Results 121 to 130 of about 213 (169)

On Existential Bare Plural ‘Subjects’

Belgian Journal of Linguistics, 2005
Drawing on Strawson’s (1971) definition of the subject as performing the function of identifying the object of the speaker’s assertion and of the predicate as applying to this object without having to identify it, this article argues that being a predicate and being (part of) the focus are two ways of talking about one and the same thing, namely ...
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BARE PLURALS AND THE NUMBER AFFIX IN DP

Probus, 1991
The empirical scope of this article is defined by the so-called 'existential' reading of bare plurals in some Romance and Germanic languages. The hypothesis is that the typological differences with respect to the distribution of bare plurals can be reduced to universal principles of grammar, plus independently motivated morphological ...
DELFITTO, Denis, SCHROTEN J.
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Bare Plurals and Donkey Anaphora

Natural Language Semantics, 1997
This paper argues that a kinds-based analysis of bare plurals is incompatible with an analysis of donkey anaphors as variables. However, kinds are compatible with an E-type analysis.
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Topic, Focus, and the Interpretation of Bare Plurals

Natural Language Semantics, 2002
In this paper we show that focus structure determines the interpretation of bare plurals in English: topic bare plurals are interpreted generically, focused bare plurals are interpreted existentially. When bare plurals are topics they must be specific, i.e. they refer to kinds.
Ariel Cohen, Nomi Erteschik-Shir
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Bare Plurals as Plural Indefinite Noun Phrases

1990
An English noun phrase whose head noun is a count noun usually occurs with a determiner. Examples of such a noun phrase are found in the subject position of each of these sentences: a. The desk is made of wood. b. A friend just arrived from Montevideo. c. This cup is fragile. Such noun phrases in the singular
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More Than Bare Existence: An Implicature of Existential Bare Plurals

Journal of Semantics, 2005
Existential bare plurals (e.g. dogs) have the same semantics as explicit existentials (e.g. a dog or some dogs) but different pragmatics. In addition to entailing the existence of a set of individuals, existential bare plurals implicate that this set is suitable for some purpose.
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Existential bare plurals: From properties back to entities

Lingua, 2009
Post-carlsonian analyses of existential bare plurals have basically followed three lines of investigation, analyzing existential bare plurals as names of kinds, weak indefinites or properties. I show that none of the existing proposals can explain the behavior of bare plurals in Romance languages.
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Bare Habituals and Plural Definite Descriptions

2019
This paper investigates semantic and pragmatic differences between habitual sentences with adverbs of quantification and habitual sentences without adverbs of quantification, which I will call bare habituals. I will argue for the idea that bare habituals involve plural definite descriptions of events/situations, whereas habituals with adverbs of ...
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A unified analysis of the English bare plural

Linguistics and Philosophy, 1977
It is argued that the English ‘bare plural’ (an NP with plural head that lacks a determiner), in spite of its apparently diverse possibilities of interpretation, is optimally represented in the grammar as a unified phenomenon. The chief distinction to be dealt with is that between the ‘generic’ use of the bare plural (as in ‘Dogs bark’) and its ...
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Bare plural noun phrases in modern English

2019
This thesis aims to investigate the diachronic development of English bare plurals and of plural indefinites with overt reference marking within the Modern English period. To shed light on this issue, quantitative and qualitative analyses of plural NPs in the Penn-Helsinki Parsed Corpus of Early Modern English and the Corpus of Historical American ...
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