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« Semantics Reading Group Today | Main | Phonology Group»

Anna Szabolcsi Colloquium

Anna Szabolcsi
New York University

Raising verbs as quantifiers?

Friday, February 27, 3:30 pm, Machmer W-23

Refreshments to follow in the department lounge.
Party after that at Kathryn and Chris's.

Abstract

The English sentence below is unambiguous: it has reading (i) but not (ii):

(1) In May only Mary began to get good roles.
(i) Mary is the only person (say, actress) whose situation changed in such a way that before May she didn't get good roles, and after May she was getting ones.
(ii) The overall situation changed in such a way that whoever might have been getting good roles before May, after May only Mary was getting ones.

Reading (ii) is not even expressible in English in a straightforward manner. But in Hungarian, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Finnish, Shupamem, German, Dutch, etc. there is a straightforward way to express (ii). For example:

(2) Ma'jusban elkezdett csak Mari kapni jo' szerepeket.
     May-in prefix-began only Mary get-inf good roles-acc
     [only reading (ii)

(3) In mei begon alleen Marie goede rollen te krijgen.
     in May began only Mary good roles to get
     [ambiguous, but reading (ii) may be preferred]

It will be argued that, despite the superficial similarity, Hungarian-type and Dutch-type languages pull different tricks. In connection with the Dutch-type trick, one question is whether the quantificational content of "begin" is represented explicitly in syntax, or only in the semantics. The talk will present some initial considerations in this connection.

February 26, 2009 12:09 AM | 07:06 (2009-02-26) , colloquia