TY - JOUR
T1 - Topic, Focus, and the Interpretation of Bare Plurals
AU - Cohen, Ariel
AU - Erteschik-Shir, Nomi
N1 - Funding Information:
* We wish to thank Carmen Dobrovie-Sorin, Fred Landman, Louise McNally, Anita Mittwoch, Barbara Partee, Tova Rapoport, Veerle Van Geenhoven, as well as two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments. This article has also benefited from comments by the audiences of the Semantics Group at the Institute for Advanced Studies at the Hebrew University, the Paris Syntax and Semantics Conference, the Amsterdam Colloquium, and the Linguistics Department at Tübingen University. This research was supported in part by Grant No. 755/97-1 (with T.R. Rapoport) from the Israel Science Foundation.
PY - 2002/1/1
Y1 - 2002/1/1
N2 - In this paper we show that focus structure determines the interpretation of bare plurals in English: topic bare plurals are interpreted generically, focused bare plurals are interpreted existentially. When bare plurals are topics they must be specific, i.e. they refer to kinds. After type-shifting they introduce variables which can be bound by the generic quantifier, yielding characterizing generics. Existentially interpreted bare plurals are not variables, but denote properties that are incorporated into the predicate. The type of predicate determines the interpretation of its bare plural subject. The individual/stage-level distinction, though important, is not sufficient: since only arguments can be topics, only those stage-level predicates which have locative arguments can have existential bare plural subjects. Certain verbs (e.g., hate) fail to incorporate their bare plural objects; therefore no existential reading of the object is available. We provide a novel solution to this puzzle based on the following two claims: (i) incorporated bare plurals do not introduce discourse referents; (ii) nonincorporating verbs are presuppositional.
AB - In this paper we show that focus structure determines the interpretation of bare plurals in English: topic bare plurals are interpreted generically, focused bare plurals are interpreted existentially. When bare plurals are topics they must be specific, i.e. they refer to kinds. After type-shifting they introduce variables which can be bound by the generic quantifier, yielding characterizing generics. Existentially interpreted bare plurals are not variables, but denote properties that are incorporated into the predicate. The type of predicate determines the interpretation of its bare plural subject. The individual/stage-level distinction, though important, is not sufficient: since only arguments can be topics, only those stage-level predicates which have locative arguments can have existential bare plural subjects. Certain verbs (e.g., hate) fail to incorporate their bare plural objects; therefore no existential reading of the object is available. We provide a novel solution to this puzzle based on the following two claims: (i) incorporated bare plurals do not introduce discourse referents; (ii) nonincorporating verbs are presuppositional.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=21644445257&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1023/A:1016576614139
DO - 10.1023/A:1016576614139
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:21644445257
SN - 0925-854X
VL - 10
SP - 125
EP - 165
JO - Natural Language Semantics
JF - Natural Language Semantics
IS - 2
ER -