Individuation, reliability, and the mass/count distinction

• Autorzy: Sutton P. R. , Filip H.

Identyfikatory

DOI

10.15398/jlm.v5i2.144

• Języki publikacji: EN

Abstrakty

EN

Counting in natural language presupposes that we can successfully identify what counts as one, which, as we argue, relies on how and whether one can balance two pressures on learning nominal predicates, which we formalise in probabilistic and information theoretic terms: individuation (establishing a schema for judging what counts as one with respect to a predicate); and reliability (establishing a reliable criterion for applying a predicate). This hypothesis has two main consequences. First, the mass/count distinction in natural language is a complex phenomenon that is partly grounded in a theory of individuation, which we contend must integrate particular qualitative properties of entities, among which a key role is player by those that rely on our spatial perception. Second, it allows us to predict when we can expect the puzzling variation in mass/count lexicalization, cross- and intralinguistically: namely, exactly when the two learning pressures of individuation and reliability conflict.

Słowa kluczowe

EN

mass distinction; mount distinction; probabilistic semantics; individuation; reliability; semantic learning; information theory; context-sensitivity; Type Theory with Records

• Wydawca: Instytut Podstaw Informatyki PAN
• Czasopismo: Journal of Language Modelling
• Rocznik: 2017
• Tom: Vol. 5, No. 2
• Strony: 303--356
• Opis fizyczny: Bibliogr. 31 poz., rys., tab.

Twórcy

autor

Sutton P. R.

• Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany

autor

Filip H.

• Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany

Bibliografia

• [1] J. L. Austin (1950/1979), Truth, in J. O. Urmson and G. J. Warnock, editors, Philosophical Papers, Third Edition, pp. 117-133, Oxford University Press, Oxford, Originally in: Symposium: Truth, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Vol. 24 (1950).
• [2] Jon Barwise and John Etchemendy (1987), The Liar: An Essay on Truth and Circularity, Oxford University Press USA.
• [3] Gennaro Chierchia (2010), Mass Nouns, Vagueness and Semantic Variation, Synthese, 174: 99-149.
• [4] Robin Cooper (2012), Type Theory and Semantics in Flux, in R. Kempson, T. Fernando, and N. Asher, editors, Philosophy of Linguistics, Handbook of the Philosophy of Science, pp. 271-323, Elsevier.
• [5] Robin Cooper, Simon Dobnik, Shalom Lappin, and Staffan Larsson (2014), A Probabilistic Rich Type Theory for Semantic Interpretation, Proceedings of the EACL 2014 Workshop on Type Theory and Natural Language Semantics.
• [6] Robin Cooper, Simon Dobnik, Staffan Larsson, and Shalom Lappin (2015), Probabilistic Type Theory and Natural Language Semantics, LILT, 10 (4).
• [7] Simon Dobnik, Robin Cooper, and Staffan Larsson (2012), Modelling language, action, and perception in type theory with records, in Constraint Solving and Language Processing, pp. 70-91, Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
• [8] Jan van Eijck and Shalom Lappin (2012), Probabilistic Semantics for Natural Language, in P. Christoff, N. Gierasimszuk, A. Marcoci, and S. Smets, editors, Logic and Interactive Rationality Volume 2, pp. 17-35, University of Amsterdam: ILLC.
• [9] Hana Filip and Peter Sutton (2017), Singular Count NPs in Measure Constructions, manuscript, to be presented at SALT 2017.
• [10] Charles J. Fillmore (1975), An Alternative to Checklist Theories of Meaning, Proceedings of the First Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, 1: 123-131.
• [11] Charles J. Fillmore (1976), Frame semantics and the nature of language, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 280 (1): 20-32, ISSN 1749-6632.
• [12] Scott Grimm (2012), Number and Individuation, PhD Dissertation, Stanford University.
• [13] Daniel C. Hyde and Elizabeth S. Spelke (2011), Neural signatures of number processing in human infants: evidence for two core systems underlying numerical cognition, Developmental Science, 14 (2): 360-371, ISSN 1467-7687, doi: 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2010.00987.x, http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7687.2010.00987.x.
• [14] Ray Jackendoff (1991), Parts and Boundaries, Cognition, 41: 9-45.
• [15] A. Kolmogorov (1950), Foundations of probability, Chelsea Publishing, New York.
• [16] Manfred Krifka (1989), Nominal Reference, Temporal Constitution and Quantification in Event Semantics, in Renate Bartsch and J. F. A. K. van Benthem and P. van Emde Boas, editor, Semantics and Contextual Expression, pp. 75-115, Foris Publications.
• [17] Fred Landman (2011), Count Nouns – Mass Nouns – Neat Nouns – Mess Nouns, The Baltic International Yearbook of Cognition, 6: 1-67.
• [18] Fred Landman (2016), Iceberg Semantics for Count Nouns and Mass Nouns: The evidence from portions, The Baltic International Yearbook of Cognition Logic and Communication, 11: 1-48.
• [19] Daniel Lassiter (2016), Must, knowledge, and (in)directness, Natural Language Semantics, 24 (2): 117-163, ISSN 1572-865X, doi: 10.1007/s11050-016-9121-8, http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11050-016-9121-8.
• [20] Suzi Lima (2014), All notional mass nouns are count nouns in Yudja, Proceedings of SALT, 24: 534-554.
• [21] Suzi Lima (2016), Container constructions in Yudja: locatives, individuation and measure, The Baltic International Yearbook of Cognition Logic and Communication, 11: 1-40.
• [22] Godehard Link (1983), The Logical Analysis of Plurals and Mass Terms: A Lattice-Theoretic Approach, in P. Portner and B. H. Partee, editors, Formal Semantics - the Essential Readings, pp. 127-147, Blackwell.
• [23] S. Piantadosi, H. Tily, and E. Gibson (2011), The communicative function of ambiguity in language, PNAS, 108 (9): 3526-3529.
• [24] Roberta Pires de Oliveira and Susan Rothstein (2011), Bare singular noun phrases are mass in Brazilian Portugese, Lingua, 121: 2153-2175.
• [25] James Pustejovsky (1995), The Generative Lexicon, MIT Press.
• [26] Susan Rothstein (2010), Counting and the Mass/Count Distinction, Journal of Semantics, 27 (3): 343-397, doi: 10.1093/jos/ffq007.
• [27] Peter R. Sutton and Hana Filip (2016a), Mass/Count Variation, a Mereological, Two-Dimensional Semantics, The Baltic International Yearbook of Cognition Logic and Communication, 11: 1-45.
• [28] Peter R. Sutton and Hana Filip (2016b), A probabilistic, mereological account of the mass/count distinction, LNCS 10148, Proceedings of TbiLLC 2015, p. To appear.
• [29] Leonard Talmy (2000), Toward a Cognitive Semantics – Vol. 1, The MIT Press.
• [30] Sandro Zucchi and Michael White (1996), Twigs, Sequences and the Temporal Constitution of Predicates, in Teresa Galloway and Justin Spence, editors, Proceedings of SALT 6, pp. 223-270, Linguistic Society of America.
• [31] Sandro Zucchi and Michael White (2001), Twigs, Sequences and the Temporal Constitution of Predicates, Linguistics and Philosophy, 24 (2): 223-270.