Specimens: 'most of' generic NPs in a contextually flexible type theory

Christian Retoré

inria-00637326, version 1

Specimens: "most of" generic NPs in a contextually flexible type theory

Christian Retoré (, ) ^1, 2

Genius III (2011)

Abstract: This paper proposes to compute the meanings associated to sentences with generic NPs correspond- ing to the most of generalized quantifier. We call these generics specimens and they resemble stereotypes or pro- totypes in lexical semantics. The meanings are viewed as logical formulae that can be thereafter interpreted in your favorite models. We rather depart from the dominant Fregean single untyped universe and go for type theory with hints from Hilbert epsilon calculus and from medieval philosophy. Our type theoretic analysis bears some resemblance with on going work in lexical semantics. Our model also applies to classical examples involving a class (or a generic element of this class) which is pro- vided by the context. An outcome of this study is that, in the minimalism-contextualism debate, if one adopts a type theoretical view, terms encode the purely semantic meaning component while their typing is pragmatically determined.

1: Laboratoire Bordelais de Recherche en Informatique (LaBRI)
CNRS : UMR5800 – Université Sciences et Technologies - Bordeaux I – École Nationale Supérieure d'Électronique, Informatique et Radiocommunications de Bordeaux (ENSEIRB) – Université Victor Segalen - Bordeaux II
2: SIGNES (INRIA Bordeaux - Sud-Ouest)
INRIA – CNRS : UMR5800 – Université Sciences et Technologies - Bordeaux I – Université Michel de Montaigne - Bordeaux III – École Nationale Supérieure d'Électronique, Informatique et Radiocommunications de Bordeaux (ENSEIRB)

inria-00637326, version 1
http://hal.inria.fr/inria-00637326
oai:hal.inria.fr:inria-00637326
From: Christian Retore <>
Submitted on: Friday, 4 November 2011 22:56:28
Updated on: Saturday, 5 November 2011 14:47:50

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