Pluralities

by Roger Schwarzschild

Overview

Pluralities begins with a concise introduction to recent theories of the semantics of plurals. The author argues, contrary to many of those theories, that plural discourse involves entities corresponding to sets of individuals but nothing corresponding to higher order sets. In the course of the book, the reader will become acquainted with the linguistics data that lies at the heart of this debate including extensive discussion of reciprocals and of collectives (such as the committee). In addition, a unique account of distributivity is proposed in which collective/distributive ambiguities are analyzed in pragmatic terms. The account capitalizes on the idea that the universe may be partitioned differently at different points in a discourse.
Pluralities should be accessible to those with an introductory level background in model-theoretic semantics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789048146949
Publisher:	Springer Netherlands
Publication date:	12/07/2010
Series:	Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy , #61
Edition description:	Softcover reprint of hardcover 1st ed. 1996
Pages:	212
Product dimensions:	8.27(w) x 11.69(h) x 0.02(d)

Table of Contents

1 — Two Ways to Interpret Plural Noun Phrases.- 2 — Precursors.- 3 — Preview of the Arguments: Data and Methodology.- 4 — General Arguments from VP Denotations.- 5 — Distributivity.- 6 — Reciprocity.- 7 — Notes on Floated Quantifiers.- 8 — Sorting the Domain.- 9 — Collective Nouns.- 10 — Conclusion.- References.