Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Richard Montague, logician and philosopher, founded the theory of Montague grammar, a starting point for formal semantics. Montague studied at Berkeley under Tarski, and taught at UCLA from 1955 to 1971. He made major contributions to... more
Richard Montague, logician and philosopher, founded the theory of Montague grammar, a starting point for formal semantics. Montague studied at Berkeley under Tarski, and taught at UCLA from 1955 to 1971. He made major contributions to mathematical logic, then turned to the development of a theory of syntax, model–theoretic semantics, and formal pragmatics encompassing formal and natural languages. Crucial features of his theory include the truth-conditional foundations of semantics, the algebraic interpretation of the principle of compositionality, and the use of a higher-order typed intensional logic. Montague grammar became influential in linguistics by the 1970s, and evolved (with additional sources) into formal semantics.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This autobiographical article, which began as an interview, reports some reflections by Lila R. Gleitman on the development of her thinking and her research—in concert with a host of esteemed collaborators over the years—on issues of... more
This autobiographical article, which began as an interview, reports some reflections by Lila R. Gleitman on the development of her thinking and her research—in concert with a host of esteemed collaborators over the years—on issues of language and mind, focusing on how language is acquired. Gleitman entered the field of linguistics as a student of Zellig Harris and learned first-hand of Noam Chomsky’s early work. She chose the psychological perspective, later helping to found the field of cognitive science. With her husband and long-term collaborator, Henry Gleitman, for more than 50 years, she fostered a continuing research community aimed at answering fundamental questions in the theory of language and its acquisition.
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Mathematics, Linguistics, Ambiguity, Noun Phrase, Nominalization, and 4 moreNoun, DDC, Possessive, and Genitive Case
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Part of the Linguistics Commons This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Linguistics at ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Linguistics Department Faculty Publication Series by an... more
Part of the Linguistics Commons This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Linguistics at ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Linguistics Department Faculty Publication Series by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please
Research Interests:
In the history of formal semantics, the successful joining of linguistic and philosophical work brought with it some difficult foundational questions concerning the nature of meaning and the nature of knowledge of language in the domain... more
In the history of formal semantics, the successful joining of linguistic and philosophical work brought with it some difficult foundational questions concerning the nature of meaning and the nature of knowledge of language in the domain of semantics: questions in part about “what’s in the head” of a competent language-user. This chapter, part of a project on the history of formal semantics, revisits the central issues of Partee (1979) in a historical context, as a clash between two traditions, Fregean and Chomskyan, a clash that accompanied early work combining Montague’s semantics with Chomskyan syntax. Recent advances in philosophy of mind (from, e.g., Stalnaker and Burge) go a long way towards changing the framework of arguments about “psychological reality” and “competence”, challenging the suppositions on which the original dichotomy rested, thus largely defusing the tension.
Research Interests: Sociology and Linguistics
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
2. Early innovations: Reichenbach’s reference times, Davidson’s events.....................................................................2
... This talk is related to our ongoing joint work, with valuable suggestions from more people than we can list here see acknowledgments in our papers -- but especially Olga Kagan for ongoing discussion, Alexander Letuchij for corpus... more
... This talk is related to our ongoing joint work, with valuable suggestions from more people than we can list here see acknowledgments in our papers -- but especially Olga Kagan for ongoing discussion, Alexander Letuchij for corpus help, and Ekaterina Rakhilina for both. ...
The paper surveys the development of formal semantics and its ties to analytic philosophy and generative grammar.
1. Babby on “Declarative ” and “Existential ” sentences...................................................................................... 6 1.1. The scope of negation. Theme and Rheme.... more
1. Babby on “Declarative ” and “Existential ” sentences...................................................................................... 6 1.1. The scope of negation. Theme and Rheme. Problems................................................................................ 6 1.2. Sentences with the verb byt ’ ‘be ’ and referential subject............................................................................ 10
1. Babby on “Declarative ” and “Existential ” sentences......................................................................................3 1.1. Information structure and the scope of... more
1. Babby on “Declarative ” and “Existential ” sentences......................................................................................3 1.1. Information structure and the scope of negation..........................................................................................3 1.2. Alternatives to Babby’s analysis: Unaccusativity.......................................................................................4 2. Our approach. Existential vs. locative. “Perspective structure. ”......................................................................5
Research Interests:
This paper explores the hypothesis that Russian alternating Genitive NPs 1 have a “property-type” semantics, a hypothesis that aims to capture insights about “decreased referentiality ” expressed by researchers from Jakobson (1971/1936)... more
This paper explores the hypothesis that Russian alternating Genitive NPs 1 have a “property-type” semantics, a hypothesis that aims to capture insights about “decreased referentiality ” expressed by researchers from Jakobson (1971/1936) to Franks (1995) and Bailyn (2004). In Section 2 we state the hypothesis and our analysis, which uses a semantic type distinction rather
2.1. The standard terminology and its consequences, with examples................................................................ 2 2.2. Colloquial... more
2.1. The standard terminology and its consequences, with examples................................................................ 2 2.2. Colloquial terminology................................................................................................................................ 3 2.3. Alternative terminology............................................................................................................................... 4 3. What do “symmetrical”, “non-symmetrical ” apply to? What is the notion of an “asymmetrical act”?............. 5 3.1. In what sense is drowning an “asymmetrical act”?..................................................................................... 5 3.2. In what sense do reciprocals turn an asymmetrical predication into a more symmetrical one?.................. 6 3.3 A solution using Davidsonian event analysis: from asymmetric verb to non-symmetric predication......... 6 4. Non-symmetrics that pass the linguistic test for “symmetric pred...
1. Babby on “Declarative ” and “Existential ” sentences......................................................................................3 1.1. Information structure and the scope of... more
1. Babby on “Declarative ” and “Existential ” sentences......................................................................................3 1.1. Information structure and the scope of negation..........................................................................................3 1.2. Alternatives to Babby’s analysis: Unaccusativity.......................................................................................4 2. Our approach. Existential vs. locative. “Perspective structure. ”......................................................................5
Research Interests:
Formal and lexical semantics can be integrated if they speak the same language. We claim that a substantial part of lexical semantics can be incorporated into formal semantics without adding to the latter any new mechanisms. This talk... more
Formal and lexical semantics can be integrated if they speak the same language. We claim that a substantial part of lexical semantics can be incorporated into formal semantics without adding to the latter any new mechanisms. This talk continues the authors’ work on the ontology and the semantics of measure constructions in Russian. The work concerns expressions like dva stakana moloka, polkorziny gribov, tri meshka muki (two glasses of milk, half a basket of mushrooms, three bags of flour), etc., describing various kinds of containers, or corresponding measures based on them, and their contents—portions of substances. In our previous works, describing ontological information, including sorts of things and the words and expressions that designate sorts, we did not include those sorts in our formal semantic analyses. We do that in the present work, declaring sorts as types and thereby significantly expanding Montague’s system of types. On the one hand this gives us the means for speci...
Research Interests:
What is definiteness? We will investigate that question as we proceed. (0.1) Definite vs. indefinite Definites: uniqueness and/or exhaustivity; familiarity and/or inferrability (a) The horse ran away. Presupposition: There is one and only... more
What is definiteness? We will investigate that question as we proceed. (0.1) Definite vs. indefinite Definites: uniqueness and/or exhaustivity; familiarity and/or inferrability (a) The horse ran away. Presupposition: There is one and only one horse in the given domain of discourse. The horse is familiar: speaker presupposes that hearer can pick out the horse. (b) The three horses ran away. Presupposition: There are just three horses in the given domain of discourse. The horses are familiar: speaker presupposes that hearer can pick out the horses. (c) Definites make good topics: The second example I didn't like very much. *An example about possessives I didn't like very much. (d) Definites don't go well in existential sentences: There was a/*the beautiful black horse in one of the pastures. Indefinites: opposite properties. Not presupposed to be unique, exhaustive, familiar. Don't make good topics. Do go well in existential sentences. Normally should be " new &qu...
The purpose of this article is to describe and partially present a theory of grammar (syntax and semantics) that combines the most essential features of Richard Montague's theory of syntax and semantics and the... more
The purpose of this article is to describe and partially present a theory of grammar (syntax and semantics) that combines the most essential features of Richard Montague's theory of syntax and semantics and the transformational approach to syntax. In the formal organization of the grammar, the resulting theory is closer to Montague than to any of the current versions of transformational grammar; nevertheless, close analogues of most of the actual rules (both phrase structure and transformational) that have been formulated by ...
Research Interests:
In the history of formal semantics, the successful joining of linguistic and philosophical work brought with it some difficult foundational questions concerning the nature of meaning and the nature of knowledge of language in the domain... more
In the history of formal semantics, the successful joining of linguistic and philosophical work brought with it some difficult foundational questions concerning the nature of meaning and the nature of knowledge of language in the domain of semantics: questions in part about “what’s in the head” of a competent language-user. This chapter, part of a project on the history of formal semantics, revisits the central issues of Partee (1979) in a historical context, as a clash between two traditions, Fregean and Chomskyan, a clash that accompanied early work combining Montague’s semantics with Chomskyan syntax. Recent advances in philosophy of mind (from, e.g., Stalnaker and Burge) go a long way towards changing the framework of arguments about “psychological reality” and “competence”, challenging the suppositions on which the original dichotomy rested, thus largely defusing the tension.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Starting with classical works by members of the Prague Linguistic Circle and extending over several generations of their followers, Prague-school linguists have made many contributions which have shown the importance of topic-focus... more
Starting with classical works by members of the Prague Linguistic Circle and extending over several generations of their followers, Prague-school linguists have made many contributions which have shown the importance of topic-focus articulation to the understanding of a wide variety of linguistic phenomena. One of the clearest and most vivid cases has come from the work of Hajicová (1971, 1974, 1984) on the phenomenon of presupposition. Her distinction between presupposition and allegation marked a major ...
Research Interests:
Before turning to some selected issues in type theory, type-shifting and the semantics of noun phrases, which form the main topic of this chapter, I will briefly mention some other, very exciting topics of current research in formal... more
Before turning to some selected issues in type theory, type-shifting and the semantics of noun phrases, which form the main topic of this chapter, I will briefly mention some other, very exciting topics of current research in formal semantics that are relevant to the theme of this book, but which do not receive the attention they deserve in what follows. One is the centrality of context dependence, context change, and a more dynamic view of the basic semantic values. This view of meanings, in terms of functions from contexts to contexts, is ...
0. A universal, or almost universal distinction, in syntax: Sentence and NP.........................................................1 1. A possibly universal foundation for natural language semantics: types e and... more
0. A universal, or almost universal distinction, in syntax: Sentence and NP.........................................................1 1. A possibly universal foundation for natural language semantics: types e and t..................................................1 2. Thought experiments: “Monocategoric”? and just one basic semantic type?....................................................3 3. Ingredients for a possible one-basic-type semantics..........................................................................................3 3.1. Neo-Davidsonian semantics of event sentences..........................................................................................3 3.2. Kamp-Heim semantics for indefinite NPs..................................................................................................3 3.3. Open formulas are “almost ” type-neutral....................................................................................................4 3.4. Exploit the similarit...
Research Interests:
1. The puzzle of the relation between negation and intensionality This paper is about the interaction of the meanings of Noun Phrases (NPs) and various operator-like elements that a sentence may contain: negation, intensional verbs (want,... more
1. The puzzle of the relation between negation and intensionality This paper is about the interaction of the meanings of Noun Phrases (NPs) and various operator-like elements that a sentence may contain: negation, intensional verbs (want, expect, hope for, seek), tenses, modal verbs, aspectual operators, and other elements. I focus mainly on negation and intensionality, with discussion of aspect-related problems at the end 1. The patterns of interaction of NPs and various operator-like elements sometimes show negation and intensional operators patterning alike, sometimes differently. Negation is not an intensional operator; so the question arises why it sometimes, but not always, patterns with the intensional operators. In Section 2, we review (briefly and superficially) some of the basics of NP interpretations, the semantics of the relevant operator-like elements, and their interaction. Then we look at how some natural languages encode certain relations between NPs and certain oper...
1. Theoretical Background and Issues. In this paper we discuss the analysis of expressions such as John's team, John's brother, John's favorite movie, Mary's favorite chair, Mary's former mansion. Before introducing... more
1. Theoretical Background and Issues. In this paper we discuss the analysis of expressions such as John's team, John's brother, John's favorite movie, Mary's favorite chair, Mary's former mansion. Before introducing the concrete problems, we briefly describe our theoretical perspective. Our theoretical concern is the integration of formal semantics and lexical semantics, especially but not exclusively in the traditions of Montague Grammar and the Moscow School (Apresjan (1994), Mel'euk (1982), Paducheva (1996)), respectively. We have proposed (Borschev and Partee (in press)) to modify the Moscow school approach and represent lexical information in the form of sets of meaning postulates, which may or may not exhaust the meaning of the given lexical item. We believe this use of meaning postulates is consistent with actual Moscow school practice, and it makes it possible to integrate lexical semantics with the compositional "semantics of syntax" given ...
Research Interests:
In this paper we examine the relationships among diathesis alternations, the semantics of verbs, and the referential status of NPs. Some diathesis shifts are argued to involve changes in the semantic type of NP arguments, including... more
In this paper we examine the relationships among diathesis alternations, the semantics of verbs, and the referential status of NPs. Some diathesis shifts are argued to involve changes in the semantic type of NP arguments, including possible alternations between ‘referential’ NPs and ‘property-type’ NPs. We explore applications of this approach to alternations of Genitive and Accusative, both with intensional verbs like ždat’ ‘wait’and with the Genitive of Negation.
1 This question was first discussed by Arutjunova (1976, p.214), who observed that a yes-no locative question like Kolja v Londone? ‘Is Kolja in London?’ (our substitution for her similar example) admits two alternative forms for a... more
1 This question was first discussed by Arutjunova (1976, p.214), who observed that a yes-no locative question like Kolja v Londone? ‘Is Kolja in London?’ (our substitution for her similar example) admits two alternative forms for a negative answer, (1-NE), whose form corresponds to that of the affirmative (1), and (1-NET), whose form is like that of an existential sentence. She notes that (1-NET) is more widely used, and that it is (1-NET) which expresses general sentential negation. Our conclusions largely agree with hers. 2 The question arises for all examples with definite subject, “null copula”, and a locative or locative-possessive predicate, including also those in (i) and (ii).
Research Interests:
Plurals had a slow start in the history of formal semantics; a significant explosion of innovations didn’t come until the 1980s. In this paper, I offer a picture of developments by noting not only important achievements but also... more
Plurals had a slow start in the history of formal semantics; a significant explosion of innovations didn’t come until the 1980s. In this paper, I offer a picture of developments by noting not only important achievements but also reflecting on the state of thinking about plurals at various periods—what issues or phenomena were not even noticed, what puzzles had started to get attention, and what innovations made the biggest changes in how people thought about plurals. I divide the epochs roughly into decades: before formal semantics (before about 1970); the first decade of formal semantics—the 1970s, with early work by Montague and Bennett and landmark work on bare plurals by Carlson; the 1980s, when work by Link, Scha, Krifka, Landman, Roberts, and others significantly changed the landscape; and the 1990s, where I mention some key work by Lasersohn and Schwarzschild and stop there, although there was much more work in the 1990s. I don’t discuss the twenty-first century at all becaus...
Research Interests:
In recent work we have come to challenge assumptions that we shared (Borschev and Partee 1998a) with Babby (1980) concerning the role of Theme-Rheme structure in accounting for the nominative-genitive alternation in negated existential... more
In recent work we have come to challenge assumptions that we shared (Borschev and Partee 1998a) with Babby (1980) concerning the role of Theme-Rheme structure in accounting for the nominative-genitive alternation in negated existential sentences (the NES construction, in the terms of Babby (1980), the classic work which we are building on). The challenge is exemplified most clearly in our "kefir example": (i) (Ja iskal kefir.) Kefira v magazine ne bylo. (I looked-for kefir.) Kefir-GEN-m-sg in store NEG was-n-sg '(I was looking for kefir.) There wasn't any kefir in the store.' It is an important part of the explanatory structure of Babby 1980 that in sentence (i), the Theme is v magazine and the Rheme is kefir- (byl-). Babby takes Theme-Rheme structure to be crucial for determining the scope of negation, and scope of negation to be a necessary condition in licensing the occurrence of the genitive of negation. But arguments from word order, intonation, and pragma...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
0. Introduction Montague (1970a) presented a semantic treatment of adjectives which he credited to unpublished work done independently by Hans Kamp and Terence Parsons; that work, and similar independent work of Romaine Clark, was... more
0. Introduction Montague (1970a) presented a semantic treatment of adjectives which he credited to unpublished work done independently by Hans Kamp and Terence Parsons; that work, and similar independent work of Romaine Clark, was subsequently published (Clark 1970, Kamp 1975, Parsons 1970). The central claim in that work was that adjective meanings should be analyzed as functions from properties to properties. Among adjective meanings, some might satisfy further constraints such as intersectivity or subsectivity, but no such constraint can be imposed on the class as a whole, the argument goes, because of the existence of adjectives like false, ostensible, alleged. The strategy of “generalizing to the worst case”, followed by Montague in order to have a uniform assignment of semantic types to syntactic categories, called for giving all adjectives the type of functions from properties to properties. More restricted subclasses of adjectives, such as the subsective (skillful, good) and...
As noted by Brown (1999), there is general agreement in the literature on Russian “genitive of negation” (GenNeg) that GenNeg occurs only when the NP in question is within the scope of sentential negation (NEG). The apparent optionality... more
As noted by Brown (1999), there is general agreement in the literature on Russian “genitive of negation” (GenNeg) that GenNeg occurs only when the NP in question is within the scope of sentential negation (NEG). The apparent optionality of GenNeg within the scope of negation is a point of difficulty, with authors divided about whether the choice between Genitive and Nominative or Accusative in such cases is accompanied by some difference in syntactic structure and/or in semantics or pragmatics. A typical illustration of the correlation of Gen/Nom with scope of negation (underlined), is the classic example (1a-b):
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Filip, Natasha Kondrashova, Elena Paducheva, Orin Percus, Asya Pereltsvaig, Ekaterina Rakhilina, and Tanya Yanko, and to the editors; our gratitude does not imply their agreement with our conclusions, for which we take full... more
Filip, Natasha Kondrashova, Elena Paducheva, Orin Percus, Asya Pereltsvaig, Ekaterina Rakhilina, and Tanya Yanko, and to the editors; our gratitude does not imply their agreement with our conclusions, for which we take full responsibility. This work was supported in part by a grant to the first author from the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, Project No. 96-06-80315a, and in part by a grant from the National Academy of Sciences to the second author under the program for Collaboration in Basic Science and Engineering to host the first author for collaboration on the project “Towards an Integration of Formal and Lexical Semantics: Meaning Postulates and Fine-grained Sortal Structures.” Neither of the sponsoring organizations is responsible for the views expressed. Borschev, Vladimir and Barbara H. Partee (1998). Formal and lexical semantics and the genitive in negated existential sentences in Russian. In: ðeljko BoškoviÉ, Steven Franks and William Snyder, eds., Formal Approaches...
Research Interests:
1. Container nouns and the Russian “genitive of measure”: Introduction and examples Our topic is the Russian “genitive of measure” construction(s), studied in [Апресян 1999; Борщев, Парти 1999, 2011; Borschev, Partee 2001, 2004; Partee,... more
1. Container nouns and the Russian “genitive of measure”: Introduction and examples Our topic is the Russian “genitive of measure” construction(s), studied in [Апресян 1999; Борщев, Парти 1999, 2011; Borschev, Partee 2001, 2004; Partee, Borschev 2012], and [Rakhilina 2004]. These are a family of closely related constructions all of which can be instantiated by a simple phrase like stakan moloka ‘glass of milk’, with a container noun like stakan ‘glass’ followed by a genitive NP like moloka ‘milk’. The basic meaning of a container noun like stakan ‘glass’ is sortal, but in these constructions it is sometimes sortal, sometimes relational, and sometimes functional.
... here. Share this article. E-mail to a colleague. Readership Statistics. 4 Readers on Mendeley. by Discipline. 50% Linguistics. 25% Arts and Literature. 25% EnvironmentalSciences. by Academic Status. 50% Assistant Professor. 25 ...
Слово “семантика” имеет много значений. Формальная семантика –сравнительно молодая наука, возникшая и развившаяся за последние 40 с лишним лет в результате совместной работы лингвистов, логиков и философов. Ключевую роль в ее истории... more
Слово “семантика” имеет много значений. Формальная семантика –сравнительно молодая наука, возникшая и развившаяся за последние 40 с лишним лет в результате совместной работы лингвистов, логиков и философов. Ключевую роль в ее истории сыграл американский логик и философ Ричард Монтегю, ученик Тарского. В ходе лекции Барбара Парти расскажет об основных идеях, повлиявших на развитие формальной семантики, и о том, как история этой дисциплины связана с фундаментальными проблемами лингвистической теории, философии и когнитивной науки..