Mueller-Reichau Sorting the World

On the Relevance of the Kind/Object-Distinction to Referential Semantics
1. Auflage 2013
ISBN: 978-3-11-032358-0
Verlag: De Gruyter
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 165 Seiten

Reihe: ISSN

The basic hypothesis of this book is that linguistic reference to kinds should be seen as reference to sortal concepts, i.e. cognitive categories for identifying and classifying objects. Viewed that way, kinds serve as the interface between the conceptual system and the grammatical system. Kind-level predicates differ as to whether they presuppose (e.g. to be extinct) or entail (e.g. to invent) the existence of objects, with crucial consequences for the interpretation of indefinite argument noun phrases. Moreover, object reference always involves underlying kind reference, but kind reference does not always involve object reference. This asymmetry, once recognized, proves useful in solving otherwise puzzling problems in semantic composition.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Mueller-Reichau, Olav

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Semantik & Pragmatik
• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Psycholinguistik, Neurolinguistik, Kognition

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1;Chapter 1 Genericity – the standard view;9
2;1.1 Rules and their truth conditions;9
3;1.2 The standard theory of genericity;12
4;1.3 Predicate genericity;14
5;1.4 Nominal genericity I: the standard theoretical point of view;18
6;1.5 Nominal genericity II: the two-way distinction approach;21
7;Chapter 2 Kinds as sortal concepts – from a cognitive perspective;25
8;2.1 Overview;25
9;2.2 Things in the world;25
10;2.3 Categorisation and individuation;27
11;2.4 The development of kind-based object individuation;29
12;2.5 Linguistic input as trigger?;34
13;2.6 Speculating about developmental stages;36
14;2.7 Conclusions I: kinds as sortal concepts;38
15;2.8 Conclusions II: what does it mean for a kind to exist?;40
16;Chapter 3 Kinds as ontological primitives – from a semantic perspective;43
17;3.1 Overview;43
18;3.2 Object reference and kind reference;44
19;3.3 Kinds as taxonomic categories;47
20;3.4 Kinds and concepts;49
21;3.5 Kinds and properties;51
22;3.6 Chierchia’s (1998) notion of kind;54
23;3.7 Lexical and formal semantics;57
24;Chapter 4 Spatiotemporal localisation – type-token theories of genericity;61
25;4.1 Overview;61
26;4.2 Three-class systems;62
27;4.3 Two-class systems;66
28;4.4 On the sense of the term “referential”;70
29;4.5 Conclusions;71
30;Chapter 5 Indefinite reference to kinds – the pumpkin crusher puzzle;73
31;5.1 Overview;73
32;5.2 Reference to subkinds and the pumpkin crusher;73
33;5.3 Indefinite NPs in Carlsonian object-level predications;76
34;5.4 Indefinite NPs in Carlsonian kind-level predications;78
35;5.5 Two kinds of kind-level predicates;80
36;5.6 To invent versus to be extinct;82
37;5.7 How the taxonomic reading comes about;84
38;5.8 Well-establishedness;88
39;5.9 Conclusions;89
40;Chapter 6 Lexical classes of predicates – normal and Carlsonian kind-level predicates;91
41;6.1 Overview;91
42;6.2 Predicate classes according to the standard theory;92
43;6.3 Outlining the alternative;94
44;6.4 The representative object interpretation;95
45;6.5 Categorising statements as representative object interpretations;99
46;6.6 No reference to objects without reference to kinds;103
47;6.7 Carlsonian stage-level predicates;107
48;6.8 Conceptual restrictions on spatiotemporal localisation;110
49;6.9 What is special about Carlsonian kind-level predicates;112
50;6.10 Carlsonian kind-level predicates as existence predicates;115
51;6.11 Conclusions;117
52;Chapter 7 Overt and covert articles – a kind-based DRT approach to the semantics of noun phrases;121
53;7.1 Overview;121
54;7.2 The grammatical role of overt articles;122
55;7.3 Forming complex predicates;127
56;7.4 Internal and external modification;129
57;7.5 Attributive adjectives;133
58;7.6 On the semantic function of NPs;136
59;7.7 The grammatical null article;138
60;7.8 The requirement of earliest application;140
61;7.9 Existentially interpreted bare plural NPs;144
62;7.10 The semantic contribution of a token-restricting modifier;147
63;7.11 Chierchia’s and Krifka’s explanations;150
64;7.12 Object-level arguments in kind-level positions;153
65;7.13 Conclusions;159