Author: Stefan Kaufmann

Meeting on 09/23: Yusuke Yagi again

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We will meet on Wednesday, 09/23, 1:30-2:30pm in SSH 338. Yusuke Yagi will present more of his work:

Scope of wh-questions in Japanese

Abstract: Abstract: This is a sequel to the talk last week, but I shift the attention to questions. I discuss two phenomena: (i) the observation made by Lasnik and Saito on scope reconstruction of scrambled wh-phrases and a Condition C effect; (ii) the wh-island and superiority effects. Though the topic might sound quite syntactic, I will try to argue that they tell us a lot about semantics as well.

Meeting on 09/16: Yusuke Yagi

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We will meet on Wednesday, 09/16, 1:30-2:30pm in SSH 338. Yusuke Yagi will present his work:

Alternatives and Dynamics of Japanese Universal Quantification

Abstract: This talk will examine the interpretation(s) of indeterminate universal quantification in Japanese, arguing for the augmentation of Alternative Semantics and Dynamics Semantics. A discussion follows about whether the augmentation is an `overkill’ — is it a technical redundancy, or is it something we need to accept?

Talk of interest on 04/10: McHugh

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The Logic Colloquium this Friday, April 10, 2:00pm in SHH 401  (with a hybrid option) will feature Dean McHugh (Edinburgh/NYU).

Conditional Modality with Alternatives

 

This talk brings together two ideas. First, that statements under a modal are interpreted as conditional antecedents. ‘Possibly A’ states that if A were true, there would be some case where the relevant ideals are met. Dually, ‘necessarily A’ states that if A were false, there would be no case where the relevant ideals are met. Second, conditional antecedents are interpreted via sets of alternatives, with some items—such as disjunction and ‘any’—introducing multiple alternatives. Combining them returns, in a uniform and automatic way, a solution to three challenges facing the standard theory of modality: free choice inferences, independence inferences, and counterexamples to substitution of logical equivalents.