Atomic Plurals: Partee's Puzzle and the Decomposition of Grammatical Number (under review).
In most contexts bare plurals in English are confined to narrowest scope (Carlson 1977, 1980). Partee (1985) noticed, however, that wide-scope readings become possible when bare plurals function as dependent plurals in the scope of a plural licensor. In this paper I propose an analysis of this observation couched within a semantic framework that implements interpretation relative to a set of assignments (cf. e.g. van den Berg 1994, 1996, Nouwen 2003, Brasoveanu 2007, 2008, Minor 2017, 2022). The proposed account postulates an ambiguity in the underlying structure of bare plurals, which in turn stems from a decomposition of grammatical number into two independent features – encoding assignment-level atomicity and assignment-set-level uniqueness. It predicts the existence of atomic plurals, i.e. plural forms that carry an atomicity feature, but lack a uniqueness feature, and are predicted to pattern with singular indefinites in terms of their scopal properties. I demonstrate how the limited distribution of atomic plurals can be derived as an effect of mandatory blind exhausitifcation (Magri 2009, 2010) – specifically, atomic plurals are predicted to be blocked in competition with the corresponding singular forms whenever they occur outside the scope of plural (weakly distributive) items. The analysis is implemented within a static compositional system incorporating the notion of context as a set of assignments.
Dependent plurals and three levels of multiplicity, 2022, Linguistics and Philosophy 45, 431-509
This paper presents a slightly updated version of the analysis of dependent plurals, distributivity and grammatical number developed in my PhD dissertation. It focuses on constructions involving so-called ‘dependent plurals’, i.e. bare plurals occurring in the scope of certain quantificational items such as all and most (e.g. All the girls were wearing hats). I argue that none of the existing approaches to such constructions are fully successful, and that dependent plural readings should be analyzed as distinct both from cumulative readings and distributive readings, in the classical sense. I demonstrate how this can be accomplished in a semantic framework where expressions are evaluated relative to sets of assignments, or plural info states (van den Berg 1990, 1994, 1996). Specifically, I present an account of the semantics of grammatical number, quantificational items, and cardinality predicates couched within a modified version of Brasoveanu's (2007, 2008) Plural Compositional DRT. The analysis relies on two core distinctions: a) a distinction between weak distributivity across the assignments within a plural info state and strong distributivity across multiple info states; and b) a distinction between assignment-level and state-level plurality. Together, these distinctions give rise to three ways of representing the notion of multiplicity in the semantics of natural language, and are sufficient to account for the interpretations that arise in the interaction of different types of plural and quantificational noun phrases.
Dependent Plurals and Semantics of Distributivity, PhD dissertation, 2017, University of Tromsø.
My PhD thesis focuses on the semantics of distributivity, grammatical number, and cardinality predicates (i.e. numerals and quantity modifiers such as 'several'), and more generally on the way the concept of multiplicity is represented in the semantics of natural language. I argue that constructions involving so-called 'dependent plurals', i.e. plurals lacking numerals or quantity modifiers occurring in the scope of certain quantificational items such as all and most, pose a challenge to the classical semantic framework that distinguishes between two sources of multiplicity: domain-level plurality and distributive quantification. Instead, I argue that dependent plural readings should be analysed as distinct both from cumulative readings and distributive readings, in the classical sense. I demonstrate how this can be accomplished in a semantic framework where expressions are evaluated relative to sets of assignments, or plural info states, as originally proposed by van den Berg (1990, 1994, 1996). The specific formal implementation that I propose, PCDRT*, is based on Brasoveanu’s (2007, 2008) Plural Compositional DRT, with a number of significant modifications. I show how in this framework we are able to capture the contrast between ‘singular quantifiers’, such as each and every, and ‘plural quantifiers’, such as all and most, on the one hand, and between bare plurals and plurals involving cardinality modifiers, on the other. I further argue that the proposed theory is able to handle a range of phenomena particularly problematic for previous approaches, including intervention effects in dependent plural constructions, long-distance dependent plurals, and the contrast between dependent and non-dependent bare plurals in English with respect to their scopal properties.
Dependent Plurals and Two Types of Distributivity, 2016, presentation, (Co)-Distributivity Workshop.
The presentations from my talk at (Co)-Distributivity Workshop held in Paris in February, 2016. In this talk, I propose a distinction between weak and strong distributivity couched within a dynamic semantic framework with plural information states. I argue that this distinction, coupled with a two-component approach to the semantics of grammatical number, allows us to correctly account for the properties of dependent plurals and related constructions, while avoiding some of the problems faced by previous analyses. Furthermore, I demonstrate how the proposed system opens the way for an account of Partee’s Generalization concerning the scopal properties of English dependent and non-dependent bare plurals.
An Alternatives-based Semantics for Dependent Plurals, 2014, handout, (Co-)Distributivity Workshop.
The handout from my talk at the (Co)-Distributivity Workshop held in Paris in February, 2014. I focus on cases of long-distance interactions between a dependent plural and its licensor. I demonstrate that in some cases this dependency crosses clausal, finite-clause, and even island boundaries. To account for these facts, I develop an approach based on the mechanism of expanding Hamblin alternatives, modified to capture the semantics of dependent plurals.
Dependent Plurals are not Cumulative, 2013, handout, SALT 23.
The handout from my talk at SALT 23 (Santa-Cruz), where I point out a number of problems with the cumulativity-based analysis of dependent plurals (e.g. Zweig 2008, 2009), and propose an alternative approach based on choice-functions.
Controlling the Hidden Restrictor: A Puzzle with Control in Russian, 2013, published in Proceedings of the 42nd Meeting of the North East Linguistic Society (NELS 42), eds. S. Keine & S. Sloggett.
The Syntax and Semantics of Directional Axial Expressions in Russian (with Natalia Mitrofanova), 2013, published in Formal Description of Slavic Languages: The Ninth Conference. Proceedings of FDSL 9, eds. U. Junghanns et al.
The pre-publication version of our joint paper with Natalia Mitrofanova presented at FDSL-9 in 2011. We argue that directional adverbs in Russian have syntactic and semantics properties which distinguish them from directional expressions involving prepositions in e.g. English. We propose an analysis of this class of expression which introduces a new type of directive functional heads.
Phi-features as Complex Indices, 2013, handout, 87th Annual Meeting of the LSA.
A handout from my talk at the 2013 LSA meeting (Boston) where I develop some of the ideas concerning the interpretation of phi-features proposed in my 2011 indexality paper. I focus on gender features, and argue that they too should be interpreted as part of a complex index of pronouns, on a par with person features.
Low Locatives and the function of verbal prefixes in Russian (with Natalia Mitrofanova), 2013, poster, 87th Meeting of the LSA.
A poster presenting joint work with Natalia Mitrofanova on locative modifiers in Russian. We argue that there are two distinct types of locatives PPs in Russian which differ with respect to their possible hight of attachment within the decomposed VP. Based on the compatibility of these modifiers with various verb classes, we further argue that locative verbal prefixes in Russian introduce a telos without introducing a result sub-event.
Tenses and their Binders: SOT and DAR in English and Russian, 2012, handout, CASTL Workshop.
A handout from my talk at a mini-workshop held at CASTL (Tromsø) in connection with Éva Dékány's defense. I develop some of the ideas from my 2011 indexality paper concerning the interpretation of absolute and relative tenses in SOT and non-SOT languages.
Syntax and Semantics of Axial Expressions in Russian (with Natalia Mitrofanova), 2011, handout, FDSL-9.
The handout from our joint presentation with Natalia Mitrofanova at FDSL-9 in December, 2011. We investigate the syntactic and semantic properties of directional adverbs in Russian, and propose to extend the inventory of functional heads used in the formation of directional expressions.
Complex Indices and a Blocking Account of the Sequence of Tenses, 2011, ms.
The course paper I wrote for the advanced seminar on Indexality taught at CASTL by Gillian Ramchand in the fall, 2011. It has two parts: the first part addresses the issue of bound (or 'fake') indexicals, and proposes a semantic mechanism for their analysis. The second part contains a proposal for reducing the contrast between SoT and non-SoT languages to the inventory of Tense heads. To make this work, I propose that a competition exists between Tense heads which is governed by the same economy conditions as the competition between different types of pronouns.
Control and ECM Combined: A Unusual Control Pattern in Russian, 2011, handout.
This is the handout from my presentation at the CASTL Colloquium in November, 2011. It contains the latest results of my research on a puzzling control construction in Russian which appears to combine properties of ECM and Object Control. Earlier versions of this work were presented at a number of conferences including FASL 18 and NELS 42.
Kabardian as a Polysynthetic Language, 2005, M.A. Thesis.
This is a translation of my M.A. Thesis at the Moscow State University. It contains a study of configurationality in Kabardian, a Northwest Caucasian language, and an investigation of Backward Control in Kabardian.