Formal Approaches to Semantic Microvariation: Adverbial ...

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Heyd proposes that verbs selecting de phrase complements are incorporating verbs, and, as such, they have the argument structure in (48). (48) λx e .λP .∃y[V (x,y)&P(y)] (Heyd (2003: 199, her (57)) Thus, under this analysis 1 , the denotation of the VP lire de livres has the form in (49). (49) lire de livres = λyλe.∃x(Reading (e,y,x) & Book(x))) Presumably, the subject is added, the event variable is existentially closed, and then negation is applied to the resulting proposition. Therefore, the denotation of J’ai pas lu de livres ‘I did not read any books’ would be represented as in (50) (50) J’ai pas lu de livres = ¬∃e(∃x(Reading(e,I,x) & Book(x))) Heyd suggests extending her analysis of negative de phrases to QAD sentences saying, Si l’analyse en termes d’incorporation nominale est plausible pour les S N en de négatif, ce parallélisme structurel mérite qu’on s’interroge sur la validité de cette hypothèse pour les phrases du type (59) et (60). [QAD sentences-H.B] (Heyd (2003:202)) ‘If the analysis in terms of nominal incorporation is plausible for the NPs headed by a negative de, this structural parallelism suggests that we examine the validity of this hypothesis for sentences of the form in (59) and (60).’ 1 I have switched the order of the arguments in Heyd’s (57) so as to have the direct object combine with the verb first, as is standardly assumed. I have additionally added an event argument, to be consistent with the assumptions presented in chapter 1. 40
Based on a study of the scope properties of de phrases in the Split-Combien construction, Mathieu (2002) also proposes that de phrases in these contexts are incorporated. In a 2004 NELS paper, he extends this analysis to QAD sentences. For Mathieu (2004), the determiner de is not semantically a determiner; it is “a morphological spell-out of incorporation" (p.7). Thus, the denotation of J’ai beaucoup lu de livres in the incorporation analysis is equivalent to the logical form in (51) . (51) J’ai beaucoup lu de livres = BCPe (∃x(Reading (e,I,x) & Book(x))) In the incorporation analysis, J’ai beaucoup lu de livres has a semantics closer to the English ‘There were many events of me reading books’ than to ‘I read a lot of books’. This analysis has many merits: Firstly, it accounts for the scopal inertia of the de phrases in a straightforward manner. Secondly, it accounts for the multiplicity of events requirement in Standard French, since beaucoup is applied directly to the event argument of the verb. Finally, it derives the locality constraints on the relation between beaucoup and the de phrase, since, cross-linguistically, incorporation is only possible from the direct object position. Nevertheless, I argue that the incorporation analysis of QAD is empirically inadequate for a couple of reasons. Firstly, there is the general question surrounding the licensing of de phrases in argument position in French. Clearly, the presence of de alone cannot be what licenses the incorporation. If this were the case, we would expect de to license incorporation, even when there are no other overt operators in the sentence. But, of course, simple sentences with de phrases in object position are extremely bad 2 . 2 In this paper, I ignore the exceptional cases in French when de phrases with a certain small group of mono-syllabic prenominal adjectives are licensed in direct object position, as in J’ai lu de bons livres. These structures are highly literary and are not characteristic of the spoken language. Additionally, there is doubt as to whether they were ever really an organic part of the spoken language. As the following quotation about these structures by the Académie française would suggest, the use bare de phrases with prenominal adjectives was something that regular French speakers had to ‘submit’ to. 41
Page 1 and 2: UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angele
Page 3 and 4: 3.3.1 Split DPs in Old French . . .
Page 5 and 6: CHAPTER 1 Introduction This thesis
Page 7 and 8: concrete example of the contributio
Page 9 and 10: The thesis is organized as follows:
Page 11 and 12: As pointed out by Keenan & Westerst
Page 13 and 14: following definitions for beaucoup
Page 15 and 16: ‘I slept a lot’ b. Je suis beau
Page 17 and 18: (21) Let s 1 ∈ N such that 0 < s
Page 19 and 20: involves unreducible binary quantif
Page 21 and 22: dently, are islands for movement. A
Page 23 and 24: a. ...parce qu’une longue bibliog
Page 25 and 26: f. Elle a tellement applaudi que..
Page 27 and 28: 2.1.2.3 Multiplicity of Events Anot
Page 29 and 30: . Elle vient d’avoir beaucoup d
Page 31 and 32: ‘Jean has owned a lot of horses
Page 33 and 34: sis [i.e. movement analysis-H.B], s
Page 35 and 36: object. Other more complicated move
Page 37 and 38: Only the (internal) arguments of V
Page 39: Semantic incorporation has been pro
Page 43 and 44: QAD sentences with multiple events
Page 45 and 46: . Quatre mille navires sont passés
Page 47 and 48: She proposes that nouns contain two
Page 49 and 50: (Doetjes (1997: 271, her (40)) Seco
Page 51 and 52: As shown below, like souvent, rarem
Page 53 and 54: (79) a. J’ai rarement apprécié
Page 55 and 56: 2.2.1 The Unreducibility of BCP SF
Page 57 and 58: (where s = 1 or t = 1, and s or t =
Page 59 and 60: phrases in object position are comb
Page 61 and 62: . *J’ai beaucoup écrit ma thèse
Page 63 and 64: As mentioned above, a major problem
Page 65 and 66: She attributes this exceptional vio
Page 67 and 68: (106) Different students answered d
Page 69 and 70: (2) a. Dans cette cassette, il a be
Page 71 and 72: (10) J’ai beaucoup appelé de mè
Page 73 and 74: (16) Theorem 2: For all s ∈ N, BC
Page 75 and 76: BCP 1 s ({x : ∃e(Reading(e,I,x) &
Page 77 and 78: c. *Marie beaucoup a lu de livres M
Page 79 and 80: . la perte doit moult desplaire the
Page 81 and 82: (28) Peu portent fruit et assez fue
Page 83 and 84: ‘There are a lot of countries in
Page 85 and 86: The second argument that Split [+Te
Page 87 and 88: 3.3.3 Summary In the study of the e
Page 89 and 90: (40) J’ai beaucoup mangé de pomm
Page 91 and 92:
(45) a. il confessa qu’il avoit b
Page 93 and 94:
(1) pas ‘not’, point ‘not’,
Page 95 and 96:
in this way to account for another
Page 97 and 98:
(10) is entirely true for Québec F
Page 99 and 100:
avoid confusion, I therefore re-nam
Page 101 and 102:
quantifiers Q ′ leads to the cons
Page 103 and 104:
and cannot combine with a one-place
Page 105 and 106:
As first noticed by Obenauer (1976)
Page 107 and 108:
4) The frequency adverb souvent ‘
Page 109 and 110:
Nevertheless, Rizzi and Obenauer’
Page 111 and 112:
forward: The polyadic elements comb
Page 113 and 114:
quantifiers in Québec French, I st
Page 115 and 116:
(Doetjes (2007)). (52) L’été pa
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I proposed that the elements that l
Page 119 and 120:
BIBLIOGRAPHY Adams, Marianne. 1987.
Page 121 and 122:
Doetjes, Jenny. 1997. Quantifiers a
Page 123 and 124:
Labelle, Marie and Daniel Valois. 2
Page 125:
Rowlett, Paul. 1996. Negative Confi
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