No need for a dedicated theory of the distribution of readings of English bare plurals  

Oleh:

Magri, Giorgio

Jenis: Article from Proceeding
Dalam koleksi: Proceedings of the 22nd Semantics and Linguistic Theory Conference, held at University of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois, May 18-20, 2012, page 383–402.
Topik: bare plurals; scalar implicatures; plural morphology.
Fulltext: 3484-6817-1-PB.pdf (162.53KB)

Isi artikel

This paper argues that English bare plurals (BPs) uniformly have a plain existential semantics. Their generic/universal reading arises through a mechanism of exhausti?cation modeled on Spector (2007). The sentence Some ?remen are tall triggers the implicature that only some ?remen are tall. The variant Firemen are tall triggers the implicature that this “only-some” implicature is false. The universal reading of the BP thus arises through a “not-only-some” implicature. The distribution of existential and generic readings of BPs is thus completely determined by the availability of the “only-some” implicature of the corresponding inde?nite, without any need for a dedicated theory of the distribution of readings of BPs.

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