Compositionality in Formal Semantics Selected Papers

by Partee, Barbara H.

• ISBN13: 9781405109352
• ISBN10: 1405109351
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-01-16
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

Compositionality in Formal Semantics is a collection of Barbara Partee's papers that have been influential in the field but are not readily available and includes a new introductory essay in which Partee reflects on how her thinking and the field of semantics have developed over the past 35 years. Brings together, in one volume, influential but difficult to find papers by one of the most important researchers in formal semantics. Includes a new introductory essay in which Partee reflects on how her research and the field of semantics have developed over the past 35 years. Discusses critical themes in semantic theory.

Author Biography

Barbara H. Partee is Distinguished University Professor of Linguistics and Philosophy at the University of Massachusetts–Amherst, and is the author of several landmark essays in formal semantics. She has written and edited numerous books, including Formal Semantics: The Essential Readings (edited with Paul Portner, Blackwell, 2002), Mathematical Methods in Linguistics (with Alice ter Meulen and Robert Wall, 1990), and Montague Grammar (edited, 1976).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Reflections of a Formal Semanticist	1	(25)
A Personal History within the Development of Formal Semantics	1	(12)
General Reflections	13	(13)
Appendix: Example Sentences	16	(10)
Opacity, Coreference, and Pronouns	26	(24)
Introduction	26	(1)
Referential and Non-referential Noun Phrases	26	(5)
Semantic Relations between Pronouns and their Antecedents	31	(11)
The Problem of Treating Pronouns Uniformly	42	(8)
Some Structural Analogies between Tenses and Pronouns in English	50	(9)
Deictic Pronouns and Tenses	51	(2)
Anaphoric Pronouns and Tenses with Specific Antecedents	53	(1)
Pronouns and Tenses as Bound Variables	54	(2)
Scope Matters	56	(1)
Conclusion	57	(2)
Toward the Logic of Tense and Aspect in English	59	(51)
Michael Bennett
Montague's Analyses of Tenses in PTQ	62	(3)
Some Problems with Montague's Treatment of the Tenses	65	(4)
A Somewhat Different Approach to Tense and Aspect	69	(10)
Temporal Adverbial Phrases	79	(11)
Analyses of the Tenses	90	(20)
Postscript (1978)	107	(3)
Bound Variables and Other Anaphors	110	(12)
The Basic Distinction	110	(2)
Structurally Ambiguous Pronouns	112	(4)
Are There ``Pronouns of Laziness''?	116	(3)
Conclusion	119	(3)
Anaphora and Semantic Structure	122	(31)
Emmon Bach
Pronouns and Variables	122	(3)
Principles about Pronouns	125	(3)
Coreference and Coindexing	128	(2)
Spelling it Out: One Way	130	(4)
Comparisons	134	(10)
Taking Stock	144	(9)
Appendix: A Partial Fragment of English	145	(8)
Compositionality	153	(29)
The Principle and its Theory-relativity	153	(3)
Broad Challenges to Montague's Version of Compositionality	156	(3)
Context-dependence, Ambiguity, and Challenges to Local, Deterministic Compositionality	159	(8)
Implicit Arguments and Invisible Variables	167	(6)
Concluding Remarks	173	(9)
Genitives: A Case Study	182	(8)
Introduction	182	(1)
The Problem	182	(2)
A Compositional Analysis	184	(1)
Consequences for Adjectives	185	(1)
Doubts about the Introduction of TCNs	186	(2)
Genitives and Compositionality	188	(2)
Ambiguous Pseudoclefts with Unambiguous Be	190	(13)
Introduction	190	(1)
The Uniform Be Theory	191	(1)
Type-shifting Principles	192	(3)
Quantifying into and Relativizing out of Pred NP Position	195	(2)
The Pseudoclefts	197	(2)
Polymorphic Types and Be	199	(1)
Conclusion	200	(3)
Noun Phrase Interpretation and Type-shifting Principles	203	(28)
Introduction	203	(1)
Alternative Treatments of NPs: Some Examples	204	(2)
Evidence for Multiple Types for NPs	206	(2)
Type-shifting: General Principles and Particular Rules	208	(11)
The Williams Puzzle	219	(4)
English Be	223	(1)
Conclusions	224	(7)
The Airport Squib: Any, Almost, and Superlatives	231	(10)
Preamble: A Word of Explanation	231	(1)
Chief Background	231	(1)
First New Observation	232	(1)
Older Observation	232	(1)
Second New Observation	233	(2)
Interlude	235	(1)
Second New Observation, Continued	236	(3)
In Retrospect 2003	239	(2)
Many Quantifiers	241	(18)
The Puzzle	241	(2)
Into the Swamp	243	(1)
Three Possible Positions	244	(2)
Theoretical Relevance and Evidence for Ambiguity	246	(5)
Further Evidence for Ambiguity	251	(2)
Towards an Analysis	253	(6)
Appendix: Properties of Cardinal and Proportional Many	256	(3)
Binding Implicit Variables in Quantified Contexts	259	(23)
Background and Overview	259	(2)
Initial Data	261	(5)
Syntactic Constraints	266	(1)
Why Not Do It All with Pronouns?	267	(4)
Steps toward a Unified Theory of ``Quantified Contexts''	271	(6)
Summary	277	(5)
Weak NPs in Have-Sentences	282	(10)
Some Puzzles of Predicate Possessives	292	(24)
Vladimir Borschev
Background: Possessives and the Argument-modifier Distinction in NPs	292	(7)
Predicate Possessives: A Problem for the ``One Genitive'' Approach?	299	(9)
Conclusion and Remaining Puzzles	308	(8)
Index	316