| ROA: | 398 |
|---|---|
| Title: | Against Lexical Decomposition in Syntax |
| Authors: | Reinhard Blutner |
| Comment: | |
| Length: | 25 |
| Abstract: | Against Lexical Decomposition in Syntax Gerhard Jäger, Zentrum für Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft Berlin Reinhard Blutner, Humboldt-University Berlin This article is concerned with the ambiguity that arises if a resultative predicate is modified by the adverb again. We will briefly review existing accounts of this ambiguity. It will be demonstrated that it cannot be reduced to a scope ambiguity on some abstract level of representation. The second part of the paper deals with the partial resolution of the ambiguity by means of word order and intonation in German. We will argue that this is the result of a process of pragmatic strengthening, a mechanism that selects optimal candidates from a highly underspecified relation between form and meaning. It makes use of the evaluation mechanism of Optimality Theory but differs from the standard picture in taking both the hearer perspective and the speaker perspective into account (bidirectional optimization). |
| Type: | Paper/tech report |
| Area/Keywords: | |
| Article: | Version 1 |