Modularity and locality in interpretation

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy, 2008.

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Singh, Raj, Ph. D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Other Authors: Kai von Fintel, Danny Fox, Irene Heim and Robert Stalnaker.
Format: Thesis
Language:eng
Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2009
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/45895
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author Singh, Raj, Ph. D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
author2 Kai von Fintel, Danny Fox, Irene Heim and Robert Stalnaker.
author_facet Kai von Fintel, Danny Fox, Irene Heim and Robert Stalnaker.
Singh, Raj, Ph. D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
author_sort Singh, Raj, Ph. D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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description Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy, 2008.
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spelling mit-1721.1/458952019-04-12T09:59:31Z Modularity and locality in interpretation Singh, Raj, Ph. D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Kai von Fintel, Danny Fox, Irene Heim and Robert Stalnaker. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy. Linguistics and Philosophy. Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy, 2008. Includes bibliographical references (p. 177-185). This thesis will argue for four broad claims: (1) That local contexts are needed for a descriptively adequate theory of linguistic interpretation, (2) That presupposition accommodation is made with respect to a set of grammatically defined candidates, (3) That the set of accommodation candidates is derived from the same linguistic objects that are used to derive candidates for implicature (the scalar alternatives of the asserted sentence), (4) That scalar implicatures and accommodated propositions are the output of Fox's [31] procedure of innocent exclusion, modified so as to consider implicature candidates and accommodation candidates together. I argue for claim (1) in Chapter 2 by arguing that Heim's principle of Maximize Presupposition! should be checked in local contexts (Local MP). In Chapter 3, I use Local MP to account for an array of blocking effects. We will see that Local MP can help to shed light on the semantics of only, counterfactual conditionals, and focus interpretation, as well as highlighting the importance of dynamically changing assignment functions in a theory of interpretation. I argue for claims (2)-(4) in Chapters 4 and 5 by attempting to address the proviso problem (Geurts [43]), as well as a new puzzle for the theory of implicature that arises in the study of attitude ascriptions. by Raj Singh. Ph.D. 2009-06-30T16:33:46Z 2009-06-30T16:33:46Z 2008 2008 Thesis http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/45895 320458892 eng M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission. http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 186 p. application/pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology
spellingShingle Linguistics and Philosophy.
Singh, Raj, Ph. D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Modularity and locality in interpretation
title Modularity and locality in interpretation
title_full Modularity and locality in interpretation
title_fullStr Modularity and locality in interpretation
title_full_unstemmed Modularity and locality in interpretation
title_short Modularity and locality in interpretation
title_sort modularity and locality in interpretation
topic Linguistics and Philosophy.
url http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/45895
work_keys_str_mv AT singhrajphdmassachusettsinstituteoftechnology modularityandlocalityininterpretation