On the Projection Problem for Presuppositions

Heim, Irene

doi:10.1002/9780470758335.ch10

Cited by 320 publications

(516 citation statements)

References 5 publications

(2 reference statements)

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“…1 The influential view of presuppositions advanced by Stalnaker 1970Stalnaker , 1974Karttunen 1974;Heim 1983 sees them as admittance conditions on the assertion of the relevant sentence. We use the term 'inference' broadly here to include various aspects of meaning associated with a sentence, including potential cases of (global) accommodation; see Chemla 2009a for discussion.…”

Section: (3)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Universal-only theories The first group of theories predicts only universal presupposition projection for sentences like (5) (Heim 1983, Schlenker 2008George 2008;Fox 2012;Chemla & Schlenker 2012;Mayr & Sauerland 2016). 2 These theories account for the UNIVERSAL reading of (5) directly via presupposition 2 To be precise, trivalent theories such as George 2008;Fox 2008 make more nuanced predictions than 'pure' Universal-Only theories, by varying the force of projection with the quantifier.…”

Section: Theoretical Landscapementioning

confidence: 99%

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Presupposition projection from the scope of None: Universal, existential, or both?

Romoli¹

2016

SALT

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The nature of presupposition projection from the scope of quantificational expressions, particularly negative ones, continues to be both theoretically and empirically controversial. We experimentally investigate the interpretation of sentences like None of the bears won the race, which could in principle be associated with three projection options, giving rise to: an existential reading, on which at least one of the bears participated and none won; a universal reading, on which all of the bears participated and none won; and a presuppositionless reading on which none of the bears both participated and won. We used a covered box task to investigate English-speaking adults' and children's interpretations of such sentences. The results from the adult participants provide empirical evidence for all three readings; the results from the child participants, however, reveal no evidence for the existential reading. We discuss our results in light of competing theoretical accounts, focusing on options for reconciling the theories with the experimental data from both adults and children.

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Section: (3)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Theoretical Landscapementioning

confidence: 99%

Presupposition projection from the scope of None: Universal, existential, or both?

Romoli¹

2016

SALT

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“…An information state combines information about the world with information about variables; in this discussion, we will take an information state to be a set of world-assignment pairs, together with a specification of the set of available discourse referents, i.e. a file in the sense of Heim (1983 As a first cut at stating the semantics of the participles we are concerned with, consider (l8b). The variable corresponding to hotel is X3 , and that X3 is unidentified is expressed by the second conjunct: for any y, there is a possibility <g,w> where g(X3) is not y.…”

Section: Discourse Referent Predicationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Following Guerts (1995), we will work with an analysis of (23) where think in the second sentence has as an implicit argument a file introduced by the complement in the first sentence. The notation below is that of Geurts, which consists of a linear DRT representation combined with the file increment notation of Heim (1982Heim ( , 1983. On the first line, P2 is defined as the result of updating a contextual file PI with the information that Solange has a lover; similarly, P3 is the result of updating P2…”

Section: Discourse Referent Predicationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Epistemic NP Modifiers

Abusch

Rooth

2015

SALT

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Consider the sentence in (la), where the adjectival passive unknown is a modifier within an existential NP. (la) is ambiguous between a local reading (lb) and a propositional reading (lc).(1) a. Solange is staying in an unknown hotel.b. Solange is staying in a hotel. It is not a well-known one. c. Solange is staying in a hotel, and it is not known which hotel she is staying in. We are interested in the propositional reading of the participle (p-participle). In the paraphrases in (1-4), what corresponds to the p-participle operates on a constituent question or a that-clause.(2) The suspects are in custody at two undisclosed locations.'The suspects are in custody at two locations and it is not disclosed which locations they are in custody in'. (3)The suspects were arrested at unspecified locations. 'The suspects were arrested at some locations and it was unspecified which locations they were arrested in'.Fabienne put the money in an uneJUlected place. 'Fabienne put the money at some place, and it was not expected that she would put the money in that place. The readings under discussion are possible with singular indefinite descriptions (1 and 4), cardinal determiners (2), and bare plurals (3). In addition, with certain participles a similar reading is observed for definite descriptions: (5) Fabienne put the money in the predicted place. However, in examples involving other quantificational determiners, the propositional reading is absent. Sentence (7) cannot mean that the campus police installed burglar alarms in most buildings and that it is unknown which buildings the campus police installed burglar alarms in. (6) Solange has stayed in every unspecified hotel.(7) The campus police installed burglar alarms in most unknown buildings. This is suggestive of the distinction made in DRT theories between indefinite and definite descriptions on the one hand, and so called genuine quantifiers on the other. The Straightforward ApproachIn existing analyses of modification within NP, an adjective in the configuration [Det _ N ] operates either just on a variable (as in the case of an extensional adjective) or on the intension of N (as in the case of the intensional adjectives fake andformer). Thus if the clausal paraphrases in (1-4) are a guide to compositional structure, a novel compositional mechanism appears to be motivated. Let us © 1997 by Dorit Abusch and Mats Rooth Aaron Lawson (ed), SALT VII, 1-18, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University.

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“…Intuitively, we want these presuppositional contents to count towards the scalar inference of even. I propose that, within the evaluation of even, each alternative is modified using local accommodation (Heim 1983 LA(ϕ) ≡ λ w . ϕ is defined (its presup.…”

Section: (9)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Focus association into copies and the scope of even

Erlewine

2016

SALT

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Nakanishi 2012 presents a novel argument for the so-called "scope theory" of English VP-even, based on examples with antecedent-contained deletion (ACD). Nakanishi's argument is based on the assumption that even cannot associate with a focus which has moved out of its scope. I show that this assumption is incorrect, defusing Nakanishi's argument. I propose that when even associates with a focus which has moved out of its scope, it actually associates with focused material in the lower copies of movement (trace positions). I show that a closer look at ACD examples of Nakanishi's type in fact forms a new argument against the scope theory. I conclude that English VP-even must always be interpreted in its pronounced position. The patterns of focus association with even presented here constitute a new argument for the copy theory of movement.

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On the Projection Problem for Presuppositions

Cited by 320 publications

References 5 publications

Presupposition projection from the scope of None: Universal, existential, or both?

Presupposition projection from the scope of None: Universal, existential, or both?

Epistemic NP Modifiers

Focus association into copies and the scope of even

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