Open AccessGeneric and Weak Demonstratives: The Realm of Kinds
Author(s) -
Renato Miguel Basso,
Roberta Pires de Oliveira
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
journal of portuguese linguistics/journal of portuguese linguistics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2397-5563
pISSN - 1645-4537
DOI - 10.5334/jpl.57
Subject(s) - demonstrative , transpose , argument (complex analysis) , linguistics , realm , taxonomy (biology) , domain (mathematical analysis) , computer science , vagueness , semantics (computer science) , mathematics , philosophy , history , programming language , mathematical analysis , eigenvalues and eigenvectors , physics , biochemistry , chemistry , botany , quantum mechanics , biology , fuzzy logic , archaeology
In this paper we present a unified analysis of generic and weak interpretations of definite (DEF) and demonstrative (DEM) descriptions. In such contexts, the DEF only denotes the kind, whereas the DEM cannot denote the maximal node of a taxonomy. We claim that this contrast can be explained if we transpose Wolter’s (2006) semantics to the domain of kinds, a domain of taxonomies. The paper presents this proposal, which is also an argument against the direct referential treatment of demonstratives