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Title: Topics in Dynamic Semantics
Author: Gerhard Jäger
Email: click here to access email
Homepage: http://www.uni-bielefeld.de/lili/personen/gjaeger
Degree Awarded: Humboldt University, Berlin , Department for German Language and Lingustics
Degree Date: 1995
Linguistic Subfield(s): Semantics
Director(s): Manfred Bierwisch

Abstract:

Dynamics semantics was developed to account for non-truthconditional aspects of meaning in a compositional way. Major topics in the dynamic literature are anaphoricity, epistemic modalities, and presuppositions. This dissertation aims at extending the coverage of this approach to Topic-Comment structuring. After reviewing some well-established semantic theories, it is shown that none of it is able to explain certain properties of definite and indefinite expressions. It is argued that a satisfactory analysis requires a) a dynamic setup, and b) a notion of context that is more complex than it is commonly assumed. The author presents a formal semantic theory that fulfills these requirements. It is used to explain certain apparently heterogenous phenomena like bridging, the strong/weak ambiguity of cardinal expressions, and the proportion problem.
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Page Updated: 28-Nov-2009

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