Referential and quantificational indefinites
Referential and quantificational indefinites
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指称和定量不定式
DOI：
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发表时间：
1982
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
I. Sag
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Janet D. Fodor;I. Sag
结论我们为确定描述和不确定描述提出的形式语义将它们分析为变量绑定操作符和指代术语。正是参照分析，才有可能解释第2节概述的事实，例如，描述性内容的纯粹“工具”作用；相对于其他量词、更高的谓词和岛屿边界出现异常广泛的读数；事实上，岛屿转义读数总是等同于最大范围的量词；以及在被删除的成分中的变量出现违反同一性条件的情况。我们要强调，这不是随机收集的观察结果。它们自然地相互联系，并与其他明确指代的短语的事实相一致。我们在本文一开始就承认，不确定名词短语的指代使用本身并不会促使指涉解释的假设。我们的论点是，复句中的不确定词的行为不能被经济地描述，而且肯定也不能被解释，除非假定有一个参照解释。只有将整个范围关系理论和删除条件理论从语义学中剔除，并纳入一个纯粹的语用理论，才能从语用的角度解释这一问题。但这似乎不太可能。
ConclusionThe formal semantics that we have proposed for definite and indefinite descriptions analyzes them both as variable-binding operators and as referring terms. It is the referential analysis which makes it possible to account for the facts outlined in Section 2, e.g. for the purely ‘instrumental’ role of the descriptive content; for the appearance of unusually wide scope readings relative to other quantifiers, higher predicates, and island boundaries; for the fact that the island-escaping readings are always equivalent to maximally wide scope quantifiers; and for the appearance of violations of the identity conditions on variables in deleted constituents. We would emphasize that this is not a random collection of observations. They cohere naturally with each other, and with facts about other phrases that are unambigously referential.We conceded at the outset of this paper that the referential use of an indefinite noun phrase does not, by itself, motivate the postulation of a referential interpretation. Our argument has been that the behavior of indefinites in complex sentences cannot be economically described, and certainly cannot be explained, unless a referential interpretation is assumed. It could be accounted for in pragmatic terms only if the whole theory of scope relations and of conditions on deletion could be eliminated from the semantics and incorporated into a purely pragmatic theory. But this seems unlikely.