ABSTRACT

Sentences involving definite DPs can give rise to a “simultaneous” reading where the property expressed by the DP holds at the time introduced by the verb’s tense or an “indexical” reading where the property expressed by the DP holds at the utterance time. This article discusses an experiment showing that children prefer simultaneous readings to indexical readings. I argue that the findings can be explained once we assume that the simultaneous reading arises from a bound variable analysis of a temporal pronoun inside the DP, whereas the indexical reading arises from a free variable analysis of this temporal pronoun. Under the view defended here, children have preferences for bound variable interpretations in the temporal domain that are to be assimilated to preferences cited in previous studies for bound variable interpretations in the nominal domain.

摘要

涉及确定的DP的句子可以引起“同时”阅读，其中动词的时态引入时由DP表示的属性保持不变，或者引起“指示性”阅读，其中DP所表达的属性在发声时保持不变。本文讨论了一个实验，该实验表明孩子们喜欢同时阅读而不是索引阅读。我认为，一旦我们假设同时阅读来自DP内部时间代词的边界变量分析，而索引阅读来自对该时间代词的自由变量分析，则可以解释这些发现。在这里捍卫的观点下，