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Papers by Carmen Dobrovie-Sorin
De Gruyter eBooks, Nov 17, 2011
Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory, 2018
International audienc
De Gruyter eBooks, Nov 17, 2011
De Gruyter eBooks, Dec 31, 1999
HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), 2021
HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), 2021
Semantics and Linguistic Theory, Apr 3, 2015
Adjectives and common nouns are currently assigned the same semantic analysis: both categories ar... more Adjectives and common nouns are currently assigned the same semantic analysis: both categories are said to denote sets of individuals (type <e,t>). We will show that this assumption is empirically inadequate and we will assume instead that adjectives denote properties (viewed as primitive entities, not as sets of individuals) instantiated in individuals, whereas (number marked) common nouns basically denote sets of individuals. Correlated with this distinction, we will propose the existence of two distinct rules of predication: (i) an entity is a member of a set of entities and (ii) a property is localized in an entity. Our analysis is based on the Aristotelian view that has become the basic postulate of property theory (Chierchia 1982, 1985, Chierchia and Turner 1988, Fox 2000), namely the existence of two basic types of entities: individuals and properties or, as Chierchia puts it, 'predicable and non predicable individuals'. Our empirical investigation will cover a wide range of phenomena: (i) the different syntactic distribution of adjectives, bare NPs, and Number Phrases (NumPs); (ii) the contrast between ce and il/elle 'he/she' in French; (iii) the behavior of names of profession in Romance copula sentences, which will be extended to bare NPs of the type fils d'avocat 'son of lawyer' and ami (avec Pierre) 'friend (with Pierre)'; (iv) the contrast between bare plurals and bare singulars.
International audienceno abstrac
International audienceno abstrac
Presses universitaires de Vincennes eBooks, Mar 11, 2022
De Gruyter eBooks, Nov 17, 2011
De Gruyter eBooks, Nov 17, 2011
HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), 2022
In this paper, we observe that although all positive indefinites, in particular some-pronouns and... more In this paper, we observe that although all positive indefinites, in particular some-pronouns and some-NPs, qualify as Positive Polarity Items (PPIs), they do not exhibit a uniform behavior when occurring in the so-called 'rescuing contexts' as only the former are possible. In order to solve this puzzle, we will propose that anti-licensing and rescuing contexts respectively pertain to narrative/descriptive and argumentative discourse, and correlate with different ways in which sentential negation translates: in narrative/descriptive contexts, sentential negation is interpreted as quantificational negation and in argumentative contexts as propositional negation. Given this hypothesis, the contrast between some-pronouns and some-NPs in rescuing contexts can be explained by observing that the former are weak indefinites, whereas the latter are strong indefinites. Weak positive indefinites can take scope within propositional negation, whereas strong positive indefinites cannot do so. In anti-licensing contexts, on the other hand, sentential negation is interpreted as quantificational negation, which bans any kind of positive indefinite (due to an extended version of Collins & Postal's (2004) Determiner Sharing condition on polyadic quantification).
The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Syntax, Second Edition
Going Romance, 2015
International audienc
[s.t.], 2011
International audienceno abstrac
De Gruyter eBooks, Nov 17, 2011
Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory, 2018
International audienc
De Gruyter eBooks, Nov 17, 2011
De Gruyter eBooks, Dec 31, 1999
HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), 2021
HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), 2021
Semantics and Linguistic Theory, Apr 3, 2015
Adjectives and common nouns are currently assigned the same semantic analysis: both categories ar... more Adjectives and common nouns are currently assigned the same semantic analysis: both categories are said to denote sets of individuals (type <e,t>). We will show that this assumption is empirically inadequate and we will assume instead that adjectives denote properties (viewed as primitive entities, not as sets of individuals) instantiated in individuals, whereas (number marked) common nouns basically denote sets of individuals. Correlated with this distinction, we will propose the existence of two distinct rules of predication: (i) an entity is a member of a set of entities and (ii) a property is localized in an entity. Our analysis is based on the Aristotelian view that has become the basic postulate of property theory (Chierchia 1982, 1985, Chierchia and Turner 1988, Fox 2000), namely the existence of two basic types of entities: individuals and properties or, as Chierchia puts it, 'predicable and non predicable individuals'. Our empirical investigation will cover a wide range of phenomena: (i) the different syntactic distribution of adjectives, bare NPs, and Number Phrases (NumPs); (ii) the contrast between ce and il/elle 'he/she' in French; (iii) the behavior of names of profession in Romance copula sentences, which will be extended to bare NPs of the type fils d'avocat 'son of lawyer' and ami (avec Pierre) 'friend (with Pierre)'; (iv) the contrast between bare plurals and bare singulars.
International audienceno abstrac
International audienceno abstrac
Presses universitaires de Vincennes eBooks, Mar 11, 2022
De Gruyter eBooks, Nov 17, 2011
De Gruyter eBooks, Nov 17, 2011
HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), 2022
In this paper, we observe that although all positive indefinites, in particular some-pronouns and... more In this paper, we observe that although all positive indefinites, in particular some-pronouns and some-NPs, qualify as Positive Polarity Items (PPIs), they do not exhibit a uniform behavior when occurring in the so-called 'rescuing contexts' as only the former are possible. In order to solve this puzzle, we will propose that anti-licensing and rescuing contexts respectively pertain to narrative/descriptive and argumentative discourse, and correlate with different ways in which sentential negation translates: in narrative/descriptive contexts, sentential negation is interpreted as quantificational negation and in argumentative contexts as propositional negation. Given this hypothesis, the contrast between some-pronouns and some-NPs in rescuing contexts can be explained by observing that the former are weak indefinites, whereas the latter are strong indefinites. Weak positive indefinites can take scope within propositional negation, whereas strong positive indefinites cannot do so. In anti-licensing contexts, on the other hand, sentential negation is interpreted as quantificational negation, which bans any kind of positive indefinite (due to an extended version of Collins & Postal's (2004) Determiner Sharing condition on polyadic quantification).
The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Syntax, Second Edition
Going Romance, 2015
International audienc
[s.t.], 2011
International audienceno abstrac