18.2682, Diss: Semantics: Dyck: 'On the Interpretation of (Un)certain Inde(...)'

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LINGUIST List: Vol-18-2682. Fri Sep 14 2007. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 18.2682, Diss: Semantics: Dyck: 'On the Interpretation of (Un)certain Inde(...)'

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1)
Date: 14-Sep-2007
From: Doug Wharram < dwharram at mun.ca >
Subject: On the Interpretation of (Un)certain Indefinites in Inuktitut and Related Languages

 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2007 12:52:44
From: Doug Wharram [dwharram at mun.ca]
Subject: On the Interpretation of (Un)certain Indefinites in Inuktitut and Related Languages
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Institution: University of Connecticut 
Program: Department of Linguistics 
Dissertation Status: Completed 
Degree Date: 2003 

Author: Carrie Dyck

Dissertation Title: On the Interpretation of (Un)certain Indefinites in
Inuktitut and Related Languages 

Dissertation URL:  http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1251906981&sid=1&Fmt=2&clientId=65114&RQ

Linguistic Field(s): Semantics

Subject Language(s): Inuktitut, Eastern Canadian (ike)


Dissertation Director(s):
Sigrid Beck

Dissertation Abstract:

The ultimate goal of this dissertation is to move closer toward a universal
semantic analysis of indefinite descriptions, with the route being taken
principally an examination of the scope-interpretational properties of
indefinites in the related languages/dialects of Inuktitut and Kalaallisut
(Eskimo-Aleut: Inuit), both of which are languages lacking (overt)
indefinite articles. The general idea behind the dissertation is this: I
take a highly constrained view of what an indefinite can denote (a
property, unambiguously) and as to what quantificational force it has
(none, unambiguously), and, with this, I investigate to what extent the
semantic properties of indefinites in Inuktitut and Kalaallisut can be
explained. I additionally adopt the idea, which has received increasing
attention among linguists in recent years, that choice functions play a
role in the interpretation of certain indefinites. Explicitly, I assume
that indefinites may be freely combined with an indefinite article denoting
a choice function, and that this choice function is left free, its
interpretation being contextually determined (Kratzer (1998)). Though it is
not obvious why choice functions in natural languages should be formulated
in this manner, as there are logical alternatives --- Reinhart (1995, 1997)
and Winter (1997), for example, have argued for two --- data from Inuktitut
are considered, and it is shown that, of the choice function theories that
have been recently proposed, only Kratzer's approach can easily accommodate
the data presented. Moreover, I argue that there is only a single mechanism
available by which an indefinite may be existentially closed at LF,
fundamentally a generalised version of the semantic incorporation process
of van Geenhoven (1995, 1998a), whereby the predicate contributed by an
indefinite is absorbed by a lexical item [alpha] as the restriction of the
argument introduced by [alpha], the existential interpretation of which is
lexicalised as part of [alpha]'s meaning. 





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