Type Shifting and Meaning Transfer in Implicit Quantification

 

Speaker: Ariel Cohen, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
 

 

Abstract

 

It is well established that when quantification is expressed by overt
quantifiers, it exhibits scope ambiguities. But when quantification is
signaled by implicit means, the scopal behavior may be different. In
particular, generics express mostly free scope ambiguities (except for the
case of opaque contexts), whereas habituals and durative adverbials allow
narrow scope only.
I will argue that the scopal behavior of implicit quantification
depends on the type of that generates the quantification. Two such processes
will be considered: semantic type-shifting and pragmatic meaning transfer. I
will argue that generic quantification is provided by meaning transfer, while
habituals and duratives express quantification through type-shifting, and that
this is the source of the differences in their scopal behavior.