s éminaires à Paris8 - 10dec - Ana Müller

[elenasoleil]

Les projets Structure Argumentale et Structure Aspectuelle, Langues avec
et Sans Articles

et l'Equipe Architecture Grammaticale de l'UMR 7023 Structures
Formelles du Langage

Ont le plaisir de vous inviter, dans le cadre d'une séance
réunie



à un exposé de

Ana Müller

(Universidade de São Paulo-USP)



Titre :

Universal Quantification in Brazilian Portuguese

Date : le 10 décembre 2012

Heure : 14h30 – 16h30

Lieu :  Université de Paris 8 Vincennes – Saint Denis, salle D328

Plan d'accès:

http://www.umr7023.cnrs.fr/Plans-d-acces,672.html
<http://www.umr7023.cnrs.fr/Plans-d-acces,672.html>

Abstract:

There are basically two proposals for the semantics of all in the
literature. One of them claims that all is a distributive quantifier by
itself: one that is able to distribute over the "subentailments"
of some collective predicates, such as (1) (see Dowty 1986, Taub 1989).
The other proposal claims that all is not a quantifier, but is just a DP
modifier that demands that no entity in the denotation of the DP should
be disregarded when the predicate (or its subentailments) get
distributed (Brisson 2005).



(1)   All the students gathered in the hall



The quantifier todo in Brazilian Portuguese (BP) selects not only plural
and singular definite descriptions, but also Bare Noun phrases (see
(2)-(4)).



(2)   Todo tapete deve ser lavado (uma vez por ano).

                         `Every carpet must be washed (once a
year)'

(3)   Todo o tapete deve ser lavado.

                         `The whole carpet must be washed'

(4)   Todos os tapetes devem ser lavados.

             `All the carpets must be washed'



In this talk I will evaluate the two theories about all. I will show
that none of the proposals is able to give a unified account of the
behavior of todo in contexts such as (2)-(3) and also explain the
contrasts of (un)grammaticality of todo with collective predicates, such
as in (5) and (6).



(5)   a. *Todos os coalas foram numerosos na Austrália.

`All the koalas were numerous in Australia'

b.      Todas as famílias foram numerosas na Austrália.

`Every family was numerous in Australia'

(6)   a. *Toda a criança construiu o barco.

*`All the child took part in the party'

b.      Toda a família construiu o barco.

`Every member of the family took part in the building of the
boat'



I claim that todo is the same universal quantifier in all contexts: it
relates the atoms in the denotation of both its restriction and its
predicate. Nevertheless, it differs from quantifiers like every in that
these atoms – be they entities or events - need not be of the same
sort of the entity/entities or event(s) denoted by the whole DP or by
the predicate collectively. For instance, each family may be said to be
numerous (in BP), because families have atomic parts, albeit not of the
same sort, thus the grammaticality of (5b). In the same way, in sentence
(6b), the subentailments of the predicate construiu o barco, which are
not subevents of the same sort of construir o barco, may be distributed
among the members of the family.



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