Felicitous underspecification : contextually sensitive expressions lacking unique semantic values in context /
"Felicitous uses of contextually sensitive expressions generally have unique semantic values in context. For example, a felicitous use of the singular pronoun 'she' generally has a single female as its unique semantic value in context. In the present work, I argue that contextually se...
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| Format: | eBook |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Oxford, United Kingdom ; New York, NY :
Oxford University Press,
2021.
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| Edition: | First edition. |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Connect to the full text of this electronic book |
| Summary: | "Felicitous uses of contextually sensitive expressions generally have unique semantic values in context. For example, a felicitous use of the singular pronoun 'she' generally has a single female as its unique semantic value in context. In the present work, I argue that contextually sensitive expressions have felicitous uses where they lack unique semantic values in context. I call such uses instances of felicitous underspecification. In such cases, I say that the underspecified expression is associated with a range of candidate semantic values in context. I provide a rule for updating the Stalnakerian common ground when sentences containing felicitous underspecified expressions are uttered and accepted in a conversation. I also give an account of the mechanism that associates the range of candidate semantic values in context with an underspecified expression. Sentences containing felicitous underspecified expressions can be embedded in various constructions. I consider the result of embedding such sentences under negation and verbs of propositional attitude. I also consider the question of why some uses of underspecified expressions are felicitous and others aren't. This investigations yields the notion of a context being appropriate for a sentence (LF), where a context is appropriate for a sentence containing an underspecified expression if the sentence is felicitous. Finally, I consider some difficulties that arise in virtue of the fact that pronouns and demonstratives have some sorts of implications of uniqueness that clash with their being underspecified"-- |
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| Physical Description: | 1 online resource. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 0191947857 9780191947858 9780192671196 0192671197 9780192671189 0192671189 |