1. Negative pragmatic transfer in bilinguals : cross‑linguistic influence in the acquisition of quantifiersGreta Mazzaggio, Penka Stateva, 2024, original scientific article Abstract: Building on the cross-linguistic variability in the meaning of vague quantifiers, this study explores the potential for negative transfer in Italian-Slovenian bilinguals concerning the use of quantificational determiners, specifically the translational equivalents of the English “many”, that is the Slovenian "precej" and "veliko". The aim is to identify relevant aspects of pragmatic knowledge for cross-linguistic influence. The study presents the results of a sentence-picture verification task in which Slovenian native speakers and Italian-Slovenian bilinguals evaluated sentences of the form "Quantifier X are Y" in relation to visual contexts.
The results suggest that Italian learners of Slovenian, unlike Slovenian native speakers, fail to distinguish between "precej" and "veliko". This finding aligns with the negative transfer hypothesis. The study highlights the potential role of pragmatic knowledge in cross-linguistic transfer, particularly in the context of vague quantifiers.
Keywords: quantification, cross-linguistic differences, pragmatics, semantics, negative transfer
Published in RUNG: 20.08.2024; Views: 835; Downloads: 6
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2. When tense shifts expressive presuppositions: hani and monstrous semantics : lecture at the Department of Comparative and General Linguistics, Linguistic Circle, University of Ljubljana, June 3rd 2024Furkan Dikmen, Elena Guerzoni, Ömer Demirok, 2024, other performed works Abstract: I will present a study I conducted with Furkan Dikmen and Ömer Demirok on the semantic and pragmatic properties of the Turkish ‘discourse partıcle’ hani. On the one hand, the function of hani is merely pragmatic, on the other hand, it is subject to the truth-conditional effect of other constituents at LF. In this study, we introduce the first formal semantic and pragmatic treatment of clauses containing hani. Unlike previous accounts (see Erguvanlı-Taylan (Studies on Turkish and Turkic languages; proceedings of the ninth international conference on Turkish linguistics, 133–143, 2000), Akar et al. (Discourse meaning, 57–78, 2020), and Akar and Öztürk (Information-structural perspectives on discourse particles, 251–276, 2020), we claim that hani can have one of the following two major pragmatic functions: making salient a proposition in the Common Ground or challenging one in a past Common Ground, therefore requiring a Common Ground revision. Despite its variety of occurrences, we argue that hani has a uniform interpretation and provide a compositional analysis of the different construals that it is associated with. Furthermore, we show that a formally explicit and accurate characterization of hani-clauses requires operating on indexical parameters, in particular the context time. Therefore, if our proposal is on the right track, hani clauses may provide indirect empirical evidence in favour of the existence of “monstrous” phenomena, adding to the accumulating cross-linguistic evidence in this domain (see Schlenker in Linguistics and Philosophy 26(1):29–120, 2003 and much work since then). The definition of monsters is intended as in Kaplan (Themes from Kaplan, 481–563, 1989).
Keywords: Semantics, Turkish, Discourse Particle, Temporal Shift
Published in RUNG: 31.07.2024; Views: 860; Downloads: 0
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3. Empirical observations on the interpretation of the Macedonian articles : master's thesisMetodi Efremov, 2024, master's thesis Abstract: This thesis investigates the use and the interpretation of three alleged definite articles in Macedonian from a formal perspective. It is concerned with the following questions: (i) does Macedonian indeed have a definite article? (ii) are all three articles in Macedonian definite articles or demonstratives? (iii) what are the formal features that distinguish among these items and how are they licensed in different semantic contexts? The thesis provides evidence that Macedonian has only one definite article – the t-root one – as it presupposes uniqueness and does not have a deictic feature. The other two items – the v- and n-root articles – are at the intersection of a definite article and a demonstrative: they have a deictic feature but do not presuppose uniqueness or non-uniqueness. In addition, it is demonstrated that Macedonian has a set of three demonstratives that have a deictic feature and presuppose non-uniqueness.
Keywords: master's thesis, semantics, definite articles, demonstrative, uniqueness, deixis, reference
Published in RUNG: 12.07.2024; Views: 919; Downloads: 22
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7. Even if, factivity and focusElena Guerzoni, 2019, published scientific conference contribution Abstract: Pollock (1976) observes that some, but not all, even-if-conditionals appear to convey the speaker’s commitment to the truth of their consequent, a phenomenon Lycan (1991) dubbed as the ‘consequent-entailment problem.’ Providing an account of this phenomenon within a unified and compositional theory of even-if-conditionals has proven to be far from trivial (c.f. Bennett 1982, Lycan 1991, Barker 1994, Lycan 2001, Bennett 2003). This paper argues that once the focus and scope of even (in the sense of Rooth 1985-1996’s theory of association with focus) are correctly singled out, the truth of the consequent in the relevant cases follows as an entailment of the assertion together with the existential presupposition of even. This view is argued to be preferable over previous attempts in that it provides a compositional and unified analysis of even if conditionals which builds on independently justified theories of even and of focus association (c.f. Horn 1969, Karttunen and Peters 1979, and Rooth 1985).
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Keywords: concessive conditionals, focus semantics, factivity
Published in RUNG: 21.02.2024; Views: 1515; Downloads: 6
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10. On Karttunen’s "The syntax and semantics of questions"Elena Guerzoni, 2022, independent scientific component part or a chapter in a monograph Abstract: Karttunen’s article on the syntax and semantics of questions is a milestone in the truth-conditional compositional semantics of interrogatives and of verbs that embed them. It is the first comprehensive study of the mapping between the syntax and the interpretation of the three different types of questions (polar, constituent and alternative questions) and presents the first semantic analysis of question-embedding verbs (QEVs henceforth) that assumes the same intensions for matrix and embedded interrogatives. This analysis continues to vastly inspire the ongoing research on the properties of questions and QEVs. This chapter illustrates Karttunen’s theory focusing on those formal details that have been the most influential in subsequent literature. In doing so, however, I will take the liberty to suggest a less than literal rendition of these details, in an attempt to make the discussion more accessible to today’s reader. The main departure that I make here from Karttunen’s 1977 is in the formal framework. Whereas Karttunen adopts Montague’s PTQ, here I will expose his ideas in Heim and Kratzer‘s type driven semantics.
Keywords: interrogatives, questions, syntax-semantics interface, compositionality, wh-movement
Published in RUNG: 20.02.2024; Views: 1392; Downloads: 7
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