Abstract
What is the relation between the three uses of bare NPs in (1), and what is the nature of the covert reinterpretation mechanisms at play?
(1) a. Dogs are widespread. Snow is widespread. kind
b. Dogs are barking. Snow is falling. instances, episodically
c. Dogs bark. Snow falls. instances, generically
This talk gives new evidence for (2) (Cohen 2020), from sentential ambiguity induced by bare NPs.
2. a. Episodicity: Not mediated by kind-reference, last-resort reinterpretation
b. Genericity: Mediated by kind-reference, optional reinterpretation
(2a) not being mediated by kind-reference is supported by ambiguity as in (3), where cows is interpretable as referring to the cow species or as existentially quantifying over cow specimens.
(3) On the 28th of June, God created cows. (Carlson 1980:§7.4, ex.48)
a. ‘God created the cow species.’
b. ‘God created a number of cow specimens.’
I will explain why the ambiguity in (3) is predicted to not exist by Carlson (1980) and Chierchia (1998), I will account for it in a way that relies on the covert type-shifts ∩ and A being unranked, and I will discuss the implications of of non-ranking on Chierchia (1998) and Dayal (2004).
Lastly, the optionality in (2b) allows for sentential ambiguity where the bare NP refers to a kind or generic instances, as in (4). I will discuss how this ambiguity is derived under Cohen (2020).
(4) Jacob worships bears. (Carlson 2011:§4)
a. ‘Jacob worships bears as a kind.’
b. ‘Jacob has a propensity where, if he encounters bears, he worships them.’
References
Carlson, Gregory N. 1980. Reference to kinds in English. New York & London: Garland.
Carlson, Gregory N. 2011. Genericity. In Claudia Maienborn, Klaus von Heusinger & Paul Portner (eds.), Semantics volume 1, 1153-1185. Berlin & Boston: De Gruyter Mouton.
Chierchia, Gennaro. 1998. Reference to kinds across languages. Natural language semantics 6(4). 339-405.
Cohen, Ariel. 2020. Something out of nothing: The semantics and pragmatics of implicit quantification. Leiden & Boston: Brill.
Dayal, Veneeta. 2004. Number marking and (in)definiteness in kind terms. Linguistics and philosophy 27(4). 393-450.
