Introduction
Syntax of “Own”
Semantics of “Own”
Conclusion
Appendix: “One’s Own” is a Conservative Determiner

Introduction
Syntax of “Own”
Semantics of “Own”
Conclusion
Appendix: “One’s Own” is a Conservative Determiner

Abstract

Own

 Own in one’s own NP is a modiﬁer of a possessive morpheme.
 Own restricts a free relation variable R introduced by the possessive.
 Own is licensed by a focus marked possessive, and intensiﬁes a

Sumiyo Nishiguchi

unique possessive relation.
Osaka University
u301192b@ecs.cmc.osaka-u.ac.jp
http://homepage3.nifty.com/sumiyo nishiguchi/ John’s own NP is a quantiﬁer and his own NP is a bound variable.

The 80th Meeting of the English Literary Society of JapanMay 25, 2008
Hiroshima University

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Introduction
Syntax of “Own”
Semantics of “Own”
Conclusion
Appendix: “One’s Own” is a Conservative Determiner

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Introduction
Syntax of “Own”
Semantics of “Own”
Conclusion
Appendix: “One’s Own” is a Conservative Determiner

Introduction
Syntax of “Own”“Own” Needs to be Bound by a Possessive and Should Bind a
PronounCondition C or Strong Crossover“One’s Own NP” is a Quantiﬁer and a Bound Variable with
Sloppy Identity

Introduction
 Own appears to be semantically redundant.

The lexical meaning of own, the ownership or possession, isalready expressed by the possessive morpheme that own
necessarily follows. The addition of own to (1a) and (2a) issomewhat arbitrary.

Sloppy identity
Paycheck Pronouns (Karttunen & Peters 1969) Further Show That
“His Own NP” is not a Referential Expression“Own” is a Modiﬁer of “’s”

(1) a. Mary used her pen.
b. Mary used her own pen.

“Own” is Bound by “’s”
Semantics of “Own”
Truth-Conditional Meaning of “Own”
Hamblin Alternatives and Plurality“One’s Own NP” is an Indeﬁnite Description
Conclusion(2) a. I want you to use your pen.
b. I want you to use your own pen.
 Own is added to intensify the unique possession of a pen by‘Mary’ and ‘you.’3 / 37

Introduction
Syntax of “Own”
Semantics of “Own”
Conclusion
Appendix: “One’s Own” is a Conservative Determiner

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Introduction
Syntax of “Own”
Semantics of “Own”
Conclusion
Appendix: “One’s Own” is a Conservative Determiner

Syntax of Own
Own Needs to be Bound by a Possessive and Should Bind a Pronoun

Own has unique syntactic properties:
I will argue that: Own cannot stand alone without a preceding possessive: Own contributes to the truth conditional meaning of a(3) a. Use *(your) own pen.
b. Maryi used *(heri ) own pen.
c. [TP Maryi said [CP Jimj used *(hisj /heri ) own pen.]]d. [TP I want youi [CP to PROi use *(youri ) owni pen.]]proposition in a unique way, by restricting the free relation
variable introduced by the possessive.
 Own is a modiﬁer of a focus marked possessive morpheme.

 A pronominal possessive + own (e.g., her own) needs to bebound: c-commanding relation is not necessary:(4) a. {Maryi /Everyonej } used {heri/j /*Sue’s} own pen.
b. I came with his (*own) car.
c. Heri (own) cat scratched Jilli .
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Introduction
Syntax of “Own”
Semantics of “Own”
Conclusion
Appendix: “One’s Own” is a Conservative Determiner

Introduction
Syntax of “Own”
Semantics of “Own”
Conclusion
Appendix: “One’s Own” is a Conservative Determiner A proper noun possessive + own (Mary’s own) needs to binda pronoun (5) which is not necessarily in its c-commanding
position (6).
Interim Summary:(5) a. Maryi ’s (*own) cat disappeared.
b. Mary’s (*own) cat scratched Jill.
c. Maryi ’s own cat scratched {heri /*Jill}.

 Own needs to be bound by an immediate possessive

John’s/his.
 His own NP is a reﬂexive pronoun (Saxon 1990, others) and(6) a. *Mary used Jill’s own pen.
b. [TP Mary [vP <Mary>[VP used Jilli ’s owni pen [PPagainst heri ]]].

needs to be bound by John/everyone/noone.
 John’s own NP needs to license a pronoun.

 Saﬁr (1996) points out that contrastive stress on own

eliminates the need for its antecedent as in (7). Nevertheless,this paper will focus on own with neutral focus.
(7) His OWN key is less important than Mary’s.
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Introduction
Syntax of “Own”
Semantics of “Own”
Conclusion
Appendix: “One’s Own” is a Conservative Determiner

Introduction
Syntax of “Own”
Semantics of “Own”
Conclusion
Appendix: “One’s Own” is a Conservative Determiner.

.

Condition B

Condition C or Strong Crossover Anti-c-commanding relation is not acceptable (9a)
 A pronominal possessive not in direct c-command relation isallowed (9b-e)

 Condition B: Possessive pronouns, either with or without own,

 (9a) may be either strong crossover eﬀect assuming thatescape Condition B eﬀect at times. Even though her isc-commanded by Mary, (b) is grammatical.
(8) a. Maryi scratched {*heri /herselfi }.
b. Maryi used heri (own) pen.

Mary’s (own) pen is a quantiﬁer which undergoes quantiﬁer
raising, or the Condition C eﬀect.
(9) a. *Shei used Maryi ’s (own) pen.
b. Heri friend used Maryi ’s (own) pen.
c. ?The book of Johni describes hisi (own) errors.
d. Heri (own) cat scratched Maryi .
e. Heri mother’s (own) cat scratched Maryi .
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Introduction
Syntax of “Own”
Semantics of “Own”
Conclusion
Appendix: “One’s Own” is a Conservative Determiner

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Introduction
Syntax of “Own”
Semantics of “Own”
Conclusion
Appendix: “One’s Own” is a Conservative Determiner.

 Sloppy reading Mary’s dog bit her, too: him is a boundOne’s Own NP is a Quantiﬁer and a Bound Variable with Sloppy Identity

variable of John’s (10a) and John’s own (10b).
 Strict reading Mary’s dog bit him, too: him is a referential

John’s own NP is a quantiﬁer.

pronoun which corefers with John.

 John’s is ambiguous between a quantiﬁer which binds a

 John’s dog may or may not bind him but John’s own dog

pronoun him and a referential expressionnecessarily binds him so that the elided VP in (10b) can only
contain a bound variable.

 John’s own in (10b) is unambiguously a quantiﬁcational

determiner and cannot be a referential pronominal.

 John’s own dog parallels with everyone:

VP ellipsis:√(11) a. Everyonei called heri mother and so did Sally. [ sloppy,*strict]√(10) a. Johni ’s dog bit himi and Mary’s did, too. [ sloppy,√
strict]√b. Johni ’s own dog bit himi and Mary’s did, too. [ sloppy,*strict]

b. Everyonei called heri own mother and so did Sally.
√[ sloppy, *strict]

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Introduction
Syntax of “Own”
Semantics of “Own”
Conclusion
Appendix: “One’s Own” is a Conservative Determiner

Introduction
Syntax of “Own”
Semantics of “Own”
Conclusion
Appendix: “One’s Own” is a Conservative Determiner

Her own NP is always a bound variable (12b).

 A possessive pronoun her can be ambiguous between a bound

Paycheck Pronouns

variable and an ordinary pronoun. (12a) is two-way
ambiguous:(13) a. John spent his paycheck on books but Bill spent it on√√vacation. [ sloppy, strict]b. John spent his own paycheck on books but Bill spent it on√vacation. [ sloppy, *strict]

1. Sloppy reading Sally called Sally’s mother:
When her is a bound variable of Mary, the copied her in theelided VP (Sally called her mother, too) is also a boundvariable bound by Sally
2. Strict reading Sally called Mary’s mother:If her is an ordinary pronoun coreferential with Mary, her inthe elided VP also refers to Mary Strict reading (Bill spent John’s own paycheck) is notavailable for one’s own NP. Strict reading is obtained when
his in his own paycheck is an ordinary pronoun that refers toJohn but it is not the case.
 Only sloppy reading (Bill spent Bill’s own paycheck) isavailable in which his is a bound variable and it is interpreted
to be a bound variable.1√(12) a. Maryi called heri mother and so did Sally.[ sloppy,√
strict]√b. Maryi called heri own mother and so did Sally. [ sloppy,*strict]

1
Culicover and Jackendoﬀ (1996) discusses something else as paycheckpronouns.
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Introduction
Syntax of “Own”
Semantics of “Own”
Conclusion
Appendix: “One’s Own” is a Conservative Determiner

Introduction
Syntax of “Own”
Semantics of “Own”
Conclusion
Appendix: “One’s Own” is a Conservative Determiner.
Own is a modiﬁer of ’s We assume that own is a modiﬁer of a possessive morpheme

Interim Summary:’s (14) based on the constituency test (15).

 John’s own NP is a quantiﬁer that needs to bind a pronoun(14) [DP Mary[D  [D ’s own][NP pen]] His own NP is a bound variable.

Deletion: Own is dependent on ’s(15) a. Jim used his own pen and Mary used her own ø.
b. *Jim used his own pen and Mary used her ø.
(16) a. *John’s the bookb. The King’s Three Facesc. Three faces
d. *Own faces
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Introduction
Syntax of “Own”
Semantics of “Own”
Conclusion
Appendix: “One’s Own” is a Conservative Determiner

Introduction
Syntax of “Own”
Semantics of “Own”
Conclusion
Appendix: “One’s Own” is a Conservative Determiner.

 Saﬁr (1996): own is two-place relational. The adjective own

Why is Own dependent on the preceding ’s?: Argument Structure of Own

inherits its argument structure from the verb own. The verb
own is transitive. Own takes the agent (possessor) and thetheme (possessee) arguments.

2 ways to go:
1. A possessive licenses the coindexed own. A possessive itself islicensed by the coindexed referential expression. Suchdependencies are captured by the following binding relations.
2. ’s own is like one lexical item: his own  “hisself”2(19) a. V own; (DP\S)/DP; λx.λy.y owns x
b. A own; DP\(DP/N); λx.λP.λy.x owns y ∧ P(y)(application of Partee (1997)’s transitive common
noun favorite)(17) a. [TP Maryi [VP used heri owni pen.]]b. [TP Everyonei [VP used hisi owni pen.]] The possessor argument is saturated by the possessor of thepreceding possessive so that own is anaphoric to thepossessive.

(18) a. [TP Mary λ x. [VP used x’s x-own pen.]]b. [TP Everyone λ x. [VP used x’s x-own pen.]](20) John’s own; DP/N;
John’s λx.x-own

 Own is indirectly bound by the antecedent, Mary or everyone.
2

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Thanks to Masao Ochi for pointing this out.
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Introduction
Syntax of “Own”
Semantics of “Own”
Conclusion
Appendix: “One’s Own” is a Conservative Determiner

Introduction
Syntax of “Own”
Semantics of “Own”
Conclusion
Appendix: “One’s Own” is a Conservative Determiner(23) Heim and Kratzer(1998)’s style tree:
TP The fact that own is dependent on the possessive suggests

DPthat own binding undergoes two steps.

Mary 1(21) John used his own pen;
John λx. used x λy. ’s y-own pen

TP

DP

T’

<Mary1 > T Even though the denotation of John, x and y are all the same,

vP

DP

v’

<Mary1 > v VP

the ungrammaticality of the possessive-less own suggests thatown is bound by the possessive and the possessive is bound by
a referential expression or a quantiﬁer.

VDP

use she1(22) Maryi used heri owni pen.

2 DP
<she2 > D’DN’s own2 pen
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Introduction
Syntax of “Own”
Semantics of “Own”
Conclusion
Appendix: “One’s Own” is a Conservative Determiner

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Introduction
Syntax of “Own”
Semantics of “Own”
Conclusion
Appendix: “One’s Own” is a Conservative Determiner Mary/Mary’s own cannot bind her:.

(26) Maryi ’s own cat scratched heri .

ProblemTP
DPJohn’s own obligatory licenses him:2DP(24) Maryi used {*John’s/heri } own pen.

Mary 1(25) Maryi ’s owni cat scratched heri .

D’
D

TP
DP

NP

T’

DP

T

’s own1 cat <Mary> 1

D’
D

DP

vP
v’

N <Mary’s own cat> v VP<’s> <own1 > <cat>VDPscratch she2
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Introduction
Syntax of “Own”
Semantics of “Own”
Conclusion
Appendix: “One’s Own” is a Conservative Determiner

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Introduction
Syntax of “Own”
Semantics of “Own”
Conclusion
Appendix: “One’s Own” is a Conservative Determiner Ungrammaticality is not predicted:(27) *Mary used John’s own pen

Kayne (2002): “Antecedent-pronoun relations require movementout of a constituent of the form [John-he].”3TPDP(28) scratched [[Mary’s own her] cat]T’

Mary T vP
DP

Problems:v’

1. Mary’s own and cat form constituency<Mary> v VP
V

2. Theta role assignment:
scratch (Mary’s own cat, her)DP

use John
1

D’
D

N

’s own1 pen

3
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Thanks to Yoichi Miyamoto for suggesting the application of Kayne’s theory.
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Introduction
Syntax of “Own”
Semantics of “Own”
Conclusion
Appendix: “One’s Own” is a Conservative Determiner

Introduction
Syntax of “Own”
Semantics of “Own”
Conclusion
Appendix: “One’s Own” is a Conservative Determiner

Semantics of Own

Under deontic modal, own restricts the accessible worlds

Truth-Conditional Meaning of Own

 From (30a) worlds, the world where the hearer uses someone

else’s pen is not deontically accessible, or not allowed The addition of own changes the truth condition of the From (30b) worlds, the worlds in which the hearer uses

proposition

someone else’s pen are accessible (29a) is false when Mary uses someone else’s pen(30) a. You must use your own pen.
b. You must use your pen.

 (29b) is true when Mary borrows a pen from someone(29) a. Mary used her own pen.
b. Mary used her pen.
c. Mary used Mary’s pen.
d. Mary used Sue’s pen.
w
w1
w2[[(29c)]]w
TF[[(29d)]]wFT[[(29a)]]w
TFw[[(30a)]]w1 = 1 [[(30b)]]w2 = 1
w1 : Hearer uses hearer’s pen
w1 Rw3w2 Rw3
w2 : Hearer uses Mary’s pen¬ w2 Rw4
w2 Rw4
 The addition of own excludes other owner’s pen.
[[(29b)]]w
TT

 Intolerance of other people’s possessions is part of the truth

conditional meaning of own.
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Introduction
Syntax of “Own”
Semantics of “Own”
Conclusion
Appendix: “One’s Own” is a Conservative Determiner

Introduction
Syntax of “Own”
Semantics of “Own”
Conclusion
Appendix: “One’s Own” is a Conservative Determiner(31) a. [[Mary uses her pen]] = 1 iﬀ[[use]]([[Mary ]], [[her pen]]) = 1 iﬀ
∀x[pen’(x) ∧ R(x)(mary) → use’(x)(mary)]
iﬀ for all pens that mary holds some relations with (e.g.,
happens to be in her hand, owns, etc.), mary uses it (31a): R relationship between Mary and the pen is not limitedb. [[Mary uses her own pen]]=1 iﬀ∀x[pen’(x) ∧ own’(x)(mary) → use’(x)(mary)] ∧∀y[pen’(y) ∧ ¬own’(y)(mary) → ¬ use’(y)(mary)] (31b): R relation is conﬁned to the ownership relation alone.

to the ownership relation but can be contextually supplied(Partee 1997, Barker 1995). If the pen is borrowed fromsomeone else, R is the temporary possession relation and thepen may have a true owner.
The use of other people’s pen is not allowed. If there is any
pen that Mary does not own, Mary does not use it.

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Introduction
Syntax of “Own”
Semantics of “Own”
Conclusion
Appendix: “One’s Own” is a Conservative Determiner

Introduction
Syntax of “Own”
Semantics of “Own”
Conclusion
Appendix: “One’s Own” is a Conservative Determiner Own disambiguates the R relation in (31) but it is not always.

the case in (32).

Hamblin Alternatives and Plurality(32) a. John is carrying his own book.
b. John is carrying his book.

 Since John’s own pen contrasts with other people’s pens, wewant to derive the alternative set of John’s pen, Mary’s pen,
Sue’s pen,....

 John can be either the author or the possessor of the book inboth (32a) and (32b).

(33) [[[John s own pen]]]f = {John’s pen1 , Mary’s pen2 , Sue’s
pen3 ,...}

 Therefore, while the exclusion of other people’s possession is

the truth conditional meaning of own, the possessive relationthat one’s own expresses varies.
 Since own contrasts Mary’s own pen with other people’s pen,
we need to compute the contrast between Mary’s own pen
with other people’s pens. Since other people’s pens are notdirectly referred to, we need to go to Hamblin Alternatives(Hamblin 1973, Rooth 1985, Rooth 1996) in order to refer tothem.

 We do not want the set of other stationeries such as:(34) [[[John s own pen]]]f = {John’s pen, Mary’s pencil, Sue’s
eraser, Jim’s scale,...}
 Nor do we want the set of diﬀerent owners with identical pen:(35) [[[John s own pen]]]f = {John’s peni , Mary’s peni , Sue’s
peni , ...}
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Introduction
Syntax of “Own”
Semantics of “Own”
Conclusion
Appendix: “One’s Own” is a Conservative Determiner

Introduction
Syntax of “Own”
Semantics of “Own”
Conclusion
Appendix: “One’s Own” is a Conservative Determiner This suggests that John’s is focused and gives the alternative

set of possessors {John’s, Mary’s, Sue’s, ...} and the pen ispluralized into pen1 , pen2 , pen3 ,....

 If own associates with John’s pen:

 If only the possessive John’s is focused, diﬀerent pens for each(37) [[[John s]F own [pen]F ]]f ={John’s pen, Mary’s pencil,
Sue’s eraser, Jim’s scale,...}

owner are not derived (36).
(36) a. [[[John s]F ]]f ={John’s, Mary’s, Sue’s,...}
b. [[John sF ]]o<et,<et,t>>=λP.λQ.john (∃x[∀y [[Q(y ) ∧ R(y )(j)] ↔ y =x] ∧ P(x)]])] (Partee 1997)
c. [[John sF ]]f<<et,<et,t>>,t>=λΠ<et,<et,t>> .Π(λP.λQ.own (x)(y ) ∧ P(x) ∧Q(x) ∧ y ∈ D)
d. [[John sF own pen]]f<<et,t>,t>=λ℘<et,t> .℘(λ y∈D.∃ y[pen’(y) ∧ own’(x)(y)] Focus semantic value on John’s pen overgenerates the set of

stationaries. Rather, own gives focused set of possessors andpluralized pen: John’s pen⊕Mary’s pen⊕Sue’s pen⊕,... à la
Link (1983)
 Own ‘sorts’ the entities (à la Löbner 1985)

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Introduction
Syntax of “Own”
Semantics of “Own”
Conclusion
Appendix: “One’s Own” is a Conservative Determiner

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Introduction
Syntax of “Own”
Semantics of “Own”
Conclusion
Appendix: “One’s Own” is a Conservative Determiner.
One’s Own NP is an Indeﬁnite Description

Saxon (1990): the use of his own key in (38b) does not commit
one to the existence of a key

Such ambiguity is comparable to indeﬁnite DP such as a book.
 John did not read a book is ambiguous:(38) a. John will never have his key.

i) John did not read any book (not > a book)ii) there is a particular book that John did not read (a book >not)b. John will never have his own key.
 (38a) is unambiguous:

The existence of John’s key is presupposed (his key > never) (38b) is ambiguous:i) John has never had his own key (never>his own key)ii) John’s own key has been lost and he has been using
someone else’s key lately (his own key > never)
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Introduction
Syntax of “Own”
Semantics of “Own”
Conclusion
Appendix: “One’s Own” is a Conservative Determiner

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Introduction
Syntax of “Own”
Semantics of “Own”
Conclusion
Appendix: “One’s Own” is a Conservative Determiner

Appendix: One’s Own is a Conservative Determiner

Conclusion

The exhaustivity of own resembles that of only. But contrary to
only, one’s own and own are conservative (40).

 This paper examined the syntactic behavior and the meaningof own.

(39) Q is a conservative function on D iﬀ for all A,B⊆ D,
Q(A)(B)=Q(A)(A∩B)

 Own is a determiner modiﬁer.
 One’s own NP is an indeﬁnite quantiﬁer.

(40) a. Mary’s own cat scratched her.

 Own intensiﬁes possessive relation and excludes other owner’s

b. Mary’s own cat is a cat that scratched her.

object as part of the truth conditional meaning. Own sorts
the possessum entities.

c. Mary’s own cat is Mary’s cat that scratched her.

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Introduction
Syntax of “Own”
Semantics of “Own”
Conclusion
Appendix: “One’s Own” is a Conservative Determiner

Acknowledgment:
Special thanks to Chris Barker’s 2006 Fall Semantics Seminar on
Possessives at NYU, to all the speakers at 2007 Spring Binding
Seminar in Stony Brook University, especially to Ken Saﬁr and Dan
Finer, and to the comments at LCCC in Osaka University.

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