LINGUIST List 10.425

Mon Mar 22 1999

Books: Semantics/Syntax

Editor for this issue: Scott Fults <scottlinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Rint Sybesma, Determiners, Quantificational Strategies, Evidence from Salish

New from Rene Mulder -- Holland Academic Graphics!

Lisa Matthewson
Determiner systems and quantificational strategies.
Evidence from Salish

This book examines the syntax and semantics of Salish determiners and
quantifiers in great detail; one of the findings is that Salish, though it
possesses a robust system of DP-internal quantification, lacks
quantificational determiners. 
 Lisa Matthewson proposes an account of differences in the
determiner and quantification systems of Salish and English. In
particular, Salish and English exemplify opposite settings of a Common
Ground Parameter, which means that Salish determiners may not access
the common ground of the discourse. This parameter also derives several
other differences between Salish and English determiners, such as the
absence of a definiteness distinction in Salish.
 With respect to the absence of quantificational determiners and the
robust system of DP-internal quantification that Salish has, Matthewson
demonstrates that quantificational DPs in Salish function as generalized
quantifiers at logical form. The strong hypothesis that languages do not
differ with respect to the presence or absence of generalized quantifiers is
upheld. The differences in quantificational strategies between English and
Salish turn out to be largely derivable from the independently-required
parameter on determiners.
 This book is a revised version of Matthewson's 1996 University of
British Columbia dissertation which was the co-winner of the 1998 FoLLI
Dissertation Prize awarded to Outstanding Dissertation in the fields of
Language, Logic and Computation by the Amsterdam based European
Association for Language, Logic and Information.
 This book is the first of the World theses, a series edited by Lisa L.-S.
Cheng. 

xvi + 380 pp. With author, subjact and language indices. ISBN
90-5569-041-4. Hb. Price for individuals ordering directly from HAG: HFL
79.60.



Holland Academic Graphics
PO Box 53292
2505 AG The Hague
The Netherlands

fax: +31 70 448 0177
http://www.hagpub.com

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