An Antinomy about Anaphora
Standard theories of so-called donkey anaphora (Kamp 1981, Heim 1982, Groenendijk and Stokhof 1991) predict that sentence (1) is truth conditionally equivalent to (2). (1) Every farmer who owns a donkey beats it. (2) Every farmer who owns a donkey beats every donkey that he owns. I will refer t...
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| Formatua: | Artikulua |
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MIT Press
2011
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| Sarrera elektronikoa: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/66958 |
| _version_ | 1826210669102366720 |
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| author | Almotahari, Mahrad |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Linguistics and Philosophy |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Linguistics and Philosophy Almotahari, Mahrad |
| author_sort | Almotahari, Mahrad |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Standard theories of so-called donkey anaphora (Kamp 1981, Heim
1982, Groenendijk and Stokhof 1991) predict that sentence (1) is truth conditionally
equivalent to (2).
(1) Every farmer who owns a donkey beats it.
(2) Every farmer who owns a donkey beats every donkey that he owns.
I will refer to the proposition expressed by (2) as the strong reading
of (1). A nonstandard theory, defended by King (1993, 2004), predicts
that (1) is equivalent to (3).
(3) Every farmer who owns a donkey beats a donkey that he owns. The proposition expressed by (3) is the weak reading of (1). Although the authors I have referred to disagree about how best
to interpret (1), they agree that (1) is not ambiguous; it semantically
expresses no more than one reading. Not everyone shares this opinion,
though. Schubert and Pelletier (1989), Kanazawa (1994), and Chierchia
(1995) suggested that sentences relevantly like (1) are ambiguous.
2 Consider, for example, sentences (4)–(6).
(4) Everyone who owns an umbrella leaves it at home on a sunny day.
(5) Everyone who owns an umbrella uses it on a rainy day. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T14:53:35Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/66958 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T14:53:35Z |
| publishDate | 2011 |
| publisher | MIT Press |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/669582022-09-29T11:15:57Z An Antinomy about Anaphora Almotahari, Mahrad Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Linguistics and Philosophy Almotahari, Mahrad Almotahari, Mahrad Standard theories of so-called donkey anaphora (Kamp 1981, Heim 1982, Groenendijk and Stokhof 1991) predict that sentence (1) is truth conditionally equivalent to (2). (1) Every farmer who owns a donkey beats it. (2) Every farmer who owns a donkey beats every donkey that he owns. I will refer to the proposition expressed by (2) as the strong reading of (1). A nonstandard theory, defended by King (1993, 2004), predicts that (1) is equivalent to (3). (3) Every farmer who owns a donkey beats a donkey that he owns. The proposition expressed by (3) is the weak reading of (1). Although the authors I have referred to disagree about how best to interpret (1), they agree that (1) is not ambiguous; it semantically expresses no more than one reading. Not everyone shares this opinion, though. Schubert and Pelletier (1989), Kanazawa (1994), and Chierchia (1995) suggested that sentences relevantly like (1) are ambiguous. 2 Consider, for example, sentences (4)–(6). (4) Everyone who owns an umbrella leaves it at home on a sunny day. (5) Everyone who owns an umbrella uses it on a rainy day. 2011-11-07T20:36:38Z 2011-11-07T20:36:38Z 2011-07 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0024-3892 1530-9150 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/66958 Almotahari, Mahrad. “An Antinomy about Anaphora.” Linguistic Inquiry 42 (2011): 509-517. © 2011 MIT Press. en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/LING_a_00056 Linguistic Inquiry Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf MIT Press MIT Press |
| spellingShingle | Almotahari, Mahrad An Antinomy about Anaphora |
| title | An Antinomy about Anaphora |
| title_full | An Antinomy about Anaphora |
| title_fullStr | An Antinomy about Anaphora |
| title_full_unstemmed | An Antinomy about Anaphora |
| title_short | An Antinomy about Anaphora |
| title_sort | antinomy about anaphora |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/66958 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT almotaharimahrad anantinomyaboutanaphora AT almotaharimahrad antinomyaboutanaphora |