17.1034, Review: Apology: Mistake in Fox & Lappin (2005) Review

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LINGUIST List: Vol-17-1034. Wed Apr 05 2006. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 17.1034, Review: Apology: Mistake in Fox & Lappin (2005) Review

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1)
Date: 04-Apr-2006
From: Igor Yanovich < ritchiebrukvar at mail.ru >
Subject: Apology: Mistake in Fox & Lappin (2005) Review 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Wed, 05 Apr 2006 13:54:05
From: Igor Yanovich < ritchiebrukvar at mail.ru >
Subject: Apology: Mistake in Fox & Lappin (2005) Review 
 


I must apologize for the mistake I have made in my review of Fox&Lappin's
book "Foundations of Intensional Semantics", posted in the message 16.3631,
Review: Semantics: Fox & Lappin (2005). 

In point 3 of the Discussion section, I claimed that Fox&Lappin's system
cannot capture the three readings of sentences representing de se/de re
ambiguity like the one in (1). 

(1) Ann wants to marry a doctor.

As Prof. Lappin has pointed out to me (p.c.), the three relevant readings
of (1) are expressed with the following terms:

(2) a. want'(E(x)(doctor'(x) & marry'(x)(ann)))(ann)
b. E(x)(want'(doctor'(x) & marry'(x)(ann))(ann))
c. E(x)(doctor'(x) & want'(marry'(x)(ann))(ann))
(E() stands for the existential quantifier)

It is easy to show that these three terms indeed represent the relevant
readings without resorting to the use of world arguments of predicates in
F&L's system. What had confused me was not that it was hard to see this,
but that I could not understand how one could get such terms from the basic
semantic representation of the sentence. Below I show how exactly this can
be done, in case there might be others who might have fallen into the same
confusion as I did.

The initial semantic representation of (1) is (2a). In order to generate
all the three readings, we should first generate a representation
underspecified for scope of the three scope-bearing elements (want',
doctor'(x) and E(x)) consisting of a core relation (F&L's term) and an
array of our scope-bearing elements. 

The GQ meanings of the three should look like this:

(3) a. L(P). want'(P)(ann)
b. L(Q). E(x)(Q(x))
c. L(R). doctor'(x) & R(x)
(L(x) stands for lambda x)

(4) shows how we can arrive at the relevant core relation starting with the
meaning (2a) of (1), where all scope-bearing expressions are taking their
surface scope (I omit below abstraction over individual variables, and use
only x as a name of individual variables; of course, it would make no harm
to rewrite the stuff below changing individual variable names when the
variables are bound by different lambda-operators and not omitting
abstraction over such variables, as an interested reader may prove by herself):

(4) a. want'(E(x)(doctor'(x) & marry'(x)(ann)))(ann) =  L(P). want'(P)(ann)
(E(x)(doctor'(x) & marry'(x)(ann)))
b. E(x)(doctor'(x) & marry'(x)(ann)) = L(Q). E(x)(Q(x)) (doctor(x) &
marry'(x)(ann))
c. doctor(x) & marry'(x)(ann) = L(R). doctor'(x) & R(x) (marry'(x)(ann))
d. the core relation: marry'(x)(ann).

Combining the terms in (3) with the core relation in different orders will
help us to get (2b) and (2c):

(5) a. core+doctor: L(R). doctor'(x) & R(x) (marry'(x)(ann)) = doctor'(x) &
marry'(x)(ann)
b. (5a)+want: L(P). want'(P)(ann) (doctor'(x) & marry'(x)(ann)) =
want'(doctor'(x) & marry'(x)(ann))(ann)
c. (5b)+E(x): L(Q). E(x)(Q(x)) (want'(doctor'(x) & marry'(x)(ann))(ann)) =
E(x)(want'(doctor'(x) & marry'(x)(ann))(ann))
d: the result: E(x)(want'(doctor'(x) & marry'(x)(ann))(ann)) = (2b).

(6) a. core+want: L(P). want'(P)(ann) (marry'(x)(ann)) =
want'(marry'(x)(ann))(ann)
b. (6a)+doctor: L(R). doctor'(x) & R(x) (want'(marry'(x)(ann))(ann)) =
doctor'(x) & want'(marry'(x)(ann))(ann)
c. (6b)+E(x): L(Q). E(x)(Q(x)) doctor'(x) & (want'(marry'(x)(ann))(ann) =
E(x)(doctor'(x) & want'(marry'(x)(ann))(ann))
d. the result: E(x)(doctor'(x) & want'(marry'(x)(ann))(ann)) = (2c).

(2a) can be generated if we just trace back (4).

However, what about the other three possible permutations? As one may
expect, their generation crashes in the middle: while want' does not care
if its argument has its own arguments unsaturated or not, doctor' does: its
argument must contain a "free variable". The following example illustrates
what happens when its argument does not:

(7) core+E(x): L(Q). E(x)(Q(x)) (L(y)marry'(y)(ann)) = E(x)(marry(x)(ann))
(7a)+doctor: L(R)L(z). doctor'(z) & R(z) (E(x)(marry(x)(ann))) - type
crash, since there is no open variable that can be substituted for z when
we substitute E(x)(marry(x)(ann)) for R.

Thus, while the review stated that "? even if it turns out that F&L's
proposal cannot be implemented, at least we will have some serious evidence
to return to the standard view", it should have said "even if turns out,
AND SO FAR IT IS NOT THE CASE, that F&L's proposal cannot be implemented?"
Again, I apologize before the authors of the book and the readers of the
review. Many thanks to Prof. Lappin who generously explained me where and
why I was wrong.

Igor Yanovich 



Linguistic Field(s): Philosophy of Language
                     Semantics


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