This paper develops an idea of saving ordinary uses of vague predicates from the Sorites by means of domain restriction. A tolerance level for a pred- icate, along a dimension, is a difference with respect to which the predicate is semantically insensitive. A central gap for the predicate+dimension in a domain is a segment of an associated scale, larger than this difference, where no object in the domain has a measure, and such that the extension of the predicate has measures on one side of the gap and the anti-extension on the other. The domain restriction imposes a central gap. / <p>Author count: 1;</p> / Vagueness and Context Factors

We argue that there is a crucial difference between determiner and adverbial quantification. Following Herburger [2000] and von Fintel [1994], we assume that determiner quantifiers quantify over individuals and adverbial quantifiers over eventualities. While it is usually assumed that the semantics of sentences with determiner quantifiers and those with adverbial quantifiers basically come out the same, we will show by way of new data that quantification over events is more restricted than quantification over individuals. This is because eventualities in contrast to individuals have to be located in time which is done using contextual information according to a pragmatic resolution strategy. If the contextual information and the tense information given in the respective sentence contradict each other, the sentence is uninterpretable. We conclude that this is the reason why in these cases adverbial quantification, i.e. quantification over eventualities, is impossible whereas quantification over individuals is fine.

This thesis is concerned with the description and analysis of two semantically different types of definite articles in German. While the existence of distinct article paradigms in various Germanic dialects and other languages has been acknowledged in the descriptive literature for quite some time, the theoretical implications of their existence have not been explored extensively. I argue that each of the articles corresponds to one of the two predominant theoretical approaches to analyzing definite descriptions: the `weak' article encodes uniqueness. The `strong' article is anaphoric in nature. In the course of spelling out detailed analyses for the two articles, various more general issues relevant to current semantic theory are addressed, in particular with respect to the analysis of donkey sentences and domain restriction. Chapter 2 describes the contrast between the weak and the strong article in light of the descriptive literature and characterizes their uses in terms of Hawkins's (1978) classification. Special attention is paid to two types of bridging uses, which shed further light on the contrast and play an important in the analysis developed in the following chapters. Chapter 3 introduces a situation semantics and argues for a specific version thereof. First, I propose that situation arguments in noun phrases are represented syntactically as situation pronouns at the level of the DP (rather than within the NP). Secondly, I argue that domain restriction (which is crucial for uniqueness analyses) can best be captured in a situation semantics, as this is both more economical and empirically more adequate than an analysis in terms of contextually supplied C-variables. Chapter 4 provides a uniqueness analysis of weak-article definites. The interpretation of a weak-article definite crucially depends on the interpretation of its situation pronoun, which can stand for the topic situation or a contextually supplied situation, or be quantificationally bound. I make a specific proposal for how topic situations (roughly, the situations that we are talking about) can be derived from questions and relate this to a more general perspective on discourse structure based on the notion of Question Under Discussion (QUD) (Roberts 1996, Buring 2003). I also show that it requires a presuppositional view of definites. A detailed, situation-semantic analysis of covarying interpretations of weak-article definites in donkey sentences is spelled out as well, which provides some new insights with regards to transparent interpretations of the restrictors of donkey sentences. Chapter 5 deals with so-called larger situation uses (Hawkins 1978), which call for a special, systematic way of determining the situation in which the definite is interpreted. I argue that a situation semantic version of an independently motivated type-shifter for relational nouns (shifting relations (he; he; stii) to properties (he; hstii)) brings about the desired situational effect. This type-shifter also applies to cases of part-whole bridging and provides a deeper understanding thereof. Another independently motivated mechanism, namely that of Matching functions, gives rise to similar effects, but in contrast to the type-shifter, it depends heavily on contextual support and cannot account for the general availability of larger situation uses that is independent of the context. The anaphoric nature of the strong article is described and analyzed in detail in chapter 6. In addition to simple discourse anaphoric uses, I discuss covarying interpretations and relational anaphora (the type of bridging expressed by the strong article). Cases where uniqueness does not hold (e.g., in so-called bishop sentences) provide crucial evidence for the need to encode the anaphoric link between strongarticle definites and their antecedents formally. The resulting dynamic analysis of strong-article definites encodes the anaphoric dependency via a separate anaphoric element that is incorporated into a uniqueness meaning. Finally, remaining challenges for the analysis are discussed, in particular the existence of strong-article definites without an antecedent and a puzzling contrast between the articles with respect to relative clauses. The final chapter discusses some loose ends that suggest directions for future work and sums up the main conclusions.

Esta dissertação apresenta uma análise semântica, no paradigma da Semântica Formal, da (i) restrição de domínio no DP e da (ii) expressão kar, que veicula a ideia de totalidade, no dialeto paranaense da língua Kaingang, do tronco Macro-Jê, família Jê, falada nas regiões sul e sudeste do Brasil. Num primeiro momento, o artigo definido parece ter, no Kaingang Paranaense, uma distribuição não trivial: aplica-se primeiro a um determinante quantificacional e restringe, via essa combinação, o domínio do quantificador, tal como no Basco, Grego e Státimcets (Giannakidou 2003, Etxeberria 2005 e Etxeberria & Giannakidou 2009), línguas muito parecidas com o Kaingang no domínio nominal. Alguns dados, contudo, apontaram a análise em outra direção. Entendemos que certos padrões de comportamento semântico e sintático apresentado por kar nas sentenças, tal como sua neutralidade quanto à propriedade de distributividade e a possibilidade da conjunção de duas sequências de [NP+kar] sob um mesmo artigo definido (ao contrário do Basco, no qual a mesma estrutura é agramatical, sugerindo que os quantificadores universais em Basco criam um QP), são algumas das evidências que, no conjunto, dão suporte para a hipótese, defendida nesta dissertação, de que kar, no Kaingang Paranaense, parece ser um modificador - à la Lasersohn (1999) -, não tendo, por isso, uma força quantificacional própria. A função semântica de kar seria de controlar o quanto de desvio da verdade é pragmaticamente permissível. Como consequência desta análise, no Kaingang Paranaense o artigo definido não operaria sobre um determinante quantificacional, mas sim sobre um NP. O que aponta no sentido de que os artigos definidos ag/fag (os/as) no Kaingang Paranaense, em contextos em que eles co-ocorrem com kar, não perderiam a sua função max, i.e., de formadores de indivíduo a partir de um conjunto, para funcionar meramente como um operador preservador de tipo e restritor de domínio adjungido ao determinante quantificacional, como proposto por Giannakidou 2003, Etxeberria (2005) e Etxeberria & Giannakidou (2009) para o Basco e o Grego. Ag/fag continuariam sendo artigos definidos clássicos ocupando o núcleo de uma projeção DP e kar um modificador. Também discutimos brevemente algumas das vantagens e problemas de se tentar estender esta análise para o Basco, Grego e Státimcets. E, por último, investigamos o comportamento de kar na sentença, as possíveis leituras quando da sua interação com indefinidos, numerais, tipos de predicados e o operador distributivo introduzido via reduplicação verbal. Com base nos dados, nossa proposta é de que - em função de a leitura distributiva, na maioria dos exemplos, ser permitida pelos informantes somente quando houve reduplicação verbal - kar é neutro quanto à propriedade da distributividade e que o operador distributivo introduzido por reduplicação verbal tem escopo sobre todo o VP. / This dissertation presents, in the paradigm of formal semantics, a semantic analysis of both (i) the phenomenon of domain restriction in the DP and (ii) the expression kar, which conveys the idea of totality, in a dialect of the Kaingang language, a Brazilian language from the Macro-Jê Stock, Jê family, spoken in southern and southeastern Brazil. Although, at first, the definite article in Kaingang seems to have a non-trivial distribution: it applies first to a quantificational expression, and via such combination restricts the domain of quantifier, such as in Basque, Greek and Státimcets (Giannakidou 2003, Etxeberria 2005 and Etxeberria & Giannakidou 2009), some data pointed the analysis in another direction. Patterns of semantic and syntactic bevavior presented by kar in some sentences, such as its neutralite regarding the property of distributivity and the possibility of conjoining two [NP + kar] sequences under the same definite article (unlike Basque, which does not allow such structure, suggesting that in Basque the universal quantifier creats a QP), seem to be as a whole evidences for the hypothesis, advocated in this thesis, that the expression kar may be a modifier - à la Lasersohn (1999) - and as such would not have a quantificational force of its own. The semantic function of kar would be to control how much deviation from the truth conditions of the sentences is pragmatically allowed. As a result of this analysis, the definite articles ag/fag in Kaingang do not operate on a quantificational expression, as in Basque and Greek, but on the NP. Such fact suggests that the definite articles in Kaingang, in contexts they co-occur with kar, do not lose their max function in order to work merely as a type preserver and a domain restrictor combined with a quantificational expression, as proposed by Giannakidou 2003, Etxeberria (2005) e Etxeberria & Giannakidou (2009) for Basque and Greek. Ag/fag would still be a classical definite article occupying the head of a DP projection and kar a modifier, instead of a universal quantifier. We also discuss briefly some of the advantages and problems of trying to extend this analysis to the Basque, Greek and Státimcets languages. And lastly, we investigated the behavior of kar in the sentence, its interaction with indefinites, numerals, types of predicates and the distributive operator introduced via verbal reduplication. Based on such data, once distributive readings were permitted by the informants only via verbal reduplication, our proposal is that kar is neutral regarding the property of distributivity and that the distributive operator introduced via verbal reduplication has scope over the VP.

Esta dissertação apresenta uma análise semântica, no paradigma da Semântica Formal, da (i) restrição de domínio no DP e da (ii) expressão kar, que veicula a ideia de totalidade, no dialeto paranaense da língua Kaingang, do tronco Macro-Jê, família Jê, falada nas regiões sul e sudeste do Brasil. Num primeiro momento, o artigo definido parece ter, no Kaingang Paranaense, uma distribuição não trivial: aplica-se primeiro a um determinante quantificacional e restringe, via essa combinação, o domínio do quantificador, tal como no Basco, Grego e Státimcets (Giannakidou 2003, Etxeberria 2005 e Etxeberria & Giannakidou 2009), línguas muito parecidas com o Kaingang no domínio nominal. Alguns dados, contudo, apontaram a análise em outra direção. Entendemos que certos padrões de comportamento semântico e sintático apresentado por kar nas sentenças, tal como sua neutralidade quanto à propriedade de distributividade e a possibilidade da conjunção de duas sequências de [NP+kar] sob um mesmo artigo definido (ao contrário do Basco, no qual a mesma estrutura é agramatical, sugerindo que os quantificadores universais em Basco criam um QP), são algumas das evidências que, no conjunto, dão suporte para a hipótese, defendida nesta dissertação, de que kar, no Kaingang Paranaense, parece ser um modificador - à la Lasersohn (1999) -, não tendo, por isso, uma força quantificacional própria. A função semântica de kar seria de controlar o quanto de desvio da verdade é pragmaticamente permissível. Como consequência desta análise, no Kaingang Paranaense o artigo definido não operaria sobre um determinante quantificacional, mas sim sobre um NP. O que aponta no sentido de que os artigos definidos ag/fag (os/as) no Kaingang Paranaense, em contextos em que eles co-ocorrem com kar, não perderiam a sua função max, i.e., de formadores de indivíduo a partir de um conjunto, para funcionar meramente como um operador preservador de tipo e restritor de domínio adjungido ao determinante quantificacional, como proposto por Giannakidou 2003, Etxeberria (2005) e Etxeberria & Giannakidou (2009) para o Basco e o Grego. Ag/fag continuariam sendo artigos definidos clássicos ocupando o núcleo de uma projeção DP e kar um modificador. Também discutimos brevemente algumas das vantagens e problemas de se tentar estender esta análise para o Basco, Grego e Státimcets. E, por último, investigamos o comportamento de kar na sentença, as possíveis leituras quando da sua interação com indefinidos, numerais, tipos de predicados e o operador distributivo introduzido via reduplicação verbal. Com base nos dados, nossa proposta é de que - em função de a leitura distributiva, na maioria dos exemplos, ser permitida pelos informantes somente quando houve reduplicação verbal - kar é neutro quanto à propriedade da distributividade e que o operador distributivo introduzido por reduplicação verbal tem escopo sobre todo o VP. / This dissertation presents, in the paradigm of formal semantics, a semantic analysis of both (i) the phenomenon of domain restriction in the DP and (ii) the expression kar, which conveys the idea of totality, in a dialect of the Kaingang language, a Brazilian language from the Macro-Jê Stock, Jê family, spoken in southern and southeastern Brazil. Although, at first, the definite article in Kaingang seems to have a non-trivial distribution: it applies first to a quantificational expression, and via such combination restricts the domain of quantifier, such as in Basque, Greek and Státimcets (Giannakidou 2003, Etxeberria 2005 and Etxeberria & Giannakidou 2009), some data pointed the analysis in another direction. Patterns of semantic and syntactic bevavior presented by kar in some sentences, such as its neutralite regarding the property of distributivity and the possibility of conjoining two [NP + kar] sequences under the same definite article (unlike Basque, which does not allow such structure, suggesting that in Basque the universal quantifier creats a QP), seem to be as a whole evidences for the hypothesis, advocated in this thesis, that the expression kar may be a modifier - à la Lasersohn (1999) - and as such would not have a quantificational force of its own. The semantic function of kar would be to control how much deviation from the truth conditions of the sentences is pragmatically allowed. As a result of this analysis, the definite articles ag/fag in Kaingang do not operate on a quantificational expression, as in Basque and Greek, but on the NP. Such fact suggests that the definite articles in Kaingang, in contexts they co-occur with kar, do not lose their max function in order to work merely as a type preserver and a domain restrictor combined with a quantificational expression, as proposed by Giannakidou 2003, Etxeberria (2005) e Etxeberria & Giannakidou (2009) for Basque and Greek. Ag/fag would still be a classical definite article occupying the head of a DP projection and kar a modifier, instead of a universal quantifier. We also discuss briefly some of the advantages and problems of trying to extend this analysis to the Basque, Greek and Státimcets languages. And lastly, we investigated the behavior of kar in the sentence, its interaction with indefinites, numerals, types of predicates and the distributive operator introduced via verbal reduplication. Based on such data, once distributive readings were permitted by the informants only via verbal reduplication, our proposal is that kar is neutral regarding the property of distributivity and that the distributive operator introduced via verbal reduplication has scope over the VP.