Plurality, Conjunction and Events

318 Pages·1995·5 MB·English

by  Peter Lasersohn (auth.)

PLURALITY, CONJUNCTION AND EVENTS
Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy
Volume 55
Managing Editors
GENNARO CHIERCHlA, University of Milan
PAULINE JACOBSON, Brown University
FRANCIS J. PELLETIER, University ofA lberta
Editorial Board
JOHAN V AN BENTHEM, University ofA msterdam
GREGORY N. CARLSON, University ofRochester
DAVID DOWTY, Ohio State University, Columbus
GERALD GAZDAR, University of Sussex, Brighton
IRENE HEIM, MIT., Cambridge
EWAN KLEIN, University of Edinburgh
BILL LAD USA W, University of Califomia at Santa Cruz
TERRENCE PARSONS, University ofCalifomia, lrvine
The titles published in this series are listed at the end of this volume.
PLURALITY, CONJUNCTION
ANDEVENTS
by
PETER LASERSOHN
Department 01 Linguistics,
University 01 Rochester, US.A.
SPRINGER-SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, B.V.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lasersahn, Peter.
Plurality, conjunction, and events I by Peter Lasersahn.
p. cm. -- (Studles in 11nguistics and phi losophy ; v. 55)
Includes bibliographical references (p. ).
ISBN 978-90-481-4494-5 ISBN 978-94-015-8581-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-94-015-8581-1
1. Grammar, Comparative and general--Number. 2. Grammar,
Comparative and general--Conjunctions. 3. Semantics. I. T1tle.
Ir. Series.
P240.8.L37 1995
415--dc20 94-38629
ISBN 978-90-481-4494-5
Printed on acid-free paper
All Rights Reserved
© 1995 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 1995
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 18t edition 1995
No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
inc1uding photocopying, recording or by any information storage and
retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner.
CONTENTS
Preface ix
Part One. Collective and Distributive Readings: History and Range of
Possible Analyses ........................... 1
Introduction to Part One: An Apparent Difference Between
Two Types of Conjunction ................ 2
Chapter 1: Logical Form ...................... 4
1.1. Two Notions of Logical Form .......... 4
1.2. Two Notions of Compositionality ........ 5
1.3. Compositionality and LOgical Form . . . . . .. 7
1.4. Syntactic Motivation for LF . . . . . . . . . . .. 10
Notes ............................. 11
Chapter 2: The NP/S Analysis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 12
2.1. Historical Notes on the NP/S Analysis 12
2.2. Conjunction Reduction ............... 17
2.3. The NP/S Analysis: Formal Presentation 20
Notes ........................ 24
Chapter 3: The Relational/S Analysis ......... 26
Notes ............................. 32
Chapter 4: The S/S Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 33
4.1. Historical Notes on the S/S Analysis . . . . .. 33
4.2. "Official Version" and Critique of the S/S
Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 50
Notes 51
Chapter 5: Two Types of NP/NP Analysis . . . . . . . . . .. 55
5.1. Primitive Phrasal and Generalized Con
junction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 55
5.2. Conjoined Noun Phrases and Plural Noun
Phrases ....................... 64
Notes 68
v
vi TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 6: Interlude On Collective Action and Colors 69
Notes ............................. 80
Chapter 7: Locating the Ambiguity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 81
7.1. The Group-Level Analysis of Distributivity .. 83
7.2. Testing for Ambiguity ............... 89
7.3. First Problem for Noun Phrase Ambiguity
Accounts: Failure of the Zeugma Test . .. 96
7.4. Second Problem for Noun Phrase Ambiguity
Accounts: Partial Distributivity and Par-
ticipatory Distributivity ............. 104
7.5. Third Problem for Noun Phrase Ambiguity
Accounts: Verb Agreement .......... 109
7.6. Problems with Mode-of-Composition Ana-
lyses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
7.7. Problems with Scope Ambiguity Analyses ... 116
7.8. Conclusion ....................... 124
Notes ............................. 124
Chapter 8: How Many Readings? ................ . 128
8.1. Just One ....................... . 128
8.2. Arbitrarily Many .................. . 132
8.3. Two .......................... . 141
Notes 144
Chapter 9: On The Structure of Groups ........... . 145
9.1. Sets and Groups , Union and Pairing ..... . 146
9.2. Conjunctions of Singulars ............ . 147
9.3. The Sets Theory and the Union Theory Point
to Different Ontologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
9.4. The Argument from 'Both' ........... . 150
9.5. The Argument from Reciprocals ........ . 151
9.6. The Argument from Distributives ....... . 153
9.7. The Argument from 'Same' and 'Different' .. 155
9.8. First Response to the Arguments: Pure and
Impure Atoms ................. . 156
9.9. Second Response to the Arguments: Covers . 159
9.10. Conclusion ...................... . 167
Notes 167
TABLE OF CONTENTS vii
Chapter 10: The Event-Free Fragment ............. 169
10.1. Basic Claims . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
10.2. Syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
10.3. Semanties ....................... 172
Notes ............................. 177
Part Two. Events in the Semantics of Plurality and Conjunetion . 179
Introduction to Part Two: Extending the Coverage ...... 180
Chapter 11: Earlier Work on Colleetivizing Adverbials ... 182
11.1. A Problem in Distinguishing Colleetive and
Distributive Predicates ............. 182
11.2. An Analysis Based on the Seope of an
Event Quantifier ................. 185
11. 3. An Analysis Based on Event Mereology ... 189
11.4. Spatial and Temporal Readings ......... 200
11.5. An Analysis Based on Predieate Negation .. 205
Notes ............................. 214
Chapter 12: Return to an Event-Based Analysis ....... 218
12.1. Getting Clear about the Problem ....... 218
12.2. Analyzing 'Together' in Terms of Overlap .. 222
12.3. Persistenee and Quantifieation ......... 226
12.4. Adverbial and Adjeetival 'Together' ...... 231
Notes ............................. 237
Chapter 13: Pluraetional Markers ................. 238
13.1. Introduction ..................... 238
13.2. More than Just Groups of Events ....... 241
13.3. Parameters of Pluraetionality .......... 242
13.4. Skeleton of an Analysis .............. 251
13.5. Pluraetionality in Klamath ............ 257
Notes ............................. 264
Chapter 14: Unifying the Semantics of Conjunetion ..... 267
14.1. Groups of Events .................. 267
14.2. A Problem with Temporal Alternation .... 268
14.3. Alternation and Groups of Events ....... 272
viii T ABLE OF CONTENTS
14.4. Conjunction and Groups of Events ...... 277
14.5. Color and Material Conjunction ........ 281
Notes ............................. 286
Conclusion 287
References 290
PREFACE
Plurality is a simple notion - it just means "more than one."
Conjunction, too, is very simple; most people would be amazed (not to
mention amused) if they knew the level of attention that linguists,
philosophers and logicians have devoted to such a small word as and.
What is there to say about it, after all?
Simple words make rich topics. The fascination of plurality and
conjunction lies in the fact that a theory of their meaning has conse
quences far beyond what is obvious from the start. The purpose of this
book is to explore some of these consequences.
The book is divided into two parts. The first part is devoted to
a particular topic in the semantics of plurality and conjunction, namely,
the distinction between collective and distributive readings for sentences
containing plural or conjoined noun phrases. This distinction is ex
hibited in pairs of sentences such as lohn and Mary are a happy
couple and lohn and Mary are asleep, for example; the second sen
tence requires lohn to be asleep and Mary to be asleep, but the first
does not require lohn to be a happy couple and Mary to be a happy
couple. What makes the difference?
We will examine a wide variety of different possible explanations,
but will argue for a particular analysis, which has the following conse
quences: In both sentences, the subject noun phrase unambiguously
denotes the group of lohn and Mary collectively, and the verb phrase
represents a property which applies to this group as a whole. The
semantic difference between these sentences comes from the fact that a
group of individuals can be asleep only if the individual members of the
group are asleep, while a group of individuals can be a happy couple
even if the members of the group are not happy couples.
This is an intuitive idea, and a popular one, though it appears
surprisingly late in the history of theorizing about this distinction. I
ix
x PREFACE
think it bears up better than its competitors under careful scrutiny, and
try to argue this point in detail through Part One.
However, the conclusions of Part One face a serious difficulty
one which I think is still not weIl recognized by most advocates of
similar analyses. The analysis makes collective and distributive predi
cates extensionally indistinguishable in principle. This means that
extensional adverbs and other predicate modifiers should be insensitive
to the collective/distributive distinction - a prediction which is not
borne out, notably in the case of "collectivizing" adverbs such as togeth
er. Part Two begins by presenting this problem, develops a solution for
it, and goes on to apply the theoretical apparatus developed for this
solution to the semantics of verbal "pluractional" affixes, and to the
semantics of sentence conjunction and predicate conjunction.
The particular solution which is developed depends crucially on
the idea that verbs and other predicates contain an argument place for
a hidden variable over events, roughly as in Davidson (1967). This
allows us to give a semantics for collectivizing adverbs, even while
maintaining the insights of Part One, by distinguishing collective and
distributive action in the part/whole structure of events. It also allows
us to account for the wide range of readings typically exhibited by
collectivizing adverbials, and by pluractional affixes - a dass of mor
phemes, common in the world's languages, which serve to indicate
plurality of action.
Our analysis of pluractional markers will set the stage for a new
theory of conjunction, presented in the last chapter, which treats all
conjunction, even of predicates and sentences, as "group-forming." This
allows a unified semantics for conjunction no matter what categories are
being conjoined, and makes dear, in a way that previous theories
usually have not, what the connection is between conjunction of referen
tial noun phrases and conjunction of all other categories.
Readers who are already expert in the semantics of plurality may
find- some of the main theoretical points of Part One to be familiar. I
think that even such readers are likely to encounter some unfamiliar
material, however. Especially, the historical discussion in Chapters 2
and 4 will probably be novel to all but a few readers; I hope people
find it as entertaining to read as I did to research.