Leibniz-Zentrum Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft Leibniz-Gemeinschaft

Semantics circle: see details

Speaker Anna Struck & Carla Bombi
Affiliaton(s) Universität Potsdam
Date 31.01.2025, 14:00 - 15:30 Uhr
Time 14:00 o'clock
Venue ZAS, Pariser Str. 1, 10719 Berlin; Room: Ilse-Zimmermann-Saal (Ground floor)

Speaker: Anna Struck

Title: The Semantics of Exceed Comparatives in Jula (Mande; Manding) 

Abstract:

We distinguish between (1) phrasal and (2) clausal comparison depending on whether the comparison standard is nominal or clausal. At the syntax-semantics interface -er is either a 3-place operator that takes three semantic arguments (individuals and predicate) (1) or a 2-place operator that compares two clauses (2). 

(1) Molly is taller than [DP Liz] → nominal or individual-denoting argument 

(2) Molly is taller than [CP Liz is tall] → bi-clausal structure with ellipsis 

Exceed comparatives encode the comparative relation by way of the verbal exceed-operator, making them phrasal by nature (exceed takes a nominal complement). Standard accounts by default therefore map these comparatives with a 3-place semantics. I will show with data from Jula (Mande; Manding) that exceed comparatives do not form a uniform typological class and exhibit variation along several syntactic and semantic parameters. I will propose a new way of analysis to capture the data, showing that the syntax-semantics mapping at the interface is not a rigid as literature suggests.

Speaker: Carla Bombi

Title: Demonstrative inferences - A closer look at antiuniqueness

Abstract: 

In the recent literature on demonstratives, particular attention has been paid to antiuniqueness: the inference that, if I say "that book", there is more than one book (Simonenko 2014, Dayal and Jiang 2022). In this talk, I argue that encoding this inference as a presupposition or as resulting from Maximize Presupposition (Heim 1991) does not adequately capture the full range of data (cf. Blumberg 2020). I present a pilot experiment suggesting that what we call "antiuniqueness" is a family of inferences that arise from the competition with the definite. Ultimately, the choice of referential expression (and resulting inferences) is affected by a multitude of factors, including familiarity vs. novelty (is the referent hearer-old?), how the uniqueness of the referent is satisified (and in which situation: larger uniqueness uses vs. prior "acquaintance" with the entity), and (im)precision.

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