The meaning of chains

This thesis investigates the mechanisms applying in the interpretation of syntactic chains. The theoretical background includes a translation of syntactic forms into semantic forms and a model theoretic explication of the meaning of semantic forms. Simplicity considerations apply to all three stages of the interpretation process: syntactic derivation, translation into semantic forms, interpretation of semantic forms. Three main results are achieved. The first is that trace positions can have semantic content beyond what is needed for the semantic dependency of trace and binder. This extra content is some or all of the lexical material of the head of the chain, as expected on the copy theory of movement. Two independent arguments support this conclusion. One, discussed in chapter 2, is based on the distribution of Condition C effects, where novel interactions between variable binding, antecedent contained deletion and Condition C are observed. The second, developed in chapter 3, is based on conditions on the identity of traces observed in antecedent contained deletion constructions. Both arguments lead to the same generalizations about what lexical material of the head is interpreted in the trace position. The second main result is that lambda calculus is superior to both standard predicate logic and combinatorial logic as the mathematical model for the semantic mechanism mediating the dependency of trace (or bound pronoun) and binder. Chapter 4 argues this on the basis of the distribution of focus and destressing in constructions with bound pronouns. The third main result is that quantification must be allowed to range over pointwise different choice functions. Chapter 5 shows that quantification over individuals is insufficient, and that pointwise different choice functions are required. The result entails that the syntactic difference of A-chains and A-bar chains predicts a semantic difference in the type of the variable involved, which is argued to explain weak crossover phenomena. Chapters 6 argues that the interpretation procedures developed in the preceeding chapters account for all cases. It is shown that only traces of the type of individuals arise, and that scope reconstruction is a phonological phenomenon. The latter result also supports the T-model of syntax.

[1]  Jean-Roger Vergnaud.  French relative clauses. , 1974 .

[2]  Association Focus , 1999 .

[3]  Howard Lasnik,et al.  Move α: Conditions on Its Application and Output , 1992 .

[4]  Kyle Johnson,et al.  WHEN VERB PHRASES GO MISSING , 1996 .

[5]  Rasmus Lerdorf,et al.  Introduction to combinatory logic , 1972 .

[6]  A. Grosu,et al.  Strange Relatives of the Third Kind , 1998 .

[7]  Hotze Rullmann,et al.  Maximality in the semantics of wh -constructions , 1995 .

[8]  Michael Szamosi,et al.  Observations on Sentential Stress. , 1972 .

[9]  Noam Chomsky.  A minimalist program for linguistic theory , 1992 .

[10]  D. Pesetsky,et al.  ON THE INTERPRETATION OF WIDE-SCOPE INDEFINITES* , 1999 .

[11]  Nigel G. J. Richards,et al.  What Moves Where In Which Language , 1991 .

[12]  R. Lees.  The grammar of English nominalizations , 1960 .

[13]  Mark Hepple,et al.  The grammar and processing of order and dependency : a categorial approach , 1990 .

[14]  Richard K. Larson,et al.  Antecedent containment or vacuous movement: reply to Baltin , 1990 .

[15]  D. Cresti.  Extraction and reconstruction , 1995 .

[16]  Howard Lasnik.  Remarks on Coreference 1976 , 1989 .

[17]  Jackendoff,et al.  An Interpretive Theory Of Pronouns And Reflexives , 1968 .

[18]  Luigi Burzio,et al.  Italian Syntax: A Government-Binding Approach , 1986 .

[19]  Elisabet Engdahl,et al.  The syntax and semantics of questions in Swedish , 1980 .

[20]  Ivan A. Sag,et al.  Deletion And Logical Form , 1976 .

[21]  David Pesetsky,et al.  Paths and categories , 1982 .

[22]  K. Safir.  Multiple variable binding , 1984 .

[23]  Mark Steedman,et al.  Surface structure and interpretation , 1996, Linguistic inquiry.

[24]  Andrew Barss,et al.  Chains and anaphoric dependence : on reconstruction and its implications , 1986 .

[25]  Robin Cooper,et al.  Quantification and Syntactic Theory , 1983 .

[26]  Daniel Büring,et al.  The Great Scope Inversion Conspiracy , 1995 .

[27]  Hubert Truckenbrodt,et al.  Phonological phrases : their relation to syntax, focus, and prominence , 1995 .

[28]  Robin Cooper,et al.  The syntax and semantics of when-questions , 1982 .

[29]  A. Church.  A Set of Postulates for the Foundation of Logic , 1932 .

[30]  C. Rudin.  On multiple questions and multiple WH fronting , 1988 .

[31]  Dong Seok Kim.  On the Typology of Wh-Questions , 1999 .

[32]  E. Keenan.  Names, quantifiers, and the sloppy identity problem , 1971 .

[33]  R. Lees.  The Constituent Structure of Noun Phrases , 1961 .

[34]  T. Wasow.  Anaphoric relations in English , 1972 .

[35]  Elena Anagnostopoulou,et al.  Toward a uniform account of scrambling and clitic doubling , 1997 .

[36]  J. Bresnan.  Sentence Stress and Syntactic Transformations , 1971 .

[37]  M. Saito.  Long distance scrambling in Japanese , 1992 .

[38]  Veneeta Dayal.  Locality in Wh quantification , 1996 .

[39]  Tanya Reinhart,et al.  The syntactic domain of anaphora , 1976 .

[40]  H. Koopman,et al.  VARIABLES AND THE BIJECTION PRINCIPLE , 1982 .

[41]  G. Segal,et al.  Knowledge of Meaning: An Introduction to Semantic Theory , 1995 .

[42]  Carson T. Schütze.  PP attachment and argumenthood , 1995 .

[43]  V. Déprez.  On the typology of syntactic positions and the nature of chains : move [alpha] to the specifier of functional projections , 1989 .

[44]  C. Heycock.  Asymmetries in reconstruction , 1995 .

[45]  Irene Heim,et al.  Dependency and Distributivity of Plural Deenites , 1997 .

[46]  Haskell B. Curry,et al.  Combinatory Logic, Volume I , 1959 .

[47]  Lisa Matthewson,et al.  On The Interpretation of Wide-scope Indefinites , 1998 .

[48]  Arnim von Stechow,et al.  Semantik: Ein Internationales Handbuch Der Zeitgenössischen Forschung , 1991 .

[49]  M. Zubizarreta.  Prosody, Focus, and Word Order , 1998 .

[50]  M. Schönfinkel.  Über die Bausteine der mathematischen Logik , 1924 .

[51]  Haskell B. Curry.  Grundlagen der kombinatorischen Logik , 1930 .

[52]  K. Wilkinson.  Studies in the semantics of generic noun phrases , 1991 .

[53]  Utpal Lahiri,et al.  Embedded interrogatives and predicates that embed them , 1991 .

[54]  Eric Sven Ristad,et al.  Computational structure of human language , 1990 .

[55]  Paul Schachter.  Focus and relativization , 1973 .

[56]  ROBERT MAY,et al.  Questions, quantifiers and crossing , 1981 .

[57]  Stephen Robert Berman,et al.  On the semantics and logical form of {\it wh\/} -clauses , 1991 .

[58]  Anna Szabolcsi,et al.  Bound variables in syntax (Are there any , 1987 .

[59]  Ivan A. Sag,et al.  Referential and quantificational indefinites , 1982 .

[60]  David Lebeaux,et al.  Language acquisition and the form of the grammar , 2000 .

[61]  E. G. Ruys,et al.  The scope of indefinites , 1992 .

[62]  H. Schubert.  Grundlagen der Arithmetik , 1898 .

[63]  Noam Chomsky,et al.  The Minimalist Program , 1992 .

[64]  E. Williams,et al.  Indices and identity , 1994 .

[65]  G. Chierchia.  Questions with quantifiers , 1992 .

[66]  G. B. M..  Principia Mathematica , 1911, Nature.

[67]  Daniel Hardt,et al.  VP Ellipsis and Semantic Identity , 1992 .

[68]  Noam Chomsky,et al.  Studies on Semantics in Generative Grammar , 1972 .

[69]  William A. Ladusaw,et al.  Sluicing and logical form , 1995 .

[70]  R. May.  The grammar of quantification , 1978 .

[71]  DOV M. GABBAY,et al.  BRANCHING QUANTIFIERS, ENGLISH, AND MONTAGUE-GRAMMAR , 1974 .

[72]  Noam Chomsky,et al.  Some empirical issues in the theory of transformational grammar , 1970 .

[73]  Ewan Klein,et al.  Type-driven translation , 1985 .

[74]  Christopher Tancredi.  Deletion, deaccenting and presupposition , 1992 .

[75]  G. Cinque.  A null theory of phrase and compound stress , 1993 .

[76]  Noam Chomsky,et al.  वाक्यविन्यास का सैद्धान्तिक पक्ष = Aspects of the theory of syntax , 1965 .

[77]  永井 正司,et al.  On NP-Structure , 1997 .

[78]  Noam Chomsky,et al.  Filters and Control , 1990 .

[79]  Shigeru Miyagawa,et al.  Structure and case marking in Japanese , 1989 .

[80]  Jaakko Hintikka,et al.  Quantifiers vs. Quantification Theory , 1973 .

[81]  Kyle Johnson,et al.  Lowering and Mid-Size Clauses * , 1997 .

[82]  Yael Sharvit.  Functional Dependencies and Indirect Binding , 1996 .

[83]  Eriko Sato-Zhu.  The logical interpretation of English and Japanese sentences , 1997 .

[84]  G. Lakoff.  Pronouns and Reference , 1968 .

[85]  Pauline Jacobson,et al.  Antecedent Contained Deletion in a Variable-Free Semantics , 1992 .

[86]  D. Fox.  Economy and scope , 1995 .

[87]  Robert Freidin,et al.  Fundamental Issues in the Theory of Binding , 1986 .

[88]  Wolfgang Sternefeld,et al.  Die Aufgaben der Syntax The Objectives of Syntax , 1993 .

[89]  Jeroen Groenendijk,et al.  On the semantics of questions and the pragmatics of answers , 1984 .

[90]  M. Linebarger.  The grammar of negative polarity , 1981 .

[91]  Alfred Tarski,et al.  Der Wahrheitsbegriff in den formalisierten Sprachen , 1935 .

[92]  Peter Geach,et al.  Referring Expressions Again , 1964 .

[93]  Elisabeth Selkirk,et al.  Sentence Prosody: Intonation, Stress and Phrasing , 1996 .

[94]  Angelika Kratzer,et al.  The Representation of Focus , 1991 .

[95]  Irene Heim,et al.  Semantics in generative grammar , 1998 .

[96]  Noam Chomsky,et al.  On Wh-Movement , 1977 .

[97]  Hiroaki Tada,et al.  A/A-bar partition in derivation , 1993 .