Abstract
Within natural language semantics, pronouns are often thought to correspond to variables whose values are contributed by contextual assignment functions. This paper concerns the application of this idea to cases where the antecedent of a pronoun is a plural quantifiers. The paper discusses the modelling of accessibility patterns of quantifier antecedents in a dynamic theory of interpretation. The goal is to reach a semantics of quantificational dependency which yields a fully semantic notion of pronominal accessibility. I argue that certain dependency phenomena that arise in quantificationally created contexts require a representation of context wherein the labelling of antecedents is not rigid but rather dynamic itself. I propose a stack-based alternative to classic assignment functions, along the lines of Vermeulen (1993) and van Eijck (2001), and give a dynamic semantics of quantification which correctly accommodates the problematic anaphoric phenomena.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ariel, M.: 1990, Accessing Noun–Phrase Antecedents, Routledge, London, New York.
Asher, N. and Wang, L.: 2003, Ambiguity and anaphora with plurals in discourse, in Proceedings of Semantics and Linguistic Theory 13 (SALT 13), University of Washington, Seattle.
Carpenter, B.: 1995, A type-logical account of plurality, in Proceedings of the first international conference on formal grammar.
Dekker, P.: 1993, Transsentential Mediations, PhD thesis, ILLC, Department of Philosophy, University of Amsterdam.
Dekker, P.: 1994, Predicate logic with anaphora, in L. Santelmann and M. Harvey (eds.), Proceedings of the Fourth Semantics and Linguistic Theory Conference, DMLL, Cornell University, p. 17.
Dekker, P.: 2002, Meaning and use of indefinite expressions, Journal of Logic, Language and Information 9, 141–194.
Elworthy, D.: 1995, A theory of anaphoric information, Linguistics and Philosophy 18, 297–332.
Evans, G.: 1977, Pronouns, quantifiers and relative clauses, Canadian Journal of Philosophy 7, 467–536.
Evans, G.: 1980, Pronouns, Linguistic Inquiry 11(2), 337–362.
Groenendijk, J. and Stokhof, M.: 1991a, Dynamic predicate logic, Linguistics and Philosophy 14, 39–100.
Groenendijk, J. and Stokhof, M.: 1991b, Two theories of dynamic semantics, in Logics in AI-European workshop JELIA 1990, Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp. 55–64.
Groenendijk, J., Stokhof, M., and Veltman, F.: 1996, Coreference and modality, in S. Lappin (ed.), The Handbook of Contemporary Semantic Theory, Blackwell, Oxford, pp. 179–213.
Hardt, D.: 2005, Salience, inference and plural anaphora, in E. Maier, C. Bary, and J. Huitink (eds.), Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 9, Nijmegen, pp. 131–139.
Heim, I., Lasnik, H., and May, R.: 1991, Reciprocity and plurality, Linguistic Inquiry 22(1), 63–101, Winter.
Kamp, H.: 1981, A theory of truth and semantic representation, in J.A.G. Groenendijk, T.M.V. Janssen, and M.J.B. Stokhof (eds.), Formal Methods in the Study of Language, Mathematical Centre, Amsterdam.
Kamp, H. and Reyle, U.: 1993, From Discourse to Logic, D. Reidel, Dordrecht.
Krifka, M.: 1996, Parametrized sum individuals for plural reference and partitive quantification, Linguistics and Philosophy 19, 555–598.
Nouwen, R.: 2003a, Complement anaphora and interpretation, Journal of Semantics 20(1), 73–113.
Nouwen, R.: 2003b, Plural pronominal anaphora in context. Number 84 in Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics Dissertations, LOT, Utrecht.
van den Berg, M.: 1996, Some aspects of the internal structure of discourse: the dynamics of nominal anaphora. PhD thesis, ILLC, Universiteit van Amsterdam.
van Eijck, J.: 2000, On the proper treatment of context, in Proceedings of CLIN99, Utrecht.
van Eijck, J.:Summer 2001, Incremental dynamics, Journal of Logic, Language and Information 10(3), 319–351.
Vermeulen, K.: 1993, Sequence semantics for dynamic predicate logic, Journal of Logic, Language and Information 2, 217–254.
Vermeulen, K.: 1994, Explorations of the dynamic environment. PhD thesis, Onderzoeksinstituut voor Taal en Spraak, Utrecht.
Vermeulen, K.: August1995, Merging without mystery or: variables in dynamic semantics, Journal of Philosophical Logic 24(4), 405–450.
Visser, A.: 1998, Contexts in dynamic predicate logic, Journal of Logic, Language and Information 7(1), 21–52.
Visser, A.: 2003, Context modification in action. Artificial Intelligence Preprint Series 43, Department of Philosophy, Utrecht University.
Westerståhl, D.: 1984, Determiners and context sets, in J. van Benthem and A. ter Meulen (eds.), Generalized Quantifiers in Natural Language, Foris Dordrecht, pp. 45–71.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Nouwen, R. On Dependent Pronouns and Dynamic Semantics. J Philos Logic 36, 123–154 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10992-006-9029-8
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10992-006-9029-8