Computer Science – Computation and Language
Scientific paper
1995-07-19
to appear in SALT V Proceedings, Cornell University,
Computer Science
Computation and Language
Postscript, 15 pages
Scientific paper
In this paper, we discuss the question whether phrasal comparatives should be given a direct interpretation, or require an analysis as elliptic constructions, and answer it with Yes and No. The most adequate analysis of wide reading attributive (WRA) comparatives seems to be as cases of ellipsis, while a direct (but asymmetric) analysis fits the data for narrow scope attributive comparatives. The question whether it is a syntactic or a semantic process which provides the missing linguistic material in the complement of WRA comparatives is also given a complex answer: Linguistic context is accessed by combining a reconstruction operation and a mechanism of anaphoric reference. The analysis makes only few and straightforward syntactic assumptions. In part, this is made possible because the use of Generalized Functional Application as a semantic operation allows us to model semantic composition in a flexible way.
Lerner Jan
Pinkal Manfred
No associations
LandOfFree
Comparative Ellipsis and Variable Binding does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with Comparative Ellipsis and Variable Binding, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Comparative Ellipsis and Variable Binding will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-619056