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Determiners, aspectual adverbs and indexical inference

Determiners, aspectual adverbs and indexical inference. Alice G.B. ter Meulen Dept. de Linguistique. Four key points. Counting is an event-type of measuring using a discrete scale, form of situated reasoning.

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Determiners, aspectual adverbs and indexical inference

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  1. Determiners, aspectual adverbs and indexical inference Alice G.B. ter Meulen Dept. de Linguistique

  2. Four key points • Counting is an event-type of measuring using a discrete scale, form of situated reasoning. • Aspectual adverbs contribute polarized information, restricting the event-internal scalar structure. • Coherence constraints on content restrict focus meaning. • Indexical inferences create contextual coherence. Düsseldorf Countability Workshop

  3. First examples of indexical inference 1) a. There are stillthree students here. b. => Students are leaving. 2) a. There are alreadythree students here. b. => Students are arriving. 3) a. There are stillonlythree students here. b. => Some more students may arrive. Düsseldorf Countability Workshop

  4. Invalid indexical inferences 4) a. ?*There arealready onlythree students here. b. ≠> Students may be leaving or arriving. 5) a. There are no longer three students here. b. ≠> Students may be arriving or leaving. 6) a. There are not yet three/any students here. b. Three/*any students are not yet here. c. ≠> Students are arriving d. only from b => The three students are arriving Düsseldorf Countability Workshop

  5. What makes an inference indexical? • An inference is an indexical inference when it introduces a novel indexical expression overtly in the conclusion. • Some indexical inferences may not contain any overt indexicals in the premises (other than tense). • There are alreadythree students in the room. • => Students are coming into the room. But verbal tense is ALWAYS indexical, i.e. temporal reasoning is indexical, as is any form of situated reasoning. Düsseldorf Countability Workshop

  6. Basic aspectual adverbs • D, c0[[VPx [INFLnot yet P(x)]]]D’, c0 = • D, c0<< P’(x, -) >> & F<<END (P’(x, -))>> & • UNTIL (<< END (P’(x, -)), (P’(x, -)) >> ) ] • 2. D, c0[[VPx [INFLalreadyP(x)]]]D’, c0 = • D, c0<< P’(x, +) >> & P<<START (P’(x, +))>> & • SINCE (<< START (P’(x, +)), (P’(x, +)) >>)] • 3.D, c0[[VPx [INFLstill P(x)] ]]D’, c0 = • D, c0<< P’(x, +) >> & F << END (P’(x, +)) >> & • UNTIL (<< END (P(x, +)), (P’(x, +)) >> ) ] • 4. D, c0[[VPx [INFLno longer P(x)]]]D’, c0 = • D, c0<< P’(s, x, -) >> & P << START (P’(s, x, -)) >> & • SINCE (<< START (P’(s, x, -)), (P’(s, x, - )) >> ] Düsseldorf Countability Workshop

  7. (1) D, c0 [[ There are still three students here ]]D’, c1. CG : there are students here.  Xstudents (X) & loc(X) = lc0 (ii) students are leaving.  Y,estudents(Y) & leave(e,Y) & e  tc0] [[ still three]]: {< tc0,3 >, {< tcn, m >| tc0< tcn => m ≤ 3}} Counting updates must have fewer than 3 students here. Focus structure: tc , n > [ n= |X| & n ≤ 3 & tc ≤ tc0] Speaker had expected three students here earlier. Focus: tc , n > [ n= |X| & n ≤ 3 & tc ≤ tc0] (tc0, 3) Düsseldorf Countability Workshop

  8. (2) D, c0 [[ There are already three students here ]]D’, c1. CG : there are students here.  Xstudents (X) & loc(X) = lc0 (ii) students are arriving.  Y,estudents(Y) & arrive (e,Y) & e  tc0] [[ already three]]: {< tc0,3 >, {< tcn, m >| tc0< tcn => m >3}} Counting updates must have more than 3 students here. Focus structure: tc , n > [ n= |X| & n ≤ 3 & tc0 ≤ tc] Speaker had expected three students here later. Focus: tc , n > [ n= |X| & n ≤ 3 & tc0 ≤ tc] (tc0, 3) Düsseldorf Countability Workshop

  9. Presupposition and quantifier restriction • still :  s, x |P’(s, x, +) & s  n0] => [s’| s s’ & s’< n0 & P’(s’, x, +)]  already :  s, x |P’(s, x, +) & s  n0] => [s’| s’ s & P’(s’, x, -)] • not anymore :  s, x |P’(s, x, -) & s  n0] => [s’| s’ s & P’(s’, x, +)] • not yet :  s, x |P’(s, x, -) & s  n0] => [s’| s s’ & s’< n0 & P’(s’, x, -)] Düsseldorf Countability Workshop

  10. Projection of subjective speaker information Speaker’s subjective presuppositions may project into the common ground in interrogative dialogue. (7) a. Any students still here? CG: there were students here. b. Any students already here? CG: there were no students here. Any answer would push the existential presupposition to CG. (8) A: Three students are taking the test. B: STILL? / ALREADY? B request A to share her view that three student are late to finish (STILL?) /early to start (ALREADY?) the test. A’s assertion is CG. Düsseldorf Countability Workshop

  11. Lexical meaning of indexical verbs • From (1) infer using present perfect tense that some of the students, who were here, have now left. • [[leave (e, x, y)]] = • x,  e[ (loc(x) = loc(spc) = y & move (e, x)) => F(loc(x) ≠ y)] [[arrive (e, x, y)]] = x,  e(P(loc(x) ≠ loc(spc)) & move (e, x) => (loc(x) = loc(spc) = y)) Düsseldorf Countability Workshop

  12. With the decreasing no longer leaving/arriving information must be added as overt assumption to derive conclusions about the number of students in the class, because there is no future polarity transition. • (5) a. There are no longer three students here. • + if students are leaving • => max two students left over. • + if students are coming • => more than three students here. • b. Three students are no longer in this class. • Raising the DP to subject, (5b), makes the DP definite, anaphoric to presupposition, i.e. not in focus, specific reference to given three students. Düsseldorf Countability Workshop

  13. Linguistic variability (9) NL a. Er zijn nog drie studenten over. there are still three students (left)over. b. Er komen nog drie studenten aan. there come still three students at/towards. c. Hoeveel studenten komen er (nog) aan? (Nog) drie. how many students come there (still) to? (Still) three. (10) F a. Il reste/manque encore trois etudiants. it stays/fails still three students. b. Il arrive encore trois etudiants. it arrives still three students. c. Combien des etudiants manquent? Encore trois. how many of students fail? Still three. Düsseldorf Countability Workshop

  14. (11). NL a. Er zijn nog maar drie studenten hier. b. ≠> Studenten vertrekken/komen aan. a. there are still but three students. b. ≠> Students are leaving/arriving. (12) NL a. Er komen nog maar liefst drie studenten bij. There come still but pos.pol. three students at. b. ?*Er zijn al maar drie studenten bij. there are already but three students at. c.Maar *(liefst) drie studenten zijn er al/nog bijgekomen. but three students are there already at-arrive. d. Al (maar) meer N - already (but) more N e. Nog (*maar) meerN - still (*but) more N f. Nog (maar) weinig N - still (but) few N Düsseldorf Countability Workshop

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