The semantics of generic quantification in Brazilian Portuguese

Abstract

This paper investigates the semantics of deÞnite and indeÞnite generic expressions in BrazilianPortuguese (BP) -singular and plural deÞnite generics, generic indeÞnites, bare numberless and bare plurals. It also addresses the differences among the interpretations of the three indeÞnite generic nominals. The background assumptions are: (i) natural languages make use of both kind-referring expressions and generic quantiÞcation to express genericity (see Krifka et al. (1995)); (ii) indeÞnites are variables (see Heim (1982)). I show that in BP singular and plural deÞnite generics are kind-referring expressions, whereas indeÞnite generics are heimian indeÞnites participating on generic quantiÞcation.The paper claims that common nouns in BP are number-neutral. They denote both atomic and plural individuals. To account for the fact that number morphology has semantic import in BP, I argue that number morphemes are operators on noun phrase denotations in this language. When the SING(ular) operator applies to a NP, the result is a set of atomic individuals. When the PL(ural) operator applies to a NP, its denotation is stripped of its atomic entities. The different interpretations of indeÞnites arise through the interaction of the denotation of common nouns, the semantics of number operators and generic quantiÞcation.

Number neutral amounts and pluralities in Brazilian Portuguese

“…Such bare nouns exhibit a 'number-neutral' interpretation, in the sense that they do not constrain the cardinality of the entity they denote: the predication in (1) is satisfied by situations that contain more than one child or just one child. According to Munn & Schmitt (1999 and Müller (2002), the CBNs can be resumed by either a singular or a plural-marked anaphoric pronoun; thus, both (1'a) and (1'b) are reported by these authors as possible continuations of (1):…”

“…The data in (2)-(2') shed some initial doubt on the way in which both Munn & Schmitt (1999 and Müller (2002) characterize the number--neutrality of CBNs:…”

“…In order to distinguish between BPs and CBNs, Munn & Schmitt (1999 and Müller (2002) assume (contra Link, 1983) that in the Lexicon, count nouns denote sets that contain both atoms and pluralities, the contribution of plural marking being to remove the atoms from that set.…”

Two Sorts of Bare Nouns in Brazilian Portuguese

“…In general the literature on the bare singular in BrP (Munn & Schmitt 2005, Schmitt & Munn 1999, Müller 2002and Paraguassu & Müller 2008, Dobrovie-Sorin & Pires de Oliveira 2008, despite their different theoretical perspectives, takes for granted that the bare singular cannot be treated as mass, because the two forms do not show the same behavior with respect to individuating predicates: reciprocals, refl exives, and distributive predication. The accepted view in the literature is that the bare singular in BrP is a number neutral count term, so it does not behave like a mass noun.…”

The morpho-semantics of number in Brazilian Portuguese bare singulars

“…Schmitt and Munn, 1999;Munn and Schmitt, 2005;Müller, 2002;Müller and Oliveira, 2004, among others). The source for this intuition is highlighted in the examples below: 2 (3) Tem amigo meu que está desempregado.…”