Semantics Workshop in Tokai and Kansai

第68回 

東海・関西意味論研究会

  2026年10月4日 (日) 13時30分 (13:30 ~ onwards, 4th October 2026)

神戸大学人文学研究科 B棟135 Small Hall (Kobe University, Graduate School of Humanities, Building B, Room 135 Small Hall)/Zoom

http://www.lit.kobe-u.ac.jp/english/access.html

https://www.kobe-u.ac.jp/en/campuslife/campus_guide/campus/rokkodai2.html (Building 98 on the map)
人文学研究科B棟135小ホールには、中庭にある小ホール専用の入り口（自動販売機近く）から直接入れます。The 135 Small Hall in Building B can be entered directly from the hall's own entrance in the courtyard (near the vending machine).

研究発表 (Lecture)：13:30~15:00

Kenta Mizutani (Aichi Prefectural University) and Eri Tanaka (Osaka University)

Peculiar Distribution of Modified Numerals in Japanese and van Benthem’s Problem

Modified numerals such as less than n have long attracted attention in the literature because they pose persistent analytical challenges. For example, (1a) receives an upper-bounded interpretation, being judged false in situations where three or more students smiled. Simple existential analyses such as (1b), however, fail to capture this fact: they incorrectly predict (1a) to be true even when ten students smiled, a well-known difficulty known as van Benthem’s problem (see e.g., van Benthem 1986). Numerous solutions to this problem have been proposed, but no consensus has yet emerged. In this talk, we present a new puzzle concerning the Japanese modified numeral n ika ‘less than or equal to n’. We argue that n ika represents a previously unnoticed type of modified numeral to which the standard solution to van Benthem’s problem does not apply, thereby revealing a novel and theoretically significant distributional pattern.

(1) a. Less than three students smiled.

b. ∃x[students(x) ∧ smiled(x) ∧ |x| < 3]              (Buccola and Spector 2016: 158)

研究発表 (Lecture)：15:15~ onwards

Andreas Trotzke (University of Zurich)

Rethinking exclamations

I present a novel analysis of exclamative sentences as assertions equivalent to declarative sentences with emotive verbs. Focusing on wh-exclamatives and declarative exclamations, I offer a wide range of arguments for why they are both assertive including showing that they can be rejected and responded to (contrary to what previous literature has assumed). The new analysis proposes a syntax-semantics for exclamatives without a speech act operator, and exclamativity surfaces as an attitude rather than a speech act. I indicate to what extent the analysis can capture a broader set of phenomena such as mirativity and expressive types of non-canonical questions.