Nominalizations and tropes David Nicolas, Institut Jean Nicod ENS - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

1 Nominalizations and tropes David Nicolas, Institut Jean Nicod ENS - EHESS - CNRS http://d.a.nicolas.free.fr/research, david.nicolas@m4x.org Barcelona March 23, 2011

2 1. Introduction What semantics should we attribute to mass expressions derived from gradable expressions? Gradable expressions are expressions that accept comparatives: Julie is wiser than Fred , Julie loves Fred more than Tom . Examples of nominalizations: wise → wisdom, sad → sadness, to love Fred → love for Fred, to work → work .

3 Plan 1. Introduction 2. The uses of mass expressions derived from gradable expressions 3. The interpretations of derived mass expressions 4. The semantics of derived mass expressions 5. Conclusion

4 2. The uses of mass expressions derived from gradable expressions We look at cases in which a gradable expression gives rise, through nominalization, to a nominal expression that behaves morphosyntactically like a mass noun. This means that it can be used in the following ways. First, it can appear together with a possessive phrase: Julie’s wisdom , or in a definite nominal expression with a relative (non-possessive) phrase: the love that Julie felt for Fred . Second, it can appear together with an indefinite, mass determiner like much or a lot of : Julie showed a lot of wisdom , Julie didn’t feel much love for Tom, Julie did a lot of work .

5 Third, it can appear in comparative constructions, its grammatical number being singular: Julie had more love for Fred than for Tom . Fourth, it can be used without any determiner, in sentences that are not comparative: Wisdom is rare , Julie encountered love . Fifth, it is in general invariable in grammatical number: uses in the plural (? wisdoms , ? loves ) require a special context and induce a change in meaning. Finally, it may sometimes be used together with a count determiner, notably in expressions like a great wisdom , an untiring love . NB: There are lexical variations and exceptions, e.g.: tall is gradable but tallness isn’t. Yesterday, we’ve done a lot of walking (*a lot of walk) .

6 3. The interpretations of mass expressions derived from gradable expressions 3.1. The interpretations of possessive and definite uses Julie’s wisdom attracted Tom. Julie’s love for Fred attracted Tom. What do these sentences mean? What do their subjects refer to? Let’s see how the sentences may be paraphrased. (NB: Caution will be required when interpreting the results.) First kind of paraphrase: ‘The fact that Julie was wise attracted Tom.’ Julie’s wisdom might refer to a fact.

7 Second kind of paraphrase: ‘Tom was attracted by how wise Julie was.’ (‘The degree at which Julie was wise attracted Tom.’) Julie’s wisdom might refer to a degree of wisdom. Third kind of paraphrase: ‘How Julie was wise attracted Tom.’ ‘The way in which Julie was wise attracted Tom.’ Julie’s wisdom might refer to a way, a manner, a sub-property of wisdom (as in Julie and Mary have the same wisdom ). Or it might refer to an instance of a property, the very particular way in which a property manifests itself in a given individual. (On instances of properties and relations, i.e. tropes, see Lowe 1998.)

8 Certain predicates seem to select a particular interpretation: to acknowledge seems to license only a paraphrase in terms of facts: Tom finally acknowledged Julie’s wisdom. ‘Tom finally acknowledged the fact that Julie was wise.’ to be greater than seems to license only a paraphrase in terms of a comparison: Julie's wisdom was greater than Fred's. ‘Julie was wiser than Fred.’ to describe seems to license only a paraphrase in terms of ways or instances of a property: Tom described Julie's wisdom. ‘Tom described the way in which Julie was wise.’

9 to last yields yet a different kind of paraphrase: Julie's sadness lasted several days. 'Julie was sad during several days.' Julie's sadness might refer to the state the verbal sentence describes. Observations: to last doesn't combine with derived mass nouns describing activities: * Julie's work lasted only two days. to last combines only with derived mass nouns describing transitory properties or relations: Julie's love for Tom lasted several years. ?? Julie's wisdom lasted several years.

10 3.2. The interpretation of indefinite and comparative uses Indefinite uses: Julie had much wisdom. ‘Julie was very wise.’ Julie had a lot of love for Fred. ‘Julie loved Fred a lot.’ These sentences express something concerning how wise Julie was, and how much Julie loved Fred.

11 Comparative uses: Julie had more wisdom than Fred. ‘Julie was wiser than Fred.’ Julie had more love for Fred than for Tom. ‘Julie loved Fred more than Tom.’ These sentences compare and order certain entities with respect to the extent at which they possess a certain property.

12 3.3.The interpretation of bare uses Julie encountered love. ‘Julie encountered someone who loved her.’ (‘Julie encountered an instance of love from a certain individual.’) Wisdom is rare. ‘It is rare that someone be wise.’ (‘Instances of wisdom are rare.’)

13 3.4. The interpretation of count uses Julie had an incredible love for Fred. This seems to be a case of conversion, where the mass noun love is used as a count noun. The interpretation of the sentence is indeed parallel to that of: Julie bought an incredible wine. This sentence says that the wine Julie bought is of a particular type, to which the predicate expressed by the adjective applies. Similarly, the sentence that concerns love says that the love felt by Julie is of a particular type, to which the predicate expressed by the adjective applies.

14 4. The semantics of derived mass expressions 4.1. Independent theoretical choices Genericity I follow Gillon (1990): bare uses of mass nouns or plurals are indefinite uses, whose interpretation is an existential one. According to Gillon, what is called genericity corresponds to a variety of independent phenomena, which are neither restricted, nor specially attached, to bare uses.

15 Gradability (Some reference works on gradability: von Stechow 1984, Klein 1991, Kennedy & McNally 2005) We find gradable expressions among: - Plural count nouns ( more cats ), but not singular count nouns (* more cat ) - Mass nouns, be they concrete ( more wine, less furniture ), or derived ( more sadness, less love, more work ) - Gradable adjectives: taller, less sad - Gradable verbs: to love less, to work more The dominant approach uses degrees (abstract representations of measurement) everywhere in the semantics of gradable expressions. Alternatively, one may want to use degrees only when explicitly mentioned (Nicolas 2010, Moltmann 2009). Can this be done compositionally?

16 4.2. Is reference illusory? Julie’s wisdom attracted Tom. Prima facie, Julie’s wisdom seems to refer, just like Julie’s gold in Julie’s gold attracted Tom. But is reference genuine? Various philosophical positions: - Realism: Julie’s wisdom refers to something. Perhaps to an instance of a property, the particular way in which wisdom is instantiated in Julie. (Cf. Lowe 1998.) - Fictionalism: Julie’s wisdom makes as if to refer to something. (Cf. Bentham 1842.) - Reductionism: Julie’s wisdom neither refers nor makes as if to refer. A sentence containing the expression is directly interpreted in terms of a suitable paraphrase. (Cf. Dummett 1973.)

17 4.3. What do derived mass nouns mean? Here are various conceivable linguistic answers. Definite descriptions like Julie’s wisdom A) have no fixed meaning: it is only the linguistic and extra-linguistic context that allows us to interpret them; B) have fixed meanings: they are ambiguous; C) have one fixed meaning: they really or primarily refer to entities of a certain type, but they may be coerced to refer to entities of another type in certain contexts; thus, they really or primarily refer to: C.1) facts C.2) degrees (Tovena 2001) C.3) ways, manners or sub-properties C.4) instances of properties and relations (several philosophers + Nicolas 2002, 2004, 2010; Moltmann 2004) C.5) states (Parsons 1990; Asher 1993) and activities ( Julie's work was slow and careful )

18 What about strategy A? Let's flesh it in terms of paraphrase: Interpreting a sentence with a derived mass noun consists in finding an appropriate paraphrase given the context. Causal and perceptual sentences (Lowe 2006, Schnieder 2006): Socrates' paleness shook Kriton. [causal] Kriton could be shaken by something else than the mere fact that Socrates was pale. But what about other paraphrases? 'How pale Socrates was shook Kriton'. 'The fact that Socrates was so pale shook Kriton.' Kriton saw Socrates' paleness. [perceptual] Kriton could have seen Socrates' paleness, without seeing that Socrates was pale. Unclear. Socrates can be understood de re in Kriton saw that Socrates was pale . So what is the argument?

19 More decisive arguments: * How do we arrive at any given paraphrase? * Why do we arrive only at a small number of paraphrases? All this remains mysterious under approach A (which is not an ambiguity view). * How will we paraphrase complex sentences where we combine apparently different interpretations? Julie's sadness was greater than Mary's, lasted a long time and worried Fred a lot. We can't replace Julie's sadness by a single paraphrase. We must break the sentence into pieces: 'Julie was sadder than Mary. She was sad for a long time. It worried Fred a lot.' This conflicts with direct compositionality.