30.2614, Books: Scope Oddity: Blok

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-30-2614. Tue Jul 02 2019. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 30.2614, Books: Scope Oddity: Blok

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Date: Tue, 02 Jul 2019 16:39:30
From: Janacy van Duijn Genet [lot-fgw at uva.nl]
Subject: Scope Oddity: Blok

 


Title: Scope Oddity 
Subtitle: On the semantic and pragmatic interactions of modified numerals, negative
indefinites, focus operators, and modals 
Series Title: LOT Dissertation Series  

Publication Year: 2019 
Publisher: Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics / Landelijke (LOT)
	   http://www.lotpublications.nl/
	

Book URL: https://www.lotpublications.nl/scope-oddity 


Author: Dominique Blok

Paperback: ISBN:  9789460933226 Pages: 238 Price: Europe EURO 33


Abstract:

Scope Oddity investigates three cases where scope interactions between
different kinds of operators are more restricted than previously thought.
These cases are: 1) split scope readings with negative indefinites, 2)
interactions between modified numerals and modals, and 3) run-of-the-mill
doubly quantified sentences with two nominal quantifiers. In these domains,
accounts of the phenomena at hand are built on top of the assumption that
surface scope configurations and inverse scope configurations are both
available. Using data from the literature as well as novel and largely
crosslinguistic data, this book illustrates that scope interactions in these
areas are actually far more infrequent than thus far assumed.

Scope Oddity comes to the rescue by offering an alternative to these accounts
that does not rest on any non-existent scope configurations. The theory
presented in this dissertation unifies the phenomena of split scope and scope
interactions between modified numerals and modals. It does so by proposing
that what underlies the characteristics of both phenomena is
focus-sensitivity. Across languages, only the focus-sensitive expressions
among negative indefinites and numeral modifiers display the kind of behaviour
that results in both split scope readings and certain types of readings we
observe when modified numerals occur with modals. Using focus semantics and
inquisitive semantics, the account derives both the right semantics and the
right pragmatic inferences of the relevant expressions.

This work is of interest to semanticists, pragmaticists, and syntacticians
alike, as well as to anyone who enjoys example sentences with cats.
 



Linguistic Field(s): Pragmatics
                     Semantics


Written In: English  (eng)

See this book announcement on our website: 
http://linguistlist.org/pubs/books/get-book.cfm?BookID=136613




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