LINGUIST List 10.12

Tue Jan 5 1999

Sum: Specificity: Query 9.1578

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

Directory

  • Rebecca Larche Moreton, The Specifics of Specificity

    Message 1: The Specifics of Specificity

     Date: Mon, 4 Jan 1999 20:53:56 -0600
    From: Rebecca Larche Moreton <mlrlmsunset.backbone.olemiss.edu>
    Subject: The Specifics of Specificity


    Dear LINGUIST Listers:

    Whew! I feel better already! I see I'm not the only one confused by specificity, AND that there are lots of people working on it. A great many people have responsed to my inquiry (LINGUIST 9-1578) on specificity and its relationship(s) to definiteness. Several gave references to their own recent work, usually with some discussion; from these, I learned that specificity is primarily a semantic rather than a structural matter; I was looking in the wrong places. Other responders listed sources they had found helpful, with some commentary on the approaches and the depth of the analyses. The rest just asked me to be sure to summarize. It is for this latter group that I list below all the references received. The references are given without comment since I have not yet consulted them.

    Bechwith, Chris. 'Non-specification and classification in Uzbek,' Anthropological Linguistics, l998, 40 (1) pp. 124-140 (esp.pp 127-129).

    Chalker, Sylvia. 1984. Current Englisn Grammar. Macmillan. Pp.52-55.

    Cormack, Annabel, and Ruth Kempson, 'On specificity,' in Jay L.Garfield and Murray Kiteley, eds., The essential readings in modern semantics.' Paragon House. Pp. 546-581.

    Dahl, Oesten. 1988. 'The role of deduction rules in semantics,' J. of Semantics 6(1), pp. 1-18. Eisenberg, Peter. 1994. Grundriss der deutschen Grammatik. Stuttgart, Weimar. (see pp.164 ff.)

    Enc, Murvet. 1991. 'The semantics of specificity,' Linguistic Inquiry 22, pp. 1-25.(Most-mentioned reference.)

    Farkas, Donka F. 'Specificity and scope,' paper given at Langues et grammaires I (email to farkasling.ucsc.edu).

    Frawley, William. l992. Linguistic semantics. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

    Haspelmath, Martin. 1997. Indefinite pronouns. Oxford University Press.

    Jackendoff, Ray. 1983. Semantics and cognition.

    Kaplan, Jeffrey. English grammar: principles and facts.

    Kiefer, F.,ed. Semantik und generative Grammatik I. Frankfurt. (see pp.66-99.)

    Kiyoshi, Ishikawa. 1996. 'Individuation and reasoning,' in Logic, Language, and Computation, vol. 1, ed. by Jerry Seligman and Dag Westerstahl. Stanford: CSLI Publications.

    _________. 1998. A Network Theory of Reference. Bloomington: Indiana Linguistics Club.

    Lyons, John. 1997. Semantics. Vol 1 (see p. 188).

    Nadasdi, Terry. (Dissertation; information at http://www.ualberta.ca/~tnadasdi/.

    __________. 1995. (Article in Language Variation and Change, vol.7, pp.1-14.

    Newman, Michael. 1997. Epicene pronouns. (In a volume edited by Garland.)

    Pan, Haihua. 'The semantic content of noun phrases,' in Xu, Liejiong,'The referential properties of noun phrases,' downloadable at: http://ctlhpan.cityu.edu.hk/haihuapan/pan/newjpc6.doc.

    Rheinhart, Tanya. Recent (1997-8) paper from Language and Philosophy on 'choice functions.'

    Roberts, Lawerence E. 1993. How reference works. SUNY Press. (see Ch.5)

    Schaeffer, Jeanette C. 'Direct object scrambling in Dutch and Italian child language.' (1997 dissertation.)

    Thanks to all who wrote.

    Rebecca Larche Moreton 301 South Ninth Street Oxford, MS 38655 USA

    <mlrlmolemiss.edu>