What Counts: Focus and Quantification

What Counts: Focus and Quantification
ISBN-10
0262263017
ISBN-13
9780262263016
Series
What Counts
Category
Language Arts & Disciplines
Pages
190
Language
English
Published
2000-10-10
Publisher
MIT Press
Author
Elena Herburger

Description

In What Counts, Elena Herburger considers the effects of focus on interpretation. She investigates how focus affects the pragmatics and truth conditions of a sentence by rearranging its quantificational structure. Adopting a neo-Davidsonian stance, Herburger claims that various pragmatic and truth-conditional effects of focus sustain a uniform explanation if focus is viewed as imposing structure on otherwise unrestricted quantification. Phenomena discussed include "free" focus, the interaction between focus and negation, the quantificational structure of adverbs of quantification, the semantics of only and even, and the differences between weak and strong determiners. One of Herburger's aims is to show that a simple semantics, without reliance on such notions as semantic presupposition, can account for the truth-conditional and pragmatic effects of focus. The book will be of interest to anyone exploring the syntax-semantics interface and current theories of quantification. Linguistic Inquiry Monograph No. 36

Other editions

Similar books

  • Verbs: Aspect and Causal Structure
    By William Croft

    A fourth type of phasal analysis is offered by Timberlake (1985). Timberlake assumes an interval temporal semantics like Woisetschlaeger, and focuses on ...

  • Linguistic Semantics
    By William Frawley

    In some languages, this elemental opposition surfaces directly, asin the Austronesian (Chamorro: Chung and Timberlake 1985; Bikol: Givón 1984) and certain ...

  • Communication Law
    By Dominic G Caristi, William R Davie, Michael Cavanaugh

    Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson were performing during the halftime show when a “wardrobe malfunction” exposed for a fraction of a second the singer's ...

  • Communication Law: Practical Applications in the Digital Age
    By William R Davie, Dom Caristi

    Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson were performing during the halftime show when a “wardrobe malfunction” exposed for a fraction of a second the singer's ...

  • The Evolution of Grammar: Tense, Aspect, and Modality in the Languages of the World
    By Joan Bybee, Revere Perkins, William Pagliuca

    ... 70, 85,171,231 Thomson, Greg, xix Thomson, R. W, 231, 233 Timberlake, Alan, ... J. M., 225, 235 van Putte, E., 286, 294 Vermant, S., 61,62 Vincent, N., ...

  • The Routledge Dictionary of Pronunciation for Current English
    By Clive Upton, William A. Kretzschmar, Jr.

    ... 'timbol, –Z timber BR 'timble(r), -oz, -(e)rin, -od AM 'timblor, -orz, -(e)rin, ... -s Timberlake BR 'timboleik AM 'timbor,eik timberland BR 'timbaland, ...

  • Cross-Cultural and Intercultural Communication
    By William B. Gudykunst

    ... 237 St. George , R. , 38 Stilling , E. , 251 Stonequist , E. , 247 Stopka ... R. , 149 Tidwell , R. , 227 , 230 Timberlake , M. F. , 266 Ting - Toomey ...

  • The Story Within: New Insights and Inspiration for Writers
    By Laura Oliver, M.F.A.

    ... line on Deck D. A baby squeals in the background cacophony ofthe airport. ... spirit in terms of matter, matter in terms ofspirit,” Robert Frost said.

  • Maintaining Long-Distance and Cross-Residential Relationships
    By Laura Stafford

    ... 30, 31, 32, 34 Durand, D., 49 Dwyer, J. W., 78 E Egan, J., 93 Eisenberg, ... 102 Floyd, K., 85, 89, 91 Forsyth, C. J., 41, 42, 48, 5.1 Frost-Knappman, ...

  • Emergent Literacy: Lessons for Success
    By Sonia Q. Cabell, Laura M. Justice, Joan Kaderavek

    Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 4, 331–342. Freedman, D. (2007). Scribble. New York: Knopf Books for Young Readers. Frost, J. (2001).