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Intention reports and eventuality abstraction in a theory of mood choice Linguist. Philos. (IF 1.167) Pub Date : 2024-03-04 Thomas Grano
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Demonstratives, context-sensitivity, and coherence Linguist. Philos. (IF 1.167) Pub Date : 2024-01-02 Michael Devitt
Una Stojnić urges the radical view that the meaning of context-sensitive language is not “partially determined by non-linguistic features of utterance situation”, as traditionally thought, but rather “is determined entirely by grammar—by rules of language that have largely been missed”. The missed rules are ones of discourse coherence. The paper argues against this radical view as it applies to demonstrations
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Representing multiply de re epistemic modal statements Linguist. Philos. (IF 1.167) Pub Date : 2023-12-27 Cem Şişkolar
I review Ninan’s Hundred Tickets case pertaining to quantification into epistemic modal contexts, and his counterpart theoretic way to address it (Ninan, Philos Rev, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1215/00318108-6973010). Ninan’s solution employs a ‘counterpart relation’ parameter intended to reflect how the domain of quantification is thought of in a context. This approach theoretically rules out the possibility
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Absolute gradable adjectives and loose talk Linguist. Philos. (IF 1.167) Pub Date : 2023-12-27 Alexander Dinges
Kennedy (Linguist Philos 30:1–45, 2007) forcefully proposes what is now a widely assumed semantics for absolute gradable adjectives. On this semantics, maximum standard adjectives like “straight” and “dry” ascribe a maximal degree of the underlying quantity. Meanwhile, minimum standard adjectives like “bent” and “wet” merely ascribe a non-zero, non-minimal degree of the underlying quantity. This theory
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On the difference between the ‘In’ and ‘According to’ operators Linguist. Philos. (IF 1.167) Pub Date : 2023-10-30 Merel Semeijn
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Keeping context in mind: a non-semantic explanation of apparent context-sensitivity Linguist. Philos. (IF 1.167) Pub Date : 2023-10-13 Mark Bowker
Arguments for context-sensitivity are often based on judgments about the truth values of sentences: a sentence seems true in one context and false in another, so it is argued that the truth conditions of the sentence shift between these contexts. Such arguments rely on the assumption that our judgments reflect the actual truth values of sentences in context. Here, I present a non-semantic explanation
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Language games and their types Linguist. Philos. (IF 1.167) Pub Date : 2023-09-07 Jonathan Ginzburg, Kwong-Cheong Wong
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Iconic Syntax: sign language classifier predicates and gesture sequences Linguist. Philos. (IF 1.167) Pub Date : 2023-09-01 Philippe Schlenker, Marion Bonnet, Jonathan Lamberton, Jason Lamberton, Emmanuel Chemla, Mirko Santoro, Carlo Geraci
We argue that the pictorial nature of certain constructions in signs and in gestures explains surprising properties of their syntax. In several sign languages, the standard word order (e.g. SVO) gets turned into SOV (with preverbal arguments) when the predicate is a classifier, a distinguished construction with highly iconic properties (e.g. Pavlič, 2016). In silent gestures, participants also prefer
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Prolegomena to a theory of X-marking Linguist. Philos. (IF 1.167) Pub Date : 2023-08-08 Kai von Fintel, Sabine Iatridou
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Truth and directness in pictorial assertion Linguist. Philos. (IF 1.167) Pub Date : 2023-07-14 Lukas Lewerentz, Emanuel Viebahn
This paper develops an account of accuracy and truth in pictorial assertion. It argues that there are two ways in which pictorial assertions can be indirect: with respect to their content and with respect to their target. This twofold indirectness explains how accurate, unedited pictures can be used to make false pictorial assertions. It captures the fishiness of true pictorial assertions involving
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The complex lives of proper names Linguist. Philos. (IF 1.167) Pub Date : 2023-07-08 Eno Agolli
I argue that predicativism, the view that proper names are predicates, is a viable theory of the semantics of proper names given a certain hypothesis about the grammar of definiteness. Extant versions of predicativism hold that a singular name in argument position constitutes the predicative component of a covert definite description. I show that these versions cannot accommodate semantic and typological
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No tense: temporality in the grammar of Paraguayan Guarani Linguist. Philos. (IF 1.167) Pub Date : 2023-07-05 Roumyana Pancheva, Maria Luisa Zubizarreta
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Super Linguistics: an introduction Linguist. Philos. (IF 1.167) Pub Date : 2023-06-22 Pritty Patel-Grosz, Salvador Mascarenhas, Emmanuel Chemla, Philippe Schlenker
We argue that formal linguistic theory, properly extended, can provide a unifying framework for diverse phenomena beyond traditional linguistic objects. We display applications to pictorial meanings, visual narratives, music, dance, animal communication, and, more abstractly, to logical and non-logical concepts in the ‘language of thought’ and reasoning. In many of these cases, a careful analysis reveals
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“Won’t you?” reverse-polarity question tags in American English as a window into the semantics-pragmatics interface Linguist. Philos. (IF 1.167) Pub Date : 2023-06-09 Tatjana Scheffler, Sophia A. Malamud
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The Italian futuro as a non-biased epistemic necessity: a reply to Ippolito and Farkas Linguist. Philos. (IF 1.167) Pub Date : 2023-06-01 Anastasia Giannakidou, Alda Mari
In a recent paper, Ippolito and Farkas (Linguist Philos, 45(4):943–984, 2022b) (I &F) question the premise that Italian future is epistemic necessity; in this brief response we want to show that there is no empirical motivation for abandoning it once we employ a more flexible framework of modality such as the one advanced in Giannakidou and Mari (Linguist Philos 41(6): 623–664, 2018) (G &M) which posits
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The indexical character of epistemic modality Linguist. Philos. (IF 1.167) Pub Date : 2023-05-24 Craige Roberts
We assume a central thesis about modal auxiliaries due to Angelika Kratzer, the modal base presupposition: natural language expressions that contain a modal component in their meaning, including all English modal auxiliaries and epistemic modal auxiliaries (EMA)s in particular, presuppose a modal base, a function that draws from context a relevant set of propositions which contribute to a premise-semantics
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Scalar implicatures with discourse referents: a case study on plurality inferences Linguist. Philos. (IF 1.167) Pub Date : 2023-05-22 Yasutada Sudo
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On the optimality of vagueness: “around”, “between” and the Gricean maxims Linguist. Philos. (IF 1.167) Pub Date : 2023-05-15 Paul Égré, Benjamin Spector, Adèle Mortier, Steven Verheyen
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Not every pronoun is always a pronoun Linguist. Philos. (IF 1.167) Pub Date : 2023-03-17 E. G. Ruys
A homonymy analysis is proposed to explain the so-called “demonstrative use” of personal pronouns. This analysis explains why some pronouns (it) do not allow a demonstrative use, as demonstrated in Nunberg (1993). The absence of a demonstrative feature in it can also account for the fact that it does not allow deferred reference. It is argued on the basis of the structure of the nominal demonstrative
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Super Pragmatics of (linguistic-)pictorial discourse Linguist. Philos. (IF 1.167) Pub Date : 2023-03-02 Julian J. Schlöder, Daniel Altshuler
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A semantics of face emoji in discourse Linguist. Philos. (IF 1.167) Pub Date : 2023-02-22 Patrick Georg Grosz, Gabriel Greenberg, Christian De Leon, Elsi Kaiser
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Linguistic inferences from pro-speech music Linguist. Philos. (IF 1.167) Pub Date : 2023-02-21 Léo Migotti, Janek Guerrini
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Being pragmatic about biscuits Linguist. Philos. (IF 1.167) Pub Date : 2023-02-20 María Biezma, Arno Goebel
In this paper we argue for a unified semantics for hypothetical conditionals, hcs, e.g. if it rains, we’ll cancel the picnic, and biscuit conditionals, bcs, e.g., if you are hungry, there are biscuits on the sideboard. We side with recent literature in proposing that differences in the interpretation are related to (in)dependence between antecedent and consequent, but we move beyond current accounts
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Quantifying into wh-dependencies: multiple-wh questions and questions with a quantifier Linguist. Philos. (IF 1.167) Pub Date : 2023-02-14 Yimei Xiang
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What if, and when? Conditionals, tense, and branching time Linguist. Philos. (IF 1.167) Pub Date : 2023-01-24 Antje Rumberg, Sven Lauer
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Lying versus misleading, with language and pictures: the adverbial account Linguist. Philos. (IF 1.167) Pub Date : 2023-01-21 Manuel García-Carpintero
We intuitively make a distinction between lying and misleading. On the explanation of this phenomenon favored here—the adverbial account—the distinction tracks whether the content and its truth-committing force are literally conveyed. On an alternative commitment account, the difference between lying and misleading is predicated instead on the strength of assertoric commitment. One lies when one presents
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Attitude verbs’ local context Linguist. Philos. (IF 1.167) Pub Date : 2022-12-15 Kyle Blumberg, Simon Goldstein
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Pictorial free perception Linguist. Philos. (IF 1.167) Pub Date : 2022-12-05 Dorit Abusch, Mats Rooth
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Reps and representations: a warm-up to a grammar of lifting Linguist. Philos. (IF 1.167) Pub Date : 2022-11-21 Maria Esipova
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Musical grouping as prosodic implementation Linguist. Philos. (IF 1.167) Pub Date : 2022-10-26 Jonah Katz
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A flexible scope theory of intensionality Linguist. Philos. (IF 1.167) Pub Date : 2022-10-22 Patrick D. Elliott
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Principles of presupposition in development Linguist. Philos. (IF 1.167) Pub Date : 2022-10-05 Athulya Aravind, Danny Fox, Martin Hackl
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Pointing to communicate: the discourse function and semantics of rich demonstration Linguist. Philos. (IF 1.167) Pub Date : 2022-10-01 Christian De Leon
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Update rules and semantic universals Linguist. Philos. (IF 1.167) Pub Date : 2022-08-29 Luca Incurvati, Giorgio Sbardolini
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Properties of propositional attitude operators Linguist. Philos. (IF 1.167) Pub Date : 2022-07-19 R. Zuber
A simple model accounting for semantic properties of propositional attitude operators in negative contexts with no reference to possible worlds is proposed. Verbs occurring in such operators denote relations between individuals and specific sets of sentences (of a given natural language) and their negation is defined as the complement within a specific set of cognitively determined sentences. This
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The semantics of exceptives Linguist. Philos. (IF 1.167) Pub Date : 2022-07-08 Stanley Peters, Dag Westerståhl
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Moving to the rhythm of spring: a case study of the rhythmic structure of dance Linguist. Philos. (IF 1.167) Pub Date : 2022-07-07 Isabelle Charnavel
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Counterfactuals, hyperintensionality and Hurford disjunctions Linguist. Philos. (IF 1.167) Pub Date : 2022-06-28 Hüseyin Güngör
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Default meanings: language’s logical connectives between comprehension and reasoning Linguist. Philos. (IF 1.167) Pub Date : 2022-06-20 David J. Lobina, Josep Demestre, José E. García-Albea, Marc Guasch
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Descriptive As Ifs Linguist. Philos. (IF 1.167) Pub Date : 2022-06-13 Justin Bledin, Sadhwi Srinivas
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Metalinguistic disputes, semantic decomposition, and externalism Linguist. Philos. (IF 1.167) Pub Date : 2022-06-07 Erich Rast
In componential analysis, word meanings are (partly) decomposed into other meanings, and semantic and syntactic markers. Although a theory of word meaning based on such semantic decompositions remains compatible with the linguistic labor division thesis, it is not compatible with Kripke/Putnam-style indexical externalism. Instead of abandoning indexical externalism, a Separation Thesis is defended
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Faultless disagreement without contradiction: expressive-relativism and predicates of personal taste Linguist. Philos. (IF 1.167) Pub Date : 2022-05-18 Justina Berškytė, Graham Stevens
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Acquaintance and evidence in appearance language Linguist. Philos. (IF 1.167) Pub Date : 2022-05-16 Rachel Etta Rudolph
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Familiarity inferences, subjective attitudes and counterstance contingency: towards a pragmatic theory of subjective meaning Linguist. Philos. (IF 1.167) Pub Date : 2022-05-14 Christopher Kennedy, Malte Willer
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Indirectly direct: An account of demonstratives and pointing Linguist. Philos. (IF 1.167) Pub Date : 2022-05-13 Dorothy Ahn
There has been a long debate on whether demonstratives are directly referential as Kaplan originally argued, or indirectly referential like a definite description. I propose a new analysis of demonstratives that combines intuitions from both direct and indirect approaches. The demonstrative is analyzed as an indirectly referential expression with a binary maximality operator that takes two arguments
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Groups, sets, and paradox Linguist. Philos. (IF 1.167) Pub Date : 2022-04-28 Eric Snyder, Stewart Shapiro
Perhaps the most pressing challenge for singularism—the predominant view that definite plurals like ‘the students’ singularly refer to a collective entity, such as a mereological sum or set—is that it threatens paradox. Indeed, this serves as a primary motivation for pluralism—the opposing view that definite plurals refer to multiple individuals simultaneously through the primitive relation of plural
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Fregeanism, sententialism, and scope Linguist. Philos. (IF 1.167) Pub Date : 2022-04-23 Harvey Lederman
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A note on the gifted mathematician that you claim to be Linguist. Philos. (IF 1.167) Pub Date : 2022-04-19 Alexander Grosu, Manfred Krifka
The paper is a reply to Bassi and Rasin (2018) on the treatment of sentences like [The gifted mathematician that you claim to be] should have solved this task without problems by Grosu and Krifka (2007), which was published in Linguistics and Philosophy. Grosu and Krifka provide an analysis of the de dicto interpretation in which the bracketed expression refers to an individual concept. Bassi and Rasin
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Domain restriction: the problem of the variable location revisited Linguist. Philos. (IF 1.167) Pub Date : 2022-04-16 Diego Feinmann
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Transparent quantification into hyperpropositional attitudes de dicto Linguist. Philos. (IF 1.167) Pub Date : 2022-03-26 Bjørn Jespersen, Marie Duží
We prove how to validly quantify into hyperpropositional contexts de dicto in Transparent Intensional Logic. Hyperpropositions are sentential meanings and attitude complements individuated more finely than up to logical equivalence. A hyperpropositional context de dicto is a context in which only co-hyperintensional propositions can be validly substituted. A de dicto attitude ascription is one that
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On the semantics of number morphology Linguist. Philos. (IF 1.167) Pub Date : 2022-02-19 Gregory Scontras
This paper develops a semantic account of morphological number marking, specifically in the presence of numerals. In addition to accounting for number marking on basic nouns like book in English, the account handles variation in patterns of number marking along two dimensions: cross-linguistically, between languages that either necessitate or prohibit singular morphology in the presence of numerals
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Witnesses Linguist. Philos. (IF 1.167) Pub Date : 2022-01-31 Matthew Mandelkern
The meaning of definite descriptions is a central topic in philosophy and linguistics. Indefinites have been relatively neglected by philosophers, under the Russellian assumption that they are simply existential quantifiers. However, a robust set of patterns suggest that this assumption is wrong. In this paper I develop a new approach to (in)definites which aims to capture these patterns. On my theory
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Quotational reports Linguist. Philos. (IF 1.167) Pub Date : 2022-01-19 Wayne A. Davis
This is a study of the syntax and semantics of reports containing speech-act and propositional attitude verbs with quotational complements. I make the case that while the quotational complements of some verbs, including utter, are nominal and metalinguistic, those of others, including assert and believe, are clausal and nonmetalinguistic. Quotational reports with ‘say’ are ambiguous. When quotational
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Musical meaning within Super Semantics Linguist. Philos. (IF 1.167) Pub Date : 2021-11-30 Philippe Schlenker
As part of a recent attempt to extend the methods of formal semantics beyond language (‘Super Semantics’), it has been claimed that music has an abstract truth-conditional semantics, albeit one that has more in common with iconic semantics than with standard compositional semantics (Schlenker 2017, 2019a, b). After summarizing this approach and addressing a common objection (here due to Leonard Bernstein)