SPATIAL PREPOSITIONS AS A POSSIBLE RESTRICTOR FOR THE READING
OF WEAK DEFINITES
The purpose of this poster is to analyze some phenomena involving weak definites
and spatial prepositions in the Brazilian Portuguese (BP) with the objective of
contributing to a reflection on the discussion of referentiality and the value of definite
articles and modification provided by spatial prepositions within a theory of formal
semantics.
Following Chierchia (2003), we believe that the meaning of a sentence is equivalent
to its denotation, i.e., in order to be able to interpret a sentence, we must be able to
identify its reference and establish its truth conditions. Furthermore, another essential
principle for understanding the sentences we utter is the principle of compositionality:
the meaning of a sentence or a complex expression depends systematically on the
meaning of the terms that compose it and their syntactic organization. Thus, to
understand a language, in addition to finding the referents of the terms we
pronounce, we need to understand the relationship between these terms.
We assume, therefore, following Chierchia (2003) and Heim & Kratzer (1998) that
proper names denote individuals in a world w at time t. Common names, in turn,
denote classes of individuals or species, intransitive verbs denote classes of
individuals who perform that act, as well as transitive verbs and prepositions denote
functions between classes of individuals.
In the case of determinants, they are generally assumed to denote a relation
between classes of individuals. The definite article, however, seems more complex
than the other determinants, initially because in order to understand a sentence with
a common name introduced by a definite article, "we [also] must consider it in the
context in which it occurs"1 (Chierchia, 2003).
In this sense, we observe that the definite articles impose some restrictions on the
interpretation of the noun phrase they introduce: the denotation of an expression
DEF N in a certain world w at time t, requires that there be a single individual present
or open to be highlighted in that context/episode.
It is exactly on this point that languages like BP present phenomena, as we will
observe below, that challenge the standard theory. Given what we have discussed so
far about the definite articles, we could establish that when a speaker utters a
sentence DEF N, this same speaker (or all participants) is able to identify a single
individual in the context to be the referent of this N. Thus, the dialogue in (1) is
acceptable while the dialogue in (2) would be unacceptable:
(1)
A: Joana está lendo o livro/Joana is reading the book.
B: Qual?/Which one?
A: “Le Petit Prince”.
(2)
A: Joana está lendo o livro/ Joana is reading the book.
B: Qual?/Which one?
A: # Não sei./# I don’t know.
At the same time, we observe in many languages some N DEF sentences that do not
necessarily have a single individual in the context to be identified as the referent of
1
Tradução da tradução para o PB: “precisamos considerá-la no contexto em que ocorre”
(CHIERCHIA, 2003)
the N phrase and, even so, are acceptable. In the BP, we dare say, they are
recurring. In (3), we witness a dialogue absolutely acceptable in BP:
(3)
A: Joana está lendo o jornal/Joana is reading the newspaper.
B: Qual?/Which one?
A: Não sei/I don’t know.
This phenomenon is identified in the literature as "weak definite": the denotation of
the noun phrases introduced by a weak definite has a general reference - not
denoting a single individual, but a class of individuals. That is, in the sentence Joana
is reading the newspaper, the newspaper does not denote a singular newspaper
salient in the context but the class of objects that can be called a newspaper, hence
its generic reference.
Carlson et al. (2013) suggest that the licensing of weak reading should be assigned
to lexical items. That is, when we alter one of the lexical items in the noun phrase or
in the VP, the regular reading is mandatory: read the report vs. read the newspaper.
At the same time, another kind of modification called restrictive modification usually
forces a regular reading of the expression. Applying anaphora as a test, we can see
that in (4), Joana and Alice may have slept in different beds and the sentence
remains true:
(4) Joana dormiu na cama e Alice também.
Joana slept on the bed and Alice did it too.
At the same time, in the sentence below, the interpretation of a single bed (only
referent), would be mandatory:
(5) Joana dormiu na cama nova e Alice também.
Joana slept on the new bed and Alice did it too.
1. Modification by spatial prepositions
Following from this idea, we are now extending the analysis of modification to the
spatial prepositions in view that these prepositions are interpreted as intensely
referential. When one utters a sentence like em cima da mesa (on the table), one can
usualy expect one single table to be identified in that context. So we are now carrying
out some offline tests (anaphora readings acceptance and dialogue like the one in (1)
acceptance) to check the sensibility of BP speakers on the modification created by
these items as in the examples below:
(6) Joana dormiu na cama e Alice também. (weak reading)
Joana slept on the bed.
(7) Joana dormiu em cima da cama e Alice também. (only regular reading?)
Joana slept on the bed.
We expect to be able to show some of the results of such analysis on this poster
presentation.
2. References
BOSCH, Peter (2010). Weak definites and German preposition-determiner contractions.
o shop on
pecificity from
theoretical and empirical points of view nstitut f r inguisti
niversit t tuttgart
- 02.09.2010.
CARLSON, Gregory N, SUSSMAN, Rachel, KLEIN, Natalie, TANENHAUS, Michael (2006). Weak definite noun phrases. In
Chris Davis, Amy Rose Deal, et Youri Zabbal, Proceedings of the Norh Eastern Linguistic society, 179-196.
CARLSON, Gregory N, SUSSMAN, Rachel, KLEIN, Natalie, TANENHAUS, Michael (2013). Definidos Fracos, Uma Forma De
Definitude: Investigações Experimentais. Trad. Roberta P. de Oliveira. Revista da ABRALIN, v.12, n.1, p. 39-76,
jan./jun. 2013.
CHIERCHIA, Gennaro (2003). Semântica. Trad. Pagani, Negri & Ilari. Londrina e Campinas: Eduel e Editora da Unicamp.
HEIM & KRATZER (1998). Semantics in Generative Grammar. Blackwell Publishing.
VOGEL, Steffen (2011). Weak Definites and Generics. Bachelor Thesis in
niversitat
sna r c
Acessível em:
http://cogsci.uni-osnabrueck.de/~CL/download/BSc_Vogel_2011.pdf