Search Results

From Intensifier to Focus Particle

Regine Eckardt

in Meaning Change in Grammaticalization: An Enquiry into Semantic Reanalysis

This chapter traces the development of intensifying selbst (self) to the focus particle selbst (even) in German. Starting from a semantic analysis of the intensifier, it surveys German literary data ... More

This chapter traces the development of intensifying selbst (self) to the focus particle selbst (even) in German. Starting from a semantic analysis of the intensifier, it surveys German literary data from when this development emerged (c.1550-1600) and traces passages which shift between old and new use of selbst. It is shown that such contexts of use do not support the presuppositions of selbst in its older sense and create a ‘pragmatic overload’ for the hearer. Striving for pragmatic simplicity and plausibility, hearers hypothesize a new possible use for the item, initiating the emergence of the new selbst/even entry.Less

Variable priorities and exclusion

John F. Horty

in Reasons as Defaults

This chapter considers two ways in which the simple default logic defined earlier can be elaborated, leading to a more robust theory of reasons. First, the priorities among default rules have so far ... More

This chapter considers two ways in which the simple default logic defined earlier can be elaborated, leading to a more robust theory of reasons. First, the priorities among default rules have so far been taken as fixed in advance, but there are situations in which it is most natural to think of these priorities themselves as established through default reasoning. And second, the notion of defeat defined so far captures only one form, described here simply as “defeat,” but often called “rebutting defeat.” There is at least one other form, generally called “undercutting defeat,” and related to the concept of an “exclusionary reason,” in which one default defeats another, not by contradicting its conclusion, but by undermining its capacity to provide a reason at all.Less

From Common Ground to Syntactic Construction: Associated Path in Warlpiri

JANE SIMPSON

in Ethnosyntax: Explorations in Grammar and Culture

This chapter discusses how one might examine the Narrow Ethnosyntax Hypothesis. It expands on Wierzbicka's suggestions for finding likely constructions and discusses pitfalls to avoid, such as ... More

This chapter discusses how one might examine the Narrow Ethnosyntax Hypothesis. It expands on Wierzbicka's suggestions for finding likely constructions and discusses pitfalls to avoid, such as alternative possible explanations for the frequency and productivity of intensifiers. The chapter illustrates a procedure for carrying out ethnosyntax using as an example the incipient grammaticalization associated path in a language whose speakers form a relatively homogeneous group, and about whom a number of ethnographies have been written.Less

ELECTRON SOURCES AND DETECTORS

JOHN C. H. SPENCE

in High-Resolution Electron Microscopy

This chapter discusses and compares the three most common electron sources used in electron microscopy. Brightness, energy spread, and coherence properties are given for field emitters, LaB6, and ... More

This chapter discusses and compares the three most common electron sources used in electron microscopy. Brightness, energy spread, and coherence properties are given for field emitters, LaB6, and thermal sources. The beam degeneracy is derived, and a method for measuring source brightness is given. (Field emission sources are brighter than current generation synchrotrons.) The self-biasing feedback system use is explained. The energy distribution of emitted electrons is compared for Schottky and Field emission. The second part of the chapter compares and analyses charge-coupled device (CCD) detectors, film detectors and Image Plates for electron beams. The gain, linearity, resolution, dynamic range, detective quantum efficiency, modulation transfer function (MTF), and number of pixels for each of these is discussed. Deconvolution methods for improving MTF, and the resolution trade-off are analysed. A final section on video recording and image intensifiers is included.Less

Self‐Reflexives as Floating Quantifiers

Johan Rooryck and Guido Vanden Wyngaerd

in Dissolving Binding Theory

This chapter tackles the syntax of self-reflexives. Such reflexives are derived from pronouns by adjoining a self-part to them, which provides them with the syntax of floating quantifiers. This claim ... More

This chapter tackles the syntax of self-reflexives. Such reflexives are derived from pronouns by adjoining a self-part to them, which provides them with the syntax of floating quantifiers. This claim is developed in two steps: first, it is shown that self-reflexives share a number of properties with intensifiers (e.g., The headmaster has seen me himself). Second, it is argued that the syntax of such intensifiers closely matches that of floating quantifiers. Finally, the syntax of self-reflexives is shown to be reducible to the syntax of floating quantifiers. Floating quantifiers must c-command its antecedent. So do self-reflexives: they overtly or covertly raise to an adjoined position from which they c-command their antecedents. As probes, they value their φ-features via an Agree relation with the antecedent they c-command. An account is developed for the logophoric uses of self-reflexives.Less

A new perspective on the historical development of English intensifiers and reflexives

Uffe Bergeton and Roumyana Pancheva

in Grammatical Change: Origins, Nature, Outcomes

This chapter gives an innovative account of a distinctive property of the reflexive paradigm in English within Germanic: the absence of morphologically simplex reflexives like German sich, Dutch ... More

This chapter gives an innovative account of a distinctive property of the reflexive paradigm in English within Germanic: the absence of morphologically simplex reflexives like German sich, Dutch zich. It argues that the complex pronoun+self pattern in English originates from the combination of a null pronoun plus the intensifier pro+self: [Ø [pro+self ]]. The spread of this intensified pattern was propagated through ‘anti-reflexive’ predicates, which pragmatically disfavour reflexive complements, such as threaten, afflict. Anti-reflexive predicates required intensified reflexives, while corpus searches in Old and Middle English show that inherently reflexive predicates did not, supporting the claim that the pro+self pattern spread from the former source.Less

Fluoroscopy

Varut Vardhanabhuti, Julia James, Rosemary Gray, Rehaan Nensey, Vivien Shuen, and Tishi Ninan (eds)

in MCQs for the First FRCR

Morphosyntax1

Karen P. Corrigan

in Irish English, Volume 1 - Northern Ireland

There has been much recent discussion of the extent to which features occurring in English vernaculars are either ‘global’ and thus shared across varieties or else ‘local’ and therefore ... More

There has been much recent discussion of the extent to which features occurring in English vernaculars are either ‘global’ and thus shared across varieties or else ‘local’ and therefore particularised to discrete communities of speakers (Coupland 2003; Filppula et al. 2008). Moreover, there is research which suggests that postcolonial varieties as well as other language contact types share a set of ‘vernacular universals’ (phonological/morphosyntactic features) with child language and other English dialects that have no recent history of colonisation (Chambers 2003: 242-250). This global/local dichotomy is addressed here by devoting less space to those features of Northern Irish English which are vernacular primitives (Chambers 2003: 242) than to those that seem more widespread socially in this region. The discussion is based on a wide range of sources. As well as transcribed interview data from a regionally and socially differentiated group of native speakers, the analyses also draw on: (i) material collected during participant observation over many years in Northern Ireland from speakers whose demographic characteristics are well-known to the author; (ii) Twentieth century Folklore Narratives from the National Folklore Collection (NFC) and (iii) Nineteenth century Emigrant Letters from the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) archives.Less

Intensifiers

Osamu Sawada

in Pragmatic Aspects of Scalar Modifiers: The Semantics-Pragmatics Interface

Chapter 6 investigates the expressive uses of intensifiers with special reference to the Japanese intensifier totemo and the comparative adverb motto. The expressive totemo combines with a negative ... More

Chapter 6 investigates the expressive uses of intensifiers with special reference to the Japanese intensifier totemo and the comparative adverb motto. The expressive totemo combines with a negative gradable modal and conventionally implies that the at-issue proposition (without negation and modal) is highly unlikely or impossible and refuses to update the common ground with the at-issue proposition. The meaning of the negative motto combines with an at-issue gradable predicate locally and conventionally implies that the degree of the target in an expected situation is much greater than the target’s current degree. The chapter argues that the expressive totemo and motto belong to lower-level pragmatic scalar modifiers that recycle the scale of an at-issue gradable predicate, and they are fundamentally different from higher-level pragmatic intensifiers, such as the expressive totally, in terms of the level of modification and compositionality.Less

Counter-expectational scalar adverbs

Osamu Sawada

in Pragmatic Aspects of Scalar Modifiers: The Semantics-Pragmatics Interface

Chapter 7 investigates the meaning and use of Japanese counter-expectational scalar adverbs—that is, the counter-expectational intensifier yoppodo and the Japanese scale-reversal adverb kaette. It ... More

Chapter 7 investigates the meaning and use of Japanese counter-expectational scalar adverbs—that is, the counter-expectational intensifier yoppodo and the Japanese scale-reversal adverb kaette. It shows that although yoppodo and kaette convey some kind of counter-expectational meaning as lower-level pragmatic scalar modifiers, the way they trigger counter-expectational meaning is quite different. In an adjectival environment, yoppodo semantically intensifies degrees based on extraordinary evidence and conventionally implies that the degree is above the speaker’s expectation. By contrast, kaette reverses the scale of the gradable predicate and conventionally implies that the opposite situation is generally true. It is also proposed that there are two types of counter-expectational expressions that use scalarity: a relative type, which represents “above expectation” (e.g. yoppodo), and a reversal type, which expresses counter-expectation via polarity reversal (e.g. kaette). Comparison with wh-exclamatives, sentence exclamation, and the counter-expectational but is also discussed.Less

How to Identify Exempt Anaphors

Isabelle Charnavel

in Locality and Logophoricity: A Theory of Exempt Anaphora

The goal of this chapter is to design tools for reliably identifying instances of exempt anaphors. In particular, the inanimacy-based strategy distinguishes between plain and exempt anaphors ... More

The goal of this chapter is to design tools for reliably identifying instances of exempt anaphors. In particular, the inanimacy-based strategy distinguishes between plain and exempt anaphors independently of the definition of Condition A: since inanimates cannot be logophoric, an anaphor occurring in a configuration disallowing an inanimate anaphor is necessarily exempt. This strategy allows us to re-examine the distributional properties of exempt anaphors: unlike plain anaphors, they need not be locally or exhaustively bound and can give rise to strict readings; complementarity with pronouns, however, is not a robust property of anaphors. Furthermore, potential confounds are identified, which may obscure the logophoric conditions on exempt anaphors. First, exempt anaphors may be unacceptable for reasons independent of logophoricity: strong anaphors compete with weak elements; anaphors are unacceptable in positions construed with agreement. Second, other elements like intensifiers, which are not subject to logophoric conditions, may be mistaken for exempt anaphors.Less

The cycle of expressivity

D. Gary Miller

in English Lexicogenesis

This chapter describes the loss and subsequent renewal of expressivity by means of degree doubling (e.g. mostest), adjectival intensifiers (filthy rich), reinforcing adjectives (totally), fanciful ... More

This chapter describes the loss and subsequent renewal of expressivity by means of degree doubling (e.g. mostest), adjectival intensifiers (filthy rich), reinforcing adjectives (totally), fanciful coinages (humongous), hyperbole (a real scorcher), semantic change, calquing, borrowing, and semantic transfer. Filthy in filthy rich has (i) lost semantic features relating to ‘dirt’ and (ii) acquired degree features. Semantic change is not constrained by the structure of links in the human mind/brain, which permit the meaning of a word to encroach on that of other words which in turn can shrink their meanings, because changes in the environment and interaction with subcultures constitute independent variables that shape the outcome of semantic change.Less

Roots in transitivity alternations: Afto‐/auto‐reflexives

Artemis Alexiadou

in The Syntax of Roots and the Roots of Syntax

The chapter investigates the interaction between non-active morphology and the ‘afto’-prefix, which has been called a reflexivizer. The main point of this chapter is that we need to distinguish ... More

The chapter investigates the interaction between non-active morphology and the ‘afto’-prefix, which has been called a reflexivizer. The main point of this chapter is that we need to distinguish between reflexivizers and triggers of reflexive interpretation. Reflexivizers are functions that turn relations into reflexive predicates. Triggers of reflexive interpretation bring about such an interpretation only when combined with a Voice structure that lacks an external argument. This is a reflexivization strategy only available in languages that have a semantically weak, underspecified, valency reducing morphology, such as Greek.Less

Expressive intensifier

Daniel Gutzmann

in The Grammar of Expressivity

Expressive intensifiers (EIs) are a special class of degree expressions found in informal variants of German. They are distinguished from ordinary degree intensifiers like ‘very’ by several special ... More

Expressive intensifiers (EIs) are a special class of degree expressions found in informal variants of German. They are distinguished from ordinary degree intensifiers like ‘very’ by several special semantic and syntactic properties. Most importantly EIs can appear in what is called the external degree modification construction (EDCs), in which the EI precedes the determiner, but still intensifies an adjective or noun inside the determiner phrase. The main analysis of this EDC is that they are derived via movement, which in turn is triggered by an uninterpretable expressivity feature in D, which attracts the intensifier in order to establish an agreement relation. This also provides a possibility to analyse the form-meaning mismatches that can be observed with EDCs. The upshot of this chapter for the hypothesis of expressive syntax is that expressivity as a syntactic feature can trigger movement.Less

How the syntax of adjectives has changed

P. H. Matthews

in The Positions of Adjectives in English

This chapter surveys changes in the history of adjectives in English, as the background to the problems that later chapters will deal with. These include, in particular, the loss of inflections that ... More

This chapter surveys changes in the history of adjectives in English, as the background to the problems that later chapters will deal with. These include, in particular, the loss of inflections that distinguished them, in Old English, from corresponding adverbs; the development in Middle English of noun phrases distinguished by articles; adjectives differentiated in meaning in different positions; the increasingly attributive position, in early Modern English, of adjectives in noun phrases; their ‘stacking’ in sequences and differences, eventually at least, in rhythm; adjectives and adverbs in construction with ‘copular’ verbs; the progressive with be; intensifying and other uses in attributive position.Less

Conditions, Modifiers, and Holism

Ralf Bader

in Weighing Reasons

This chapter provides a framework for understanding two ways in which reasons can vary across contexts, namely through the effects of (1) conditions which take the form of enablers and disablers, as ... More

This chapter provides a framework for understanding two ways in which reasons can vary across contexts, namely through the effects of (1) conditions which take the form of enablers and disablers, as well as (2) modifiers which take the form of intensifiers and attenuators. The chapter establishes that the distinction between those features of the context that condition or modify a reason and those that constitute the reason is metaphysically robust and can be drawn in a non-arbitrary and non-pragmatic manner, and that the former features cannot be included in the specification of the reason. Moreover, it will be shown that intrinsicality as well as restricted forms of non-trivial separability can be preserved, thereby establishing that the additive theory of weighing reasons can be rendered consistent with these forms of context-dependence.Less

What Prima Facie Duties Are There?: Ross, Agent-Relativity, and the Rejection of Consequentialism

David Phillips

in Rossian Ethics: W.D. Ross and Contemporary Moral Theory

This chapter interprets and defend Ross’s rejection of consequentialism and his endorsement of a moderate deontological position. It focuses particularly on what he says about promises, the special ... More

This chapter interprets and defend Ross’s rejection of consequentialism and his endorsement of a moderate deontological position. It focuses particularly on what he says about promises, the special obligations he discusses most fully. It is argued that Ross treats promises as agent-relative intensifiers of reasons to promote goods; that there are other important kinds of agent-relative intensifiers recognized by Sidgwick but not by Ross; and that, unlike deontological constraints, agent-relative intensifiers are not puzzling or problematic. It is then argued, contra Robert Audi, that Ross should be interpreted as a classical deontologist rather than as a value-based intuitionist. And it is argued finally that Ross’s limited pluralism should be preferred to Jonathan Dancy’s particularism.Less