Ana Maria Martins
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199659203
- eISBN:
- 9780191745188
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199659203.003.0012
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Theoretical Linguistics, Historical Linguistics
This chapter discusses how the deictic locatives lá/cá (‘there/here’) developed into metalinguistic negation markers in European Portuguese, while preserving their regular working as locatives. It is ...
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This chapter discusses how the deictic locatives lá/cá (‘there/here’) developed into metalinguistic negation markers in European Portuguese, while preserving their regular working as locatives. It is shown that lá/cá entered the functional system as T-related emphatic markers, which later developed into C-related elements. The crucial property of EP grammar that lies behind the diachronic change is the particular nature of Spec,TP as a dedicated utterance-time (UT-T) position. This allows direct merger of non-argumental lá/cá in Spec,TP, which results in bleaching of the locative meaning and gives visibility to the UT-T position, producing the effect of emphasis. Additional movement to the C field derives metalinguistic negation declaratives, in which the emphatic meaning is preserved while further meaning is added. The emphatic value of lá/cá is attested in EP from the sixteenth century, in declaratives, imperatives, and rhetorical questions. The latter offer the natural pragmatic and syntactic link with metalinguistic negation.Less
This chapter discusses how the deictic locatives lá/cá (‘there/here’) developed into metalinguistic negation markers in European Portuguese, while preserving their regular working as locatives. It is shown that lá/cá entered the functional system as T-related emphatic markers, which later developed into C-related elements. The crucial property of EP grammar that lies behind the diachronic change is the particular nature of Spec,TP as a dedicated utterance-time (UT-T) position. This allows direct merger of non-argumental lá/cá in Spec,TP, which results in bleaching of the locative meaning and gives visibility to the UT-T position, producing the effect of emphasis. Additional movement to the C field derives metalinguistic negation declaratives, in which the emphatic meaning is preserved while further meaning is added. The emphatic value of lá/cá is attested in EP from the sixteenth century, in declaratives, imperatives, and rhetorical questions. The latter offer the natural pragmatic and syntactic link with metalinguistic negation.
Pekka Väyrynen
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199314751
- eISBN:
- 9780199369225
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199314751.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
The chapter considers rival explanations of the data presented in chapter 3 which are compatible with the Semantic View. These accounts are argued to be inferior, in the light of standard ...
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The chapter considers rival explanations of the data presented in chapter 3 which are compatible with the Semantic View. These accounts are argued to be inferior, in the light of standard methodological principles, to the hypothesis that global evaluations project and are deniable or defeasible in ways that semantic entailments aren’t. Further support for this claim is that, unlike on the Semantic View, regarding a thick concept as objectionable does not commit one to regarding it as empty, and denials of global evaluations that such a concept is used to convey need not involve using it nonliterally. It is also argued that there is license to treat various denials of global evaluations as cases of “metalinguistic negation” which is targeted at aspects of utterances other than their literal semantic content. This concludes the argument against the Semantic View.Less
The chapter considers rival explanations of the data presented in chapter 3 which are compatible with the Semantic View. These accounts are argued to be inferior, in the light of standard methodological principles, to the hypothesis that global evaluations project and are deniable or defeasible in ways that semantic entailments aren’t. Further support for this claim is that, unlike on the Semantic View, regarding a thick concept as objectionable does not commit one to regarding it as empty, and denials of global evaluations that such a concept is used to convey need not involve using it nonliterally. It is also argued that there is license to treat various denials of global evaluations as cases of “metalinguistic negation” which is targeted at aspects of utterances other than their literal semantic content. This concludes the argument against the Semantic View.
Sally Haslanger
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199892631
- eISBN:
- 9780199980055
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199892631.003.0017
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy, Feminist Philosophy
Drawing on recent work by Sarah-Jane Leslie and others, this chapter considers how generics such as “Women are submissive” and “Blacks are violent” might implicate false claims about the nature of ...
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Drawing on recent work by Sarah-Jane Leslie and others, this chapter considers how generics such as “Women are submissive” and “Blacks are violent” might implicate false claims about the nature of women and Blacks. Once these implicatures are accepted into the common ground, they become part of the ideology that sustains racist and sexist social structures. One form of critique, then, will be to take aim at such implicatures and block them through meta-linguistic negation and other linguistic and non-linguistic interventions.Less
Drawing on recent work by Sarah-Jane Leslie and others, this chapter considers how generics such as “Women are submissive” and “Blacks are violent” might implicate false claims about the nature of women and Blacks. Once these implicatures are accepted into the common ground, they become part of the ideology that sustains racist and sexist social structures. One form of critique, then, will be to take aim at such implicatures and block them through meta-linguistic negation and other linguistic and non-linguistic interventions.
R. E. Jennings
- Published in print:
- 1995
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195075243
- eISBN:
- 9780199852970
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195075243.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Language
This chapter talks about how philosophers define and use the word ‘or’ and how the word ‘or’ has undergone changes in modification. The notion of logical form does not apply straightforwardly to ...
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This chapter talks about how philosophers define and use the word ‘or’ and how the word ‘or’ has undergone changes in modification. The notion of logical form does not apply straightforwardly to sentences of natural language. A sentence has no logical form independently of a specification of a formal language of representation. There is a sense in which the whole meaning of the inclusive “or” is only part of the meaning of the exclusive “or”. According to Boole's Rule, and-lists of general terms represent unions in the subject place; or-lists of general terms represent unions in the predicate place. A unified semantic account of or, and a uniform semantics of natural language connectives more generally must depend upon an abandonment of both assumptions.Less
This chapter talks about how philosophers define and use the word ‘or’ and how the word ‘or’ has undergone changes in modification. The notion of logical form does not apply straightforwardly to sentences of natural language. A sentence has no logical form independently of a specification of a formal language of representation. There is a sense in which the whole meaning of the inclusive “or” is only part of the meaning of the exclusive “or”. According to Boole's Rule, and-lists of general terms represent unions in the subject place; or-lists of general terms represent unions in the predicate place. A unified semantic account of or, and a uniform semantics of natural language connectives more generally must depend upon an abandonment of both assumptions.
