Abstract
There is a quantifier scope ambiguity in (1). In addition to the preferred normal scope reading paraphrased in (1ns), this sentence has the inverse scope reading paraphrased in (1is):
-
(1)
Some linguist speaks every language.
-
(1ns) There is some linguist x such that x speaks every language
-
(1is) For every language y, there is some linguist or other who speaks y
-
Liu (1990) and others point out that certain objects, such as those with de-creasing denotations, do not allow an inverse scope reading, as in:
-
(2)
Some linguist speaks at most 2 languages.
-
(2ns) Some linguist x is such that x speaks at most 2 languages
-
(2is) There are at most 2 languages y such that some linguist or other speaks those 2 languages y
-
(2is) is perfectly intelligible: it says that linguists speak at most 2 languages altogether. This does not seem to be available as an interpretation of (2). This is arguably not just a preference; sentence (2) just cannot be interpreted as (2is).
This work was inspired by stimulating discussions with Anna Szabolcsi, Filippo Beghelli, Fernando Pereira, and especially Dorit Ben-Shalom and Ed Keenan.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Alechina, Natasha. 1995. Modal Quantifiers. PhD thesis, University of Amsterdam.
Barwise, Jon, and Robin Cooper. 1981. Generalized quantifiers and natural language. Linguistics and Philosophy 4:159–219.
Beghelli, Filippo, and Tim Stowell. 1996. Distributivity and negation. In this volume.
Ben-Shalom, Dorit. 1993. Object wide scope and semantic trees. In Procs. of the Workshop on Semantics and Linguistic Theory, SALT III.
Ben-Shalom, Dorit. 1996. Semantic Trees. PhD thesis, UCLA. Available at http://128.97.8.34/.
Brody, Michael. 1995. Lexico-Logical Form: A Radically Minimalist Theory. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.
Chomsky, Noam. 1995a. Language and nature. Mind 104:1–61.
Chomsky, Noam. 1995b. The Minimalist Program. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.6
Cooper, Robin. 1983. Quantification and Syntactic Theory. Dordrecht: Reidel.
Dalrymple, Mary, John Lamping, Fernando Pereira, and Vijay Saraswat. 1994. A deductive account of quantification in LFG. In M. Kanazawa, C.J. Piñón, and H. de Swart (Eds.), Quantifiers, Deduction and Context. Stanford, California: Center for the Study of Language and Information.
Dummett, Michael. 1993. The Seas of Language. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Fiengo, Robert, and Robert May. 1995. Indices and Identity. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.
Goldblatt, Robert. 1992. Logics of time and computation. Stanford: CSLI/Stanford University.
Higginbotham, James, and Robert May. 1981. Questions, quantifiers and crossing. The Linguistic Review 1:41–79.
Keenan, Edward L. 1987. Unreducible n-ary quantifiers in natural language. In P. Gardenfors (Ed.), Generalized Quantifiers. Dordrecht: Reidel.
Keenan, Edward L., and Edward P. Stabler. 1994. Abstract syntax. In Configurations, Université du Quebec à Montreal. Forthcoming. Available at http://128.97.8.34/.
Koopman, Hilda. 1994. Licensing heads. In David Lightfoot and Norbert Hornstein (Eds.), Verb Movement, 261–296. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Liu, Feng-hsi. 1990. Scope Dependency in English and Chinese. PhD thesis, Department of Linguistics, UCLA.
Nam, Seungho. 1991. Scope interpretation in nonconstituent coordination. In Proceedings of the West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics, WCCFL 10, 337–348.
Pereira, Fernando C.N. 1990. Categorial semantics and scoping. Computational Linguistics 16:1–10.
Sportiche, Dominique. 1995. Sketch of a reductionist approach to syntactic variation and dependencies. In Hector Campos and Paula Kempchinsky (Eds.), Evolution and Revolution in Linguistic Theory. Washington: Georgetown University Press.
Stabler, Edward P. 1996. Acquiring and parsing languages with movement. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Forthcoming. Draft available at http://128.97.8.34/.
Szabolcsi, Anna. 1996. Strategies for scope taking. In this volume.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1997 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Stabler, E.P. (1997). Computing Quantifier Scope. In: Szabolcsi, A. (eds) Ways of Scope Taking. Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy, vol 65. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-5814-5_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-5814-5_5
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-0-7923-4451-3
Online ISBN: 978-94-011-5814-5
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive