Lecture 12 Ling

Exercises (part 1) 1.Provide two scenarios for the two readings of the definite DP in the following sentence (and say which is which). Sue is looking for the car mechanic that Bill used and liked. 2.Why does the instructor think that Quine’s example is problematic for the scope-based account of de re interpretations? 3.Bare plural NPs can receive (at least) two distinct interpretations. What are they? Which interpretation do the bare plurals in the following sentences receive? A.Lilies are blooming in the field. B.Lilies are elegant. 11

Exercises (part 2) Consider the following sentences and say what interpretation(s) is/are available? Is this predicted by our theory? 1.I don’t have a car. 2.A student did not show up. 3.Not a single student showed up. 12

Collective Predication Sometimes, a plural NP/DP behaves like a group entity (i.e. an unanalyzable whole) 1.Harry, Jeff and Buzz surrounded Charles. 2.The seven houses on this spur are alike. You do not need to study the way group readings are represented formally in the textbook (.pdf file). But please understand that group readings cannot be represented by the standard quantifier (i.e. distributive) notation. 13

Cumulative Predication (1)Ten architects submitted 15 designs. Two readings based on quantificational interpretations of the two DPs: no good The “group/collective reading” does not explain the reading in question. We need a “cumulative reading” for this sentence. See the handout on the web for details. 14

Bare plurals again Generally, a bare plural DP in the subject position receives a near-universal reading when the predicate describes an “enduring/permanent property”. A bare plural DP in the subject position normally receives an existential reading when the predicate describes a “temporary property”. 15

mass nouns Mass nouns behave like bare plurals in many ways. (1) Water is indispensable. (2) Mary drank water. Why do you think bare plurals/mass nouns behave in different ways in “different places” w/in a sentence? 16

More about bare plurals Are bare plurals really ambiguous between “(almost) all” vs. “some”? Carlson’s example: Wolves get bigger as you go north from here. This is interpretable, but it does not mean “All wolves get bigger as you go from here” or “Some wolves get bigger as you go north from here” 17

More bare plurals More examples from Carlson’s dissertation (1977) (1) Dogs are widespread/common. (2) May hates raccoons because they stole her sweet corn. (3) My brother thinks that snakes are nasty creatures, but that hasn’t stopped me from having them as pets. 18

Aktionsarten Vendler’s four-way classification of verbs (or VPs): states, activities, accomplishments, and achievements. States: be, resemble, know Activities: sleep, drive (a car) Accomplishments: build (a house) Achievements: reach (the goal), arrive, realize (that S) 19

diagnostics For-adverbials: statives, activities In-adverbials: accomplishments, (some) achievements Progressive: (usually) bad with statives and achievements Activity: Be V-ing entails V-ed (somewhat) Accomplishment Be V-ing does not entail V- ed. 20