Epistemic indefinites
Subtitle: exploring modality beyond the verbal domain
By: edited by Luis Alonso-Ovalle and Paula Menéndez-Benito
Contributors: Menendez-Benito, Paula, 1972- editor
Edition: First edition.
Series: Oxford linguistics
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2015
Place of publication: New York, NY
Language: eng
Number of pages: 309
ISBN-13: 9780199665297
Subjects: Modality (Linguistics); Definiteness (Linguistics); Semantics
Description: This book brings together novel work on the semantics and pragmatics of certain indefinite expressions that also convey modality. These epistemic indefinites are determiners or pronouns that signal ignorance on the part of the speaker, such as German irgendein and Spanish algun: the sentence Maria se caso con algun medico ('Maria married some doctor or other') both makes an existential statement that there is a doctor that Maria married and signals the speaker's inability or unwillingness to identify the doctor in question. Although epistemic indefinites have featured in recent semantic literature, a full understanding of the phenomenon is still lacking: there is currently no agreement on the source of their epistemic component; there is insufficient cross-linguistic data to develop a semantic typology of these items; and the parallelisms and differences between epistemic indefinites and other expressions that convey epistemic modality have not been explored in depth. In this volume, a team of experts in the field offer novel empirical observations and important theoretical insights on epistemic indefinites and related topics such as modal free relatives, modified numerals, and epistemic modals. They provide a coherent overview of the issues that shape the subject as well as placing them in the context of current semantic research, moving towards the development of a semantic typology of epistemic indefinites that explores the place of these expressions within a general typology of modal items
Notes: Includes bibliographic references (pages 289-306) and index.
Table of contents: title: About the contributors. Abbreviations. Epistemic indefinites, an overview / Luis Alonso-Ovalle and Paula Menéndez-Benito. Part 1 Extending the empirical landscape: Where do Chinese wh-items fit? / Gennaro Chierchia and Hsiu-Chen Daphne Liao; title: Romanian epistemic indefinites / Anamaria Fălă̆uş; title: Sinhala epistemic indefinites with a certain je ne sais quoi / Benjamin Slade; title: A short history of English epistemic indefinites / Benjamin Slade. Part 2 Sources of evidence, epistemic indefinites, and epistemic modals: Epistemic indefinites and methods of identification / Maria Aloni and Angelika Port; title: Evidential restrictions on epistemic modals / Lisa Matthewson. Part 3 Specificity: Grading and hedging by gewiss / Stefan Hinterwimmer and Carla Umbach; title: Certain properties of certain indefinites, an experimental perspective / Tania Ionin. Part 4 Other modal DPS: Ignorance, indifference, and individuation with wh-ever / Cleo Condoravdi; title: Modified numerals, the epistemic effect / Rick Nouwen; title: Indifference and scalar inferences in free relatives / Kyle Rawlins. References. Index