Open AccessWitnessable quantifiers license type-e meaning: Evidence from contrastive topic, equatives and supplements
Author(s) -
Noah Constant
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
proceedings from semantics and linguistic theory
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2163-5951
pISSN - 2163-5943
DOI - 10.3765/salt.v0i0.2652
Subject(s) - linguistics , type (biology) , plural , meaning (existential) , class (philosophy) , frame (networking) , scope (computer science) , quantifier (linguistics) , computer science , mathematics , artificial intelligence , philosophy , epistemology , ecology , telecommunications , biology , programming language
This paper presents three novel ways of testing which plural quantificational phrases can denote individuals (type e). Specifically, it is argued that only type-e expressions can (i) be marked as a contrastive topic in a discourse contrasting individuals, (ii) be equated with another type-e expression in an equative frame, and (iii) anchor supplementing material. The main empirical finding is that the class of quantifiers allowing type-e nominal denotations is larger than assumed on classic accounts like Reinhart 1997. Furthermore, this class is characterizable in semantic terms. The quantifiers that give rise to type-e meanings are "witnessable" in the sense of entailing the existence of an individual satisfying both their restrictor and their nuclear scope.