Name-informing and distancing sogenannt ‘so-called’: Name mentioning and the lexicon-pragmatics interface

Abstract

This paper aims at a unified analysis of the different interpretations which constructions involving the German name-mentioning modifier sogenannt ‘so-called’ can adopt. In contrast to nouns like Sepsis ‘sepsis’, a noun like Hotel ‘hotel’, as in sogenanntes Hotel, gives rise to a “distanced” interpretation of the construction rather than one informing about a concept’s name. After a thorough investigation of the lexical-semantic properties, we propose the reading of the construction to emerge from an interplay between lexical factors like the head nominal’s conventionalization, on the one hand, and pragmatic implicatures rooted in relevance- as well as manner-based principles, on the other. From a compositional perspective, the so in sogenannt will be reasoned to be identical in function to quotation marks as a means to refer to a linguistic shape through demonstration. The different interpretations of the construction will be coupled with the type of binding of the agent-argument variable as well as the event variable of the verbal root nenn- ‘call’ of sogenannt.

Do We Pronounce Quotation? An Analysis of Name-informing and Non-name-informing Contexts

“…In this instance, the modifier is semantically related to the meaning of intensional, privative attributes like pretend or fake, which also enforce a shift from the literal denotation of the noun they modify (see, e.g., Schumacher, Brandt, & Weiland-Breckle, 2018). Note that, as is argued in Härtl (2018), the so in so-called and quotation marks are identical in their function as both point to linguistic shapes. The tendency to use both quotational means, as in the example in (8), can be seen as a reflector of the producer's strategy to "play it safe" and, thus, to ensure the intended reading (Finkbeiner, 2015, p. 164).…”

“…Pragmatic approaches towards quotation commonly analyze quotes as markers of a deviation from the standard use of an expression (see, e.g., Klockow, 1978). We follow Klockow (1980) in utilizing the Gricean conversational maxims to account for the function of quotes as an indicator of a deviation from the linguistic norm (see Härtl, 2018). In a similar fashion, Meibauer (2007), Gutzmann and Stei (2011), and Finkbeiner (2015) implement quotes as pragmatic markers that give rise to a non-stereotypical interpretation of the expression in quotes.…”

“…They fulfill a name-informing function in (12a), whereas the quotes in (12b) indicate a non-literal meaning of the subject noun; that is, they are instances of scare quotes used to indicate irony. In Härtl (2018), it is argued that, besides contextual clues, the lexical frequency of the quoted material is a factor guiding the inferential process. In avoidance of an R-principle violation (see Grice, 1975), a high-frequent noun like garden adopts a non-literal meaning due to the fact that the noun is highly conventionalized and, thus, name-informing quotes are perceived as irrelevant with it.…”

“…Thus, with so-called as a modifier, septicemia is mentioned (as a pure quotation) and used denotationally (as the direct object of diagnose) at one and the same time in this case (see Härtl, 2018). 3 The quotational constructions in (4) to 7above fulfill a name-informing function.…”

“… 1. Note that we assume a notional difference between name mentioning and name informing (see also Härtl, 2018). Name mentioning is the hypernym with the two hyponyms name informing and distancing.…”