Chris LaTerza - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Chris LaTerza

will use the term event throughout to refer to what Bach (1986) called eventualities, which denot... more will use the term event throughout to refer to what Bach (1986) called eventualities, which denotes both events and states. 2 This operation is sometimes called Predicate Modification, as it is in Heim & Kratzer (1998).

Thank you first of all to our endlessly patient consultants, without whom this project would not ... more Thank you first of all to our endlessly patient consultants, without whom this project would not be possible. Many thanks also to the audience at GURT 2013/ACAL 44 for helpful comments and questions, especially Grover Hudson. Additional thanks to Paul Portner for his comments and suggestions. 1 Gloss abbreviations: 1-first person, 3-third person, AUX-auxiliary, COP-copula, DEF-definite marker, IMPF-imperfective verb, M-masculine, NEG-negation, .O-object agreement, PF-perfective verb, PL-plural, .Ssubject agreement, SG-singular.

This paper proposes a novel neo-Davidsonian semantics of one another-reciprocals that appear in s... more This paper proposes a novel neo-Davidsonian semantics of one another-reciprocals that appear in several Indo-European languages. Arguments are presented that suggest that such expressions be treated as compositionally complex, in contrast to standard approaches that treat them as primitive polyadic quantifiers. A theory of logical form for one anotherreciprocals is developed that can account for a non-trivial range of their syntactic distribution as well as a wide range of the attested readings of reciprocal sentences.

Ever since the work of Fiengo and Lasnik (1973) it has been well known that sentences containing ... more Ever since the work of Fiengo and Lasnik (1973) it has been well known that sentences containing reciprocal phrases, such as the English example in (1), can be used to represent varying 'strengths' of reciprocal relations of particular events. For example, (1) can be used to represent the strongest possible reciprocal relation holding among the relevant set of students, namely each student hit and was hit by every other student. However, (1) can be felicitously used to describe situations where weaker reciprocal relations hold. An example of such a situation would be a 'typical brawl', where there is fighting going on among the relevant set of students, though each student does not necessarily have to hit or be hit by every other student. We plan to present novel data from Serbo-Croatian (henceforth SC), which, unlike English, morphologically distinguishes between different strengths of reciprocity. This distinction is made by way of singular and plural morphology on the reciprocal phrase. To illustrate this, take the SC equivalents of the English sentence in (1), shown in (2). For (2a), where the reciprocal phrase shows singular morphology, this is best used in a situation where there is strongest reciprocity, or a slightly weaker form which Fiengo and Lasnik call the each-other relation, where the set of students is divided into subsets and within these subsets the strongest reciprocal relation holds. Also, when there are only two members in the antecedent set, a reciprocal relation is necessarily strong, hence singular morphology. However, the singular reciprocal phrase cannot be used to describe the 'typical brawl situation' mentioned in the preceding paragraph, where we are unsure of any strong reciprocal relations holding. To describe this type of event where a weak reciprocal relation is involved, SC must use a plural reciprocal phrase, shown in (2b). The phenomenon of using different number morphology to signal different strengths of reciprocity has some interesting consequences. For example, in cases where a weak reciprocal reading is forced, we would predict that the singular reciprocal phrase, which signals a strong reading, would be unacceptable. As shown in examples (3) and (4), this prediction is borne out. For the type of situation described in (3), it is impossible for a strong reciprocal relation to hold since once a person is dead, that person cannot attend the funeral of another family member. As for (4), the act of staring involves looking only at one object, so it is impossible to look at every other member in the set denoted by the antecedent. Beside the basic data shown above, we will discuss our findings on the behavior of more complex cases involving quantified antecedents as well as reciprocal phrases contained in ATB interrogative phrases and relative clause heads. An example of such a complex case is shown in (5), where the ATB extracted phrase contains a reciprocal. There are a few points of interest here. First, if the reciprocal phrase is singular (5a), the only suitable antecedent for the reciprocal is the first set mentioned, the phrase Marija i Jovana. In other words, only Marija and Jovana are in the pictures. However, with a plural reciprocal phrase (5b) the choice of antecedents and resulting meanings are quite different: speakers prefer readings where either all four individuals in the sentence must be in the pictures mentioned, or that there is a reciprocal relation between the sets of individuals (where Marija and Jovana bought the pictures of Marko and Jovan, and Marko and Jovan stole the pictures of Marija and Jovana). Furthermore, such sentences exhibit interesting gender agreement phenomena depending on whether the reciprocal phrase is singular or plural. If the reciprocal phrase is singular, it takes only the first set of individuals into consideration when determining its gender. In (5a), since the first set is feminine, the reciprocal phrase is also feminine. If the reciprocal phrase is plural, the genders of both sets are relevant, and since one set is feminine and the other masculine, the reciprocal phrase is inflected with masculine morphology, which is the default mixed-gender agreement form. In gathering this new data, we so far consulted with 16 native speakers of SC and used graphic representations of the reciprocal situations for the consultants to better understand the facts we were after. There was unanimous agreement among the consultants that the sentences we presented them with (of which only a small fraction are shown in this abstract) correctly describe the situations shown and described to them. We will explore the consequences of this novel data for current theories of the syntax and semantics of reciprocity. The recent research of Dalrymple et al. (1998), following work of Langendoen (1978) and Kański (1987), provides a thorough and well-accepted characterization of the different meanings reciprocal expressions can have, as well as an analysis of reciprocal phrases as

In this paper we investigate singular and plural reciprocal expressions that appear in argument p... more In this paper we investigate singular and plural reciprocal expressions that appear in argument positions in Serbo-Croatian (SC). In the first section, we will show how the number morphology on reciprocals may signify the “strength” of the reciprocal event being described, as well as suggest how the semantics associated with both types of reciprocals can be represented formally. Section 2 will be devoted to the syntactic behavior of these singular and plural reciprocals, in particular how antecedence works with each type of reciprocal. Section 3 will summarize our findings and bring up questions for future research.

The empirical focus of this paper is the shifting indexical pronoun in Amharic (Ethiosemitic). Pr... more The empirical focus of this paper is the shifting indexical pronoun in Amharic (Ethiosemitic). Previous analyses of shifting indexicals focus on two popular accounts that are representative of two strategies for the semantics of shifting indexicals ((i) Anand and Nevins, 2004, Anand 2006, (ii) Schlenker 1999, 2003). The goal of this paper is to use novel Amharic data to move the discussion of these approaches forward. We will distinguish between the two theories of this type of pronoun by considering new facts about antecedence, and we will show how both theories require revisions in order to accommodate novel data from plural shifting indexicals in Amharic.

The goal of this paper is extend a neo-Davidsonian approach for distributive determiners like eac... more The goal of this paper is extend a neo-Davidsonian approach for distributive determiners like each to non-determiner occurrences. In particular, I focus on cases where a distributivity operator and a plural noun phrase form a local dependency. To this end, I will examine floating and binominal occurrences of each as well as reciprocity and plural reflexivity. I will argue for a single lexical entry for each that is suitable for all of its occurrences, and also show that this approach accounts for some subtle semantic properties often discussed in connection to these anaphoric constructions. The following section describes the crucial background assumptions on event semantics, and the remaining sections address the role of each in local plural anaphoric constructions. This paper abridges a portion of LaTerza (2014), to which I refer the reader for further details.

will use the term event throughout to refer to what Bach (1986) called eventualities, which denot... more will use the term event throughout to refer to what Bach (1986) called eventualities, which denotes both events and states. 2 This operation is sometimes called Predicate Modification, as it is in Heim & Kratzer (1998).

Thank you first of all to our endlessly patient consultants, without whom this project would not ... more Thank you first of all to our endlessly patient consultants, without whom this project would not be possible. Many thanks also to the audience at GURT 2013/ACAL 44 for helpful comments and questions, especially Grover Hudson. Additional thanks to Paul Portner for his comments and suggestions. 1 Gloss abbreviations: 1-first person, 3-third person, AUX-auxiliary, COP-copula, DEF-definite marker, IMPF-imperfective verb, M-masculine, NEG-negation, .O-object agreement, PF-perfective verb, PL-plural, .Ssubject agreement, SG-singular.

This paper proposes a novel neo-Davidsonian semantics of one another-reciprocals that appear in s... more This paper proposes a novel neo-Davidsonian semantics of one another-reciprocals that appear in several Indo-European languages. Arguments are presented that suggest that such expressions be treated as compositionally complex, in contrast to standard approaches that treat them as primitive polyadic quantifiers. A theory of logical form for one anotherreciprocals is developed that can account for a non-trivial range of their syntactic distribution as well as a wide range of the attested readings of reciprocal sentences.

Ever since the work of Fiengo and Lasnik (1973) it has been well known that sentences containing ... more Ever since the work of Fiengo and Lasnik (1973) it has been well known that sentences containing reciprocal phrases, such as the English example in (1), can be used to represent varying 'strengths' of reciprocal relations of particular events. For example, (1) can be used to represent the strongest possible reciprocal relation holding among the relevant set of students, namely each student hit and was hit by every other student. However, (1) can be felicitously used to describe situations where weaker reciprocal relations hold. An example of such a situation would be a 'typical brawl', where there is fighting going on among the relevant set of students, though each student does not necessarily have to hit or be hit by every other student. We plan to present novel data from Serbo-Croatian (henceforth SC), which, unlike English, morphologically distinguishes between different strengths of reciprocity. This distinction is made by way of singular and plural morphology on the reciprocal phrase. To illustrate this, take the SC equivalents of the English sentence in (1), shown in (2). For (2a), where the reciprocal phrase shows singular morphology, this is best used in a situation where there is strongest reciprocity, or a slightly weaker form which Fiengo and Lasnik call the each-other relation, where the set of students is divided into subsets and within these subsets the strongest reciprocal relation holds. Also, when there are only two members in the antecedent set, a reciprocal relation is necessarily strong, hence singular morphology. However, the singular reciprocal phrase cannot be used to describe the 'typical brawl situation' mentioned in the preceding paragraph, where we are unsure of any strong reciprocal relations holding. To describe this type of event where a weak reciprocal relation is involved, SC must use a plural reciprocal phrase, shown in (2b). The phenomenon of using different number morphology to signal different strengths of reciprocity has some interesting consequences. For example, in cases where a weak reciprocal reading is forced, we would predict that the singular reciprocal phrase, which signals a strong reading, would be unacceptable. As shown in examples (3) and (4), this prediction is borne out. For the type of situation described in (3), it is impossible for a strong reciprocal relation to hold since once a person is dead, that person cannot attend the funeral of another family member. As for (4), the act of staring involves looking only at one object, so it is impossible to look at every other member in the set denoted by the antecedent. Beside the basic data shown above, we will discuss our findings on the behavior of more complex cases involving quantified antecedents as well as reciprocal phrases contained in ATB interrogative phrases and relative clause heads. An example of such a complex case is shown in (5), where the ATB extracted phrase contains a reciprocal. There are a few points of interest here. First, if the reciprocal phrase is singular (5a), the only suitable antecedent for the reciprocal is the first set mentioned, the phrase Marija i Jovana. In other words, only Marija and Jovana are in the pictures. However, with a plural reciprocal phrase (5b) the choice of antecedents and resulting meanings are quite different: speakers prefer readings where either all four individuals in the sentence must be in the pictures mentioned, or that there is a reciprocal relation between the sets of individuals (where Marija and Jovana bought the pictures of Marko and Jovan, and Marko and Jovan stole the pictures of Marija and Jovana). Furthermore, such sentences exhibit interesting gender agreement phenomena depending on whether the reciprocal phrase is singular or plural. If the reciprocal phrase is singular, it takes only the first set of individuals into consideration when determining its gender. In (5a), since the first set is feminine, the reciprocal phrase is also feminine. If the reciprocal phrase is plural, the genders of both sets are relevant, and since one set is feminine and the other masculine, the reciprocal phrase is inflected with masculine morphology, which is the default mixed-gender agreement form. In gathering this new data, we so far consulted with 16 native speakers of SC and used graphic representations of the reciprocal situations for the consultants to better understand the facts we were after. There was unanimous agreement among the consultants that the sentences we presented them with (of which only a small fraction are shown in this abstract) correctly describe the situations shown and described to them. We will explore the consequences of this novel data for current theories of the syntax and semantics of reciprocity. The recent research of Dalrymple et al. (1998), following work of Langendoen (1978) and Kański (1987), provides a thorough and well-accepted characterization of the different meanings reciprocal expressions can have, as well as an analysis of reciprocal phrases as

In this paper we investigate singular and plural reciprocal expressions that appear in argument p... more In this paper we investigate singular and plural reciprocal expressions that appear in argument positions in Serbo-Croatian (SC). In the first section, we will show how the number morphology on reciprocals may signify the “strength” of the reciprocal event being described, as well as suggest how the semantics associated with both types of reciprocals can be represented formally. Section 2 will be devoted to the syntactic behavior of these singular and plural reciprocals, in particular how antecedence works with each type of reciprocal. Section 3 will summarize our findings and bring up questions for future research.

The empirical focus of this paper is the shifting indexical pronoun in Amharic (Ethiosemitic). Pr... more The empirical focus of this paper is the shifting indexical pronoun in Amharic (Ethiosemitic). Previous analyses of shifting indexicals focus on two popular accounts that are representative of two strategies for the semantics of shifting indexicals ((i) Anand and Nevins, 2004, Anand 2006, (ii) Schlenker 1999, 2003). The goal of this paper is to use novel Amharic data to move the discussion of these approaches forward. We will distinguish between the two theories of this type of pronoun by considering new facts about antecedence, and we will show how both theories require revisions in order to accommodate novel data from plural shifting indexicals in Amharic.

The goal of this paper is extend a neo-Davidsonian approach for distributive determiners like eac... more The goal of this paper is extend a neo-Davidsonian approach for distributive determiners like each to non-determiner occurrences. In particular, I focus on cases where a distributivity operator and a plural noun phrase form a local dependency. To this end, I will examine floating and binominal occurrences of each as well as reciprocity and plural reflexivity. I will argue for a single lexical entry for each that is suitable for all of its occurrences, and also show that this approach accounts for some subtle semantic properties often discussed in connection to these anaphoric constructions. The following section describes the crucial background assumptions on event semantics, and the remaining sections address the role of each in local plural anaphoric constructions. This paper abridges a portion of LaTerza (2014), to which I refer the reader for further details.