years, two sabbaticals (counting up to 3 years), a one and a half year
leavetotakeupaHumboldtFellowship,andjustnowasemesterfreeofteachingto
writethefinalversionofthisbook.Ifeelthattheyhavebeenverygeneroustowards
meinthis,andIwarmlythankthem.
Acknowledgements vii
I thank the Linguistic Department at the University of Utrecht for hosting me
duringmysabbaticalin2001–2002andtheILLCattheUniversityofAmsterdamfor
hostingmeduringmytwoyearsabbaticalyearsin2008–2010.
IwarmlythanktheAlexandervonHumboldtFoundationforawardingbothtome
and to Susan Rothstein a very generous Humboldt Research Award, and awarding
thesetousveryconvenientlyatthesametime.Theirsupportmadeitpossibleforus
todedicateoneandahalfyearstodoingresearchinaverysupportiveenvironment,
and,asaconsequence,thecontributionoftheHumboldtFoundationtothisbookis
immense.
IthanktheLinguisticsDepartmentoftheEberhardKarlsUniversityofTübingen
for hosting us during our time as Humboldt fellows in Tübingen, and I especially
thank Gerhard Jäger, Fritz Hamm, and Heike Winhart for their much appreciated
helpandfriendship.
Alex Rothstein Landman read throughthe finalmanuscripttotake out themost
obviousremnantsofnon-Englishinmywriting,andIwarmlythankherforthat.
Idon’tusuallydothe‘familyandfriends’thinginacknowledgements,butImake
anexceptionthistime:the17-yearperiodattheendofwhichthisbookcomeshas
beencharacterizedbywarmandlovingrelationswithmymother;mysiblingsJan,
Ed,Ruud,andTruusandtheirfamilies;mydaughterAlexandherpartnerEatai;and
nowmygrandsonEzra,andwithourclosefriendsGenevieveBlanchardandBarry
Meisling. And of course with Ronya, who has shared 15 of those years with
us.Thankyouall.
AndSusan,nothinginthisbookwouldhavebeenthesame,nothingwouldhave
beenasgood,withouther.Butthen,nothinginthelast17yearswouldhavebeenthe
same,nothingwouldhavebeenasgood,withouther.Andthis,andsomuchmore.
February2019
I finalized the above acknowledgements, unaware that in the months after that,
mywordswouldbeinneedofaverybitterappendix.FirstinMarch,wemourned
the death of our dear friend Edit Doron. Then at the end of May, our life became
unhingedwhenoutofnowhereSusanwasdiagnosedwithwhatturnedouttobean
extremelyviolentdiseasethatshediedofattheendofJuly.
At our wedding, 25 years ago, you addressed me in the words of the Song of
Songs:
הבָ֔ הֲ אַֽ ת֙ וֶמָּ֨ כַ הזָּ֤עַ ־יכִּֽ ךָ עֶ֔ וֹרזְ־לעַ ם֙ תָ וֹחכַּֽ ךָ בֶּ֗ לִ ־לעַ םתָ֜ וֹחכַֽ ינִ מֵ֨ ישִׂ
Setmeasasealuponyourheart,
asasealuponyourarm,
forloveisstrongasdeath
Ididanditis.Thisbookisasmuchproofofthatasanything.
October2019
Contents
1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 JustRight. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 SectionbySection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2 BooleanBackground. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.1 BooleanAlgebrasLite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.2 Appendix(ForReaderswithNoSemanticBackground). . . . . . 25
2.3 BooleanAlgebras. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
3 MountainSemantics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
3.1 MountainSemanticsforCountNouns. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
3.2 CountinginMountainSemantics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
3.3 Sharvy’sDefinitenessOperationandthePragmatics
oftheNullElement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
3.4 CountComparison. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
3.5 TheDistributiveOperator. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
3.6 MountainSemanticsforMassNounsandCountNouns. . . . . . . 91
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
4 SortingandUnsorting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
4.1 SortedDomains. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
4.2 TheGoldParadox. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
4.3 SortingtotheLimit:Homogeneity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
4.4 TheSupremumArgument. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
4.4.1 FurnitureandPavarotti’sHair. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
4.4.2 OnBuyingFurniture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
4.4.3 TheMadWigmaker. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
4.4.4 DualPerspectiveIntensionality. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
4.5 Portioning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
4.6 WhitherMountainSemantics?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
ix
x Contents
4.7 ProblemsofUnsorting. . . . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . . .. . . .. . . .. 124
4.7.1 TheProblemofDistribution. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
4.7.2 EXCURSUS:Rothstein2010
(andKrifka1989,1995). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
4.7.3 GrammaticalSolutionstoDistribution. . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
5 IcebergSemanticsforCountNouns. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
5.1 IcebergSemanticsforCountNouns. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
5.2 DistributionSetsandCardinality. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
5.3 CompositionalityandtheHeadPrinciple. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
5.4 AnExample:TheThreeWhiteCats. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
5.5 SlanderingEmployeesandTunaEatingCats. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
6 IcebergSemanticsforCountNounsandMassNouns. . . . . . . . . . . 161
6.1 Count–Mass–Neat–Mess. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
6.1.1 Count,Mass,Neat,MessasBase-Distinctions. . . . . . . 161
6.1.2 DefiningCount,Mass,NeatandMessI-Sets. . . . . . . . 165
6.1.3 Count,Mass,NeatandMessIntensions. . . . . . . . . . . . 167
6.1.4 TheImperativeofDisjointness. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
6.2 IcebergSemanticsforDPs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
6.3 SingularShift. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
6.4 Portioning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
6.5 Gillon’sProblem. . . . .. . . . . . .. . . . . . .. . . . . . .. . . . . . . .. 182
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
7 NeatMassNouns. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
7.1 GroupNeutralandSumNeutralNeatMassNouns. . . . . . . . . . 189
7.2 ConceptuallyandContextuallyDisjointNeatMassNouns. . . . . 196
7.3 NeatMassNounsasMassNouns. . . . . .. . . . .. . . . . .. . . . .. 200
7.4 NeatMassNounsasNeatNouns. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
7.4.1 Atomicity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
7.4.2 TheIndividualClassifierstuk(s)inDutch. . . . . . . . . . . 205
7.4.3 CountandMeasureComparison. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
7.4.4 DistributiveAdjectives. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
8 MessMassNouns. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
8.1 TypesofMessMassI-sets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
8.1.1 Type1:LikeTime. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
8.1.2 Type2:LikeSaltDissolvedinWater. . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
8.1.3 Type3:LikeMeatandSoup. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
8.1.4 Type4:LikeRice. . .. . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . .. . 239
8.1.5 Type5:LikeWater. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241