Topic: HUMAN SEMANTICS
Indefinites and the Operators they Depend on:
From Japanese to Salish
by Angelika Kratzer
Source: The Semantics Archive
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Irene Heim (1982) and Hans Kamp (1981) took up Partee's challenge and proposed theories that simultaneously accounted for the quantificational and discourse reference properties of indefinites. They argued that the quantificational behavior of indefinites was an illusion. It derived from overt or non-overt operators present in semantic representations, or alternatively, from the mechanics of the semantic interpretation procedure itself. According to Heim and Kamp, indefinites introduced mere variables with conditions attached to them into semantic representations. Much of the discussion that followed centered around the question whether indefinites did or did not have quantificational force. The dynamic theories of Groenendijk and Stokhof (1990) and Dekker (1993) maintained that they did, but argued for an unorthodox way of extending their binding domain.
Stephen Berman (1987) observed that within a situation semantics, a standard quantificational theory of indefinites did not conflict with their discourse reference properties, since donkey pronouns could now again be analyzed as disguised definite descriptions, as Robin Cooper (1979) had originally proposed. This idea was further developed in Heim's (1990) paper on E-type pronouns and donkey anaphora. At that point, it looked like a standard quantificational analysis of indefinites was right after all.
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Posted by Tony Marmo
at 00:11 BST
Updated: Monday, 20 September 2004 07:23 BST
