Abstract
Breheny et al. (Nat Lang Semant, 2017) argue against the structural approach to alternatives. The empirical force of their argument comes mostly from challenges raised against Trinh and Haida (Nat Lang Semant 23:249–270, 2015). This paper aims to respond to these challenges, showing how they can be met by a natural refinement of Trinh and Haida’s proposal which turns out to capture additional facts previously not accounted for. Another aim of this paper is to recount the debate with enough precision and explicitness in order to enhance understanding and facilitate future discussions.
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Acknowledgements
I thank Luka Crnič, Danny Fox, Andreas Haida, the audience at ZAS Berlin, and the audience at the Logic, Language and Cognition Center of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem for helpful discussion.
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Trinh, T. Keeping it simple. Nat Lang Semantics 26, 111–124 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11050-018-9143-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11050-018-9143-5