On the characterization of alternatives
Name
Fox-On the Characterization of Alternatives.pdf
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139.74 KB
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Author(s)
Fox, Daniel
Katzir, Roni
Date Issued
February 2011
Journal
Natural Language Semantics
Publisher
Springer-Verlag
Citation
Fox, Danny, and Roni Katzir. “On the Characterization of Alternatives.” Natural Language Semantics 19.1 (2011): 87–107. Web. 4 May 2012. © 2011 Springer-Verlag
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
We present an argument for revising the theory of alternatives for Scalar Implicatures and for Association with Focus. We argue that in both cases the alternatives are determined in the same way, as a contextual restriction of the focus value of the sentence, which, in turn, is defined in structure-sensitive terms. We provide evidence that contextual restriction is subject to a constraint that prevents it from discriminating between alternatives when they stand in a particular logical relationship with the assertion or the prejacent, a relationship that we refer to as symmetry. Due to this constraint on contextual restriction, discriminating between alternatives in cases of symmetry becomes the task of focus values. This conclusion is incompatible with standard type-theoretic definitions of focus values, motivating our structure-sensitive definition instead.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Linguistics and Philosophy
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Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11050-010-9065-3
