Overview
- Includes a comprehensive and updated analysis of all the phenomena relating to indefinites
- Presents the open research problems in this field
- Pays particular attention to the syntax-semantics interface
Part of the book series: Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory (SNLT, volume 85)
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Table of contents (8 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Keywords
About this book
This volume explores the interpretation of indefinites and the constraints on their distribution by paying particular attention to key issues in the interface between syntax and semantics: the relation between the semantic properties of indefinite determiners and the denotation of indefinite DPs, their scope, and their behaviour in generic and conditional sentences. Examples come from French, other Romance languages and English. Central to the proposed analyses is a distinction between two types of entities, individualized entities and amounts. Weak indefinites are analyzed as existential generalized quantifiers over amounts and strong indefinites as either Skolem terms or generalized quantifiers over individualized entities. The up-to-date review of the literature and the new falsifiable proposals contained in this book will be of particular interest to linguistics students and scholars interested in the cross-linguistic semantics of indefinites.
Authors and Affiliations
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Redefining Indefinites
Authors: Carmen Dobrovie-Sorin, Claire Beyssade
Series Title: Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-3002-1
Publisher: Springer Dordrecht
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and Law, Social Sciences (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012
Hardcover ISBN: 978-94-007-3001-4Published: 28 April 2012
Softcover ISBN: 978-94-017-8428-3Published: 09 May 2014
eBook ISBN: 978-94-007-3002-1Published: 27 April 2012
Series ISSN: 0924-4670
Series E-ISSN: 2215-0358
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XVI, 268
Topics: Romance Languages, Semantics