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From Utterances to Speech Acts

By Mikhail Kissine

"Kissine offers a new theory of speech acts which is philosophically sophisticated and builds on work in cognitive science, formal semantics, and linguistic typology. This highly readable, brilliant essay is a major contribution to the field."

--François Recanati, Institut Jean-Nicod

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Query Details


Query Subject:   Negation in Quebecois French
Author:   P A Rowlett
Submitter Email:  click here to access email

Linguistic LingField(s):  Semantics

Query:   Dear all

D. Bolinger (in _Generality, Gradience, and the All-or
None_, p. 17) claims that the expression

(1) Put them away yet?

is ambiguous between the meanings (1a) and (1b)

(1a) ''Do you put them away yet?'' (''Has it become your
habit?'')
(1b) ''Did/Have you put them away yet?''

and that it is indeterminate between the meanings (1c) and
(1d)

(1c) ''Did you put them away yet?''
(1d) ''Have you put them away yet?''

I doubt that (1) may have the meaning (1c), but I feel
unable to judge that (perhaps because I am a non-native
speaker of English). My doubt arises from the impression
that e.g.

(2) See them yet?
(3) Get them yet?
(4) Write him yet?
(5) Hear it yet?
etc.

will NOT be understood in the sense of

(2a) ''Did you see them yet?''
(3a) ''Did you get them yet?''
(4a) ''Did you write him yet?''
(5a) ''Did you hear it yet''

but only in the sense of

(2b) ''Do you see them yet?''
(3b) ''Do you get them yet?''
etc.

Again, however, I am not sure about this. I feel that there
is a rat's tail of further questions involved in this,
starting with: Are expressions like (1)-(5) grammatical at
all, or are they 'only' acceptable as elliptic forms
sanctioned by use.

Can you help me with the problem, by giving me your
judgements as native speakers on the possible meanings of
(1)-(5) or by commenting in any way on the problem or by
directing me to the literature where this issue has been
discussed?

Thanks in anticipation!

Dr. Carsten Breul
Englisches Seminar
Universitaet Bonn
e-mail: c.breul@uni-bonn.de
Regina-Pacis-Weg 5
53113 Bonn
Germany

e-mail: c.breul@uni-bonn.de

e-mail: c.breul@uni-bonn.de
LL Issue: 8.808
Date posted: 30-May-1997



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