Counting and Measuring: a theoretical and crosslinguistic account
In this paper, I show that expressions like two glasses of wine are ambiguous between counting and measuring interpretations, and that each interpretation is associated with a different semantic representation. In each interpretation, glasses has a different function. In the counting interpretation,...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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New Prairie Press
2016-12-01
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| Series: | The Baltic International Yearbook of Cognition, Logic and Communication |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://newprairiepress.org/biyclc/vol11/iss1/8 |
| _version_ | 1818242571105730560 |
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| author | Susan Rothstein |
| author_facet | Susan Rothstein |
| author_sort | Susan Rothstein |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In this paper, I show that expressions like two glasses of wine are ambiguous between counting and measuring interpretations, and that each interpretation is associated with a different semantic representation. In each interpretation, glasses has a different function. In the counting interpretation, glasses is a relational noun, while in the measure interpretation, glasses is a measure head analogous to litre. This difference leads to a number of grammatical contrasts which can be explained by differences in the grammatical structure. I discuss whether these differences are only semantic or also expressed in the syntactic representation. The assumption that syntax directly reflects semantic interpretation leads to assigning counting NPs and measuring NPs two different syntactic structures: counting NPs are right-branching with two modifying glasses of wine, while in measure expressions the numeral and the measure head form a measure predicate two glasses which modifies the N. I show that in Modern Hebrew and Mandarin counting structures and measuring structures clearly do have different syntactic structures, reflecting the semantic differences between counting and measuring. While the evidence in the case of English is less strong, the assumption that syntax directly reflects compositional syntactic structure results in the same basic syntactic contrasts in English as well. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-12T13:47:21Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-406ecc7b1d174e809e00f8b1db5be1bf |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1944-3676 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-12T13:47:21Z |
| publishDate | 2016-12-01 |
| publisher | New Prairie Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | The Baltic International Yearbook of Cognition, Logic and Communication |
| spelling | doaj.art-406ecc7b1d174e809e00f8b1db5be1bf2022-12-22T00:22:38ZengNew Prairie PressThe Baltic International Yearbook of Cognition, Logic and Communication1944-36762016-12-0111010.4148/1944-3676.11069299393Counting and Measuring: a theoretical and crosslinguistic accountSusan RothsteinIn this paper, I show that expressions like two glasses of wine are ambiguous between counting and measuring interpretations, and that each interpretation is associated with a different semantic representation. In each interpretation, glasses has a different function. In the counting interpretation, glasses is a relational noun, while in the measure interpretation, glasses is a measure head analogous to litre. This difference leads to a number of grammatical contrasts which can be explained by differences in the grammatical structure. I discuss whether these differences are only semantic or also expressed in the syntactic representation. The assumption that syntax directly reflects semantic interpretation leads to assigning counting NPs and measuring NPs two different syntactic structures: counting NPs are right-branching with two modifying glasses of wine, while in measure expressions the numeral and the measure head form a measure predicate two glasses which modifies the N. I show that in Modern Hebrew and Mandarin counting structures and measuring structures clearly do have different syntactic structures, reflecting the semantic differences between counting and measuring. While the evidence in the case of English is less strong, the assumption that syntax directly reflects compositional syntactic structure results in the same basic syntactic contrasts in English as well.http://newprairiepress.org/biyclc/vol11/iss1/8counting |
| spellingShingle | Susan Rothstein Counting and Measuring: a theoretical and crosslinguistic account The Baltic International Yearbook of Cognition, Logic and Communication counting |
| title | Counting and Measuring: a theoretical and crosslinguistic account |
| title_full | Counting and Measuring: a theoretical and crosslinguistic account |
| title_fullStr | Counting and Measuring: a theoretical and crosslinguistic account |
| title_full_unstemmed | Counting and Measuring: a theoretical and crosslinguistic account |
| title_short | Counting and Measuring: a theoretical and crosslinguistic account |
| title_sort | counting and measuring a theoretical and crosslinguistic account |
| topic | counting |
| url | http://newprairiepress.org/biyclc/vol11/iss1/8 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT susanrothstein countingandmeasuringatheoreticalandcrosslinguisticaccount |