28.2389, Books: Concepts and Plural Predication: Poortman

Tue May 30 16:22:41 UTC 2017

LINGUIST List: Vol-28-2389. Tue May 30 2017. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 28.2389, Books: Concepts and Plural Predication: Poortman

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Date: Tue, 30 May 2017 12:22:35
From: Martine Paulissen [gw.uilots.lot at uu.nl]
Subject: Concepts and Plural Predication: Poortman

Title: Concepts and Plural Predication 
Subtitle: The effects of conceptual knowledge on the interpretation of reciprocal and
conjunctive plural constructions 
Publication Year: 2016 
Publisher: Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics / Landelijke (LOT)
	   http://www.lotpublications.nl/

Book URL: http://www.lotpublications.nl/concepts-and-plural-predication 

Author: Eva B. Poortman

Paperback: ISBN:  9789460932250 Pages: 443 Price: Europe EURO 30.00

Abstract:

This dissertation studies the interpretation of plural sentences and its
connection to conceptual information in the human mind. The main claim is that
conceptual information on content words can affect the logical interpretation
of complex plural sentences, unlike what traditional formal semantic studies
of sentence meaning would expect. It is argued that this interaction is
governed by a new principle, the Maximal Typicality Hypothesis, which is
developed using insights on concepts from cognitive psychology.

Two types of plural sentences are studied experimentally: reciprocal sentences
and sentences with predicate conjunction. A series of experiments - both
behavioral and neurolinguistic - demonstrate that the interpretations of these
constructions vary systematically between speakers and between situations. The
Maximal Typicality Hypothesis uses conceptual information on verb concepts to
determine how acceptable plural sentences will be in a given situation. This
is done by singling out one situation as the core situation that is described
by a sentence. The core situation is an optimal ‘compromise’: the situation
that is maximal for the sentence among the situations that are most typical
for the concept(s) within it. The experiments that are reported in this
dissertation show that the MTH successfully accounts for the acceptability
patterns of plural sentences in different situations. This marks a substantial
advance in the analysis of plurals, and starts to bridge the gap between
semantic theories of language and cognitive theories of concepts.

This book is of interest to linguists working on plurality as well as
psychologists working on the structure of concepts. More generally, it is
relevant to scholars from any field who are interested in the general topic of
how language use and concepts in the human mind are intertwined.

Linguistic Field(s): Cognitive Science
                     General Linguistics

Written In: English  (eng)

See this book announcement on our website: 
http://linguistlist.org/pubs/books/get-book.cfm?BookID=116874

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