Anti-specificity and the role of number: the case of Spanish `algún

Anti-specificity and the role of number:
the case of Spanish ‘algún’/‘algunos’
Urtzi Etxeberria & Anastasia Giannakidou
CNRS-IKER & University of Chicago
.
DGfS 2016
Universität Konstanz
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Introduction
Indefinites: specific vs non-specific
Indefinites: specific vs non-specific
Indefinite NPs can get two interpretations: specific and non-specific
(example taken from Fodor & Sag 1982).
(1)
A student in Syntax 1 cheated on the exam.
1
His name is John.
2
We are all trying to figure out who it was.
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Introduction
Indefinites: specific vs non-specific
Specific indefinites
The speaker knows the identity of the referent, knows who.
The referent is fixed / determined / independent the interpretation of
the matrix predicate.
Specific indefinite NPs are ‘scopeless’, ‘referential’, or topics.
Specific indefinite NPs can be marked by specificity markers.
[cf. Fodor & Sag 1981, Groenendijk & Stokhof 1984, Reinhart 1998, Winter
1997, Farkas 2002, von Heusinger 2011, Hinterwimmer & Umbach to appear,
Ionin 1996, Endriss 2009, a.o.]
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Introduction
Indefinites: specific vs non-specific
Indefinites: specific vs non-specific
(2)
Every tourist visited a museum.
1
[8x: tourist (x)] [9y: museum (y)] [visited (x, y)]
(narrow scope, non-specific reading, varying values)
2
[9y: museum (y)] [8x: tourist (x)] [visited (x, y)]
(inverse wide scope, specific reading, fixed value)
Specific reading:
In the specific reading the speaker has one museum in mind. " operator,
choice function, however one is to capture that.
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Introduction
Indefinites: specific vs non-specific
Specificity markers
(3)
Every tourist visited a certain museum, namely the Louvre.
(4)
# Every tourist visited a certain museum, possibly di↵erent ones.
Specificity marking:
Specificity marking can be quite systematic, and can involve case marking
(as in Turkish, Finish, etc.), and similar devices.
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Introduction
Indefinites: specific vs non-specific
Three lessons from specificity
Not all indefinites are created equal.
Specificity marking constrains the interpretation of the indefinite.
In specificity, the question of scope largely depends on epistemic
judgment of the speaker (knowing who, being able to identify a
unique value).
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Introduction
Indefinites: specific vs non-specific
Anti-specificity
Anti-specificity (Giannakidou & Quer 2013
Still depending on the speaker.
Not knowing who (= choice).
Narrow scope with respect to Q- and intensional operators.
Systematic anti-specificity marking in language (via determiners, case,
etc.)
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Introduction
Indefinites: specific vs non-specific
Anti-specificity: examples
E.g. German:
(5)
Ingerjemand hat angerufen. #Rat mal wer!
somebody
has called
guess prt who
Somebody called. #Guess who! (Aloni & Port 2014)
E.g. Spanish:
(6)
Ha llamado algún estudiante. #Adivina quién
Some student called. #Guess
who!
Somebody called. #Guess who! (Giannakidou & Quer 2013)
[cf. Giannakidou & Quer 2013, Alonso-Ovalle & Menéndez-Benito 2010, 2013, Giannakidou &
Yoon 2014, to appear, Etxeberria & Giannakidou 2014, to appear, Eckardt 2007, Aloni & Port
2011, 2014, Kratzer & Shimoyama 2002, Zamparelli 2007, Jayez & Tovena 2007, a.o.]
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Introduction
Indefinites: specific vs non-specific
Anti-specificity: examples
E.g. Italian un qualche:
(7)
Maria ha sposato un qualche professore. #Cioè
Vito.
Maria has married un qualche professor #namely Vito
Maria married some professor. #Namely Vito. (Aloni & Port 2013)
E.g. Korean amwu/nwukwu:
(8)
Na-nun enehak
kyoswu amwu/nwukwu-rato manna-ko sip-ta.
I-Top linguistics professor NPI
meet-C want-decl
#Kukes-un ceki ce namca-ta.
it-Top
there that guy-Decl
I want to meet some linguistics professor or other.
#It’s that guy over there. (Giannakidou & Yoon 2014, to appear)
[cf. Giannakidou & Quer 2013, Alonso-Ovalle & Menéndez-Benito 2010, 2013, Giannakidou &
Yoon 2014, to appear, Etxeberria & Giannakidou 2014, to appear, Eckardt 2007, Aloni & Port
2011, 2014, Kratzer & Shimoyama 2002, Zamparelli 2007, Jayez & Tovena 2007, a.o.]
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Introduction
The puzzle
The puzzle
The existential indefinite determiners algún/algunos in Spanish show
conflicting behavior:
singular algún is an anti-specific determiner.
[cf. Giannakidou & Quer 2013; see also Alonso-Ovalle & Menéndez-Benito 2010,
2013a, ’epistemic indefinites’; etc.]
plural algunos behaves like a specific determiner.
[cf. Gutiérrez-Rexach 1999, 2001; Alonso-Ovalle & Menéndez-Benito 2002, 2010,
2013b; Laca & Tasmowski 1996; Martı́ 2005, 2009; Villalta 1994; etc.]
How can the two be reconciled without positing ambiguity?
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Introduction
Our proposal (I)
Our proposal (I)
The paradoxical behavior is illusory.
Algún is always anti-specific, in particular ‘referentially vague’
(Giannakidou & Quer 2013).
Plural algunos is not specific. In fact, we argue that plural algunos is
also ‘referentially vague’.
If there is a previously introduced set, an anaphoric plural will be
licensed like e.g. English ones in elliptical contexts (Kester 1996).
It is the anaphoric plural that gives rise to the ’specificity’ feeling,
which is in fact property anaphora.
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Spanish indefinites
Singular ‘algún’
Singular ‘algún’
Methods of identification (Aloni & Port 2010):
...Ostension:
(9)
Tengo
have
señor
guy
que leer un artı́culo de algún profesor. #Es aquel
comp read a article of some professor is
that
de allı́.
of there
I have to read an article of some professor (or other). #It’s that
guy over there.
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Spanish indefinites
Singular ‘algún’
Singular ‘algún’
Methods of identification (Aloni & Port 2010):
...Naming:
(10)
Tengo que quedar con algún profesor. #Se llama Bob
have comp meet with some professor se call
Bob
Smith.
Smith
I have to meet with some professor (or other). #His name is Bob
Smith.
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Spanish indefinites
Singular ‘algún’
Singular ‘algún’
Methods of identification (Aloni & Port 2010):
...Description:
(11)
Tengo que quedar con algún profesor. #Es el director
have comp meet with some professor is
the director
del Departamento de Filosofı́a.
of-the Department
of Philosophy
I have to meet with some professor (or other). #He is the head of
the Philosophy Department.
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Spanish indefinites
Singular ‘algún’
Singular ‘algún’
Methods of identification (Haspelmath 1997):
...‘Guess who’ test:
(12)
Ha llamado algún estudiante. #Adivina quién
have called some student.
#Guess who!
Somebody called. #Guess who!
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Spanish indefinites
Singular ‘algún’
algún vs un
If the speaker knows who the referent is:
un is fine.
algún is not fine.
(13)
a. Ha llamado algún estudiante. #¡Adivina quién!
b. Ha llamado un estudiante. ¡Adivina quién!
‘Algún/Un student called. Guess who!’
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Spanish indefinites
Plural ‘algunos’
Plural ‘algunos’
Behavior of ‘algunos’:
Plural algunos has been claimed to behave specifically.
It is necessarily linked to a previously introduced antecedent (cf.
Martı́ 2008, 2009).
Distinguished from unos, which is the unmarked plural indefinite.
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Spanish indefinites
Plural ‘algunos’
Plural ‘algunos’
Algunos can give raise to ‘specific’-like interpretations.
(14)
Teachers A and B are on an excursion with [a group of children, of
whom they are in charge]K . Teacher A comes to teacher B
running:
Teacher A: ¿Te has enterado? [Algunos niños]K ,#J se han
perdido en el bosque. ‘Have you heard? Algunos children got
lost in the forest.’ (Martı́ 2009: 110)
algunos
alg Algunos appears to require familiarity, i.e. it requires a familiar index.
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Spanish indefinites
Plural ‘algunos’
Plural ‘algunos’
Algunos can give raise to ‘specific’-like interpretations.
(15)
Se salvaron doce pasajeros. Algunos estaban durmiendo en el
momento del accidente.
‘Twelve passengers were saved. Algunos were sleeping at the time
of the accident.’ (Leonetti 1999: 842)
(16)
A and B are mathematicians at the university in Saarbrücken. A
comes to B running. Children have not been on their minds or
conversations for a long time:
1
¿Sabes qué? ¡Algunos niños han conseguido resolver la
conjetura de Poincaré!
‘You know what? Algunos children have managed to solve
Poincaré’s conjecture!’ (Martı́ 2009: (8))
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Spanish indefinites
Plural ‘algunos’
Plural ‘algunos’
Algunos may also convey referential vagueness.
(17)
Context: A class of students is leaving on a summer camp.
Instructor A knows all of them because they are former students.
Instructor B doesn’t know them at all because it is the first day of
his new job. Instructor B says to instructor A:
1
Algunos alumnos han llegado tarde. #Eran Judit, Pedro y
Mónica
‘Algunos students came late. Namely Judit, Pedro and
Mónica.’
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Referential Vagueness
Definition
Referential vagueness: definition
Giannakidou & Quer 2013:
1
A sentence containing a referentially vague indefinite ↵ will have a
truth value i↵:
9 w1 , w2 2 W: [[↵]]w 1 6= [[↵]]w 2 ;
where ↵ is the referentially vague indefinite.
2
The worlds w1 , w2 are epistemic alternatives of the speaker:
w1 , w2 2 M(speaker), where M(speaker) is the speaker’s belief state,
the set of worlds compatible with what she believes/knows.
3
The speaker does not know which one the actual value is.
Vagueness, indeterminacy of reference.
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Referential Vagueness
Definition
Referential vagueness: definition
(18)
[[Marı́a salió con algún lingüista]] will be defined in c, only if:
9 w1 , w2 2 MB (s) : [[↵]]w 1 6= [[↵]]w 2 , where ↵ is the referentially
vague variable;
if defined, [[Marı́a salió con algún lingüista]] is true if there is at
least one assignment g that verifies the condition linguist (x) ^
date (m,x).
(19)
Particular individual in mind = fixed value in MB (s):
w1 ! Bill, w2 ! Bill, w3 ! Bill, w4 ! Bill
(20)
No particular individual in mind = no fixed value in MB (s):
w1 ! Bill, w2 ! Nicolas, w3 ! John, w4 ! ?
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Referential Vagueness
Anti-singleton constraint
Anti-singleton constraint
Alonso-Ovalle & Menéndez-Benito 2010:
[[algún]] = f<et,et> P <et> Q <et> : Anti-singleton(f ).9x[f(P)(x) & Q(x)]]
Anti-singleton is not enough:
(21)
Context: I am pointing to two rooms, and say:
Juan se ha escondido en #alguna/una habitación, pero no estoy
segura de cuál.
Juan hid in #some/a room, but I’m not sure which one.
(GQ 2013)
So we need at least two, and not simply more than one.
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Referential Vagueness
Plural ‘algunos’
Plural ‘algunos’
(22)
Teachers A and B are on an excursion with [a group of children, of
whom they are in charge]K . Teacher A comes to teacher B
running:
1
Teacher A: ¿Te has enterado? [Algunos niños]K ,#J se han
perdido en el bosque.
2
Teacher A: ¿Te has enterado? [Unos niños]K ,J se han
perdido en el bosque.
‘Have you heard? Algunos children got lost in the forest.’
(Martı́ 2009: 110)
Algunos vs Unos
Unos is neutral with respect to indices.
Algunos appears to require familiarity, i.e. it requires a familiar index.
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Referential Vagueness
Plural ‘algunos’
Plural ‘algunos’
(23)
A and B work at an agency for the prevention of car accidents. A is
already at work, and B is just now arriving, and he is quite agitated.
Children have not been on their minds or conversations for a long time:
1
2
¡Dios mı́o! #¡Algunos niños están jugando demasiado cerca de la
carretera!
¡Dios mı́o! ¡Unos niños están jugando demasiado cerca de la
carretera!
‘Oh my God! Unos/algunos children are playing too close to the
road!’ (Martı́ 2009: (9))
Martı́ (2009: 113): ‘...appreciate the di↵erence between unos and algunos by
considering contexts which make no entity available for future reference. In such
contexts, it is impossible to use algunos, though sentences with unos are
felicitous.’
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Referential Vagueness
Martı́ 2008, 2009
Martı́ 2008, 2009
Algunos gives rise to a partitivity implicature.
(24)
[[unos]] = P<et> Q<et> .9x [Mol(x) & P(x) & Q(x)]
[[unos]] = (‘Mol’ stands for ‘molecular/plural individual’)
(25)
[[alg-]] = R<et<ett>> . P<et> . Q<et> :R(P\C)(Q)
[[alg-]] = Implicature: R(P\C)(Q)(x: Q(x) = ;)
(26)
[[algunos]]
[[algunos]]
[[algunos]]
[[algunos]]
=
=
=
=
P<et> . Q<et> : [[unos]](P)(Q)
Implicature: [[unos]](P)(x: Q(x) = ;)
P<et> . Q<et> : 9x [Mol(x) & P(x) & Q(x)]
Implicature: 9x [Mol(x) & P(x) & Q(x)] = ;
Source of partitivity: alg-, which introduces the context variable C.
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Referential Vagueness
Martı́ 2008, 2009
Martı́ 2008, 2009: problems
But can that be right?
How can alg- contribute both ‘partitivity’ and ‘referential vagueness’,
or in other words, both ‘specificity’ and ‘anti-specificity’ ?
Martı́’s (2009) analysis cannot handle this. It needs to give up the
compositional derivation for alg- in the singular, and therefore posit
ambiguity.
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Referential Vagueness
Martı́ 2008, 2009
Martı́ 2008, 2009: problems
But ambiguity is undesirable, because
The same morphology (alg-) is used in both cases, and
Ambiguity doesn’t capture the role of number.
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Referential Vagueness
Martı́ 2008, 2009
Contra partitivity: existential sentences
Algunos in existential sentences is equivalent to unos
(Gutierrez-Rexach 2001).
(27)
Context: Upon arriving at the school and seeing several groups of
boys fighting, the principal, tired and sick of seeing the same scene
every day, mumbled to himself: ‘What a way to begin the day!’. In
a panic, he realised that:
1
2
...habı́a algunos chavales demasiado cerca de la carretera.
...habı́a unos chavales demasiado cerca de la carretera.
‘there were algunos/unos boys too close to the road’
Algunos is not necessarily linked to a previous set.
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Referential Vagueness
Martı́ 2008, 2009
Contra partitivity: generic sentences
Algunos also receives generic uses.
(28)
Algunos unicornios tienen cuernos de apariencia metálica.
algunos unicorns have horns of appearance metallic
Algunos unicorns have horns of metallic appearance. (Martı́ 2009)
These kinds of statements call for unrestrictiveness.
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Referential Vagueness
Martı́ 2008, 2009
Contra partitivity: non-specific uses
Algunos also gets non-specific uses.
(29)
Context: A class of students is leaving on a summer camp.
Instructor A knows all of them because they are former students.
Instructor B doesn’t know them at all because it is the first day of
his new job. Instructor B says to instructor A:
1
Algunos alumnos han llegado tarde. #Eran Judit, Pedro y
Mónica
‘Algunos students came late. Namely Judit, Pedro and
Mónica.’
Algunos may also convey referential vagueness.
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Proposal
Unifying analysis
Our proposal (II): a unifying analysis
In both algún and algunos referential vagueness is satisfied.
In the plural algunos we have more than one value.
Without an antecedent, algunos is undistinguishable from unos with
respect to partitivity.
(30)
Llegaron unos/algunos chavales a la oficina.
arrived unos/algunos boys
to the office
Some boys arrived to the office
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Proposal
Unifying analysis
Our proposal (II): a unifying analysis
The context dependency arises only in anaphoric contexts where a
discourse referent has previously been explicitly introduced. This
discourse referent sets up an antecedent.
The plural in this case functions as an anaphoric pronoun, as in cases
of ellipsis (Kester 1995).
(31)
Mary brought the yellow T-shirts, and Ariadne the blue
ones.
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Proposal
Unifying analysis
Our proposal (II): a unifying analysis
Proposal:
A plural anaphor is triggered and is reflected in the plural number.
(32)
[[algunos niños]] = algún + pro PL [[+anaphoric]]
Partitivity is epiphenomenal.
It is simply a consequence of the presence of an anaphoric plural.
Context dependency has nothing to do with alg-.
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Proposal
Unifying analysis
Our proposal (II): a unifying analysis
Our proposal vs Martı́ (2009)
Our proposal is close in spirit to Martı́’s C variable which can also be
thought of as a pronoun.
But unlike her proposal we do not assume that alg- introduces this
contextual dependency, rather, alg- introduces ‘referential vagueness’
in every context.
The anaphor introduces the contextual dependency of
‘algunos’.
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Proposal
Two remaining questions
Two remaining questions
Two remaining questions:
How about unos? Does the anaphor get licensed with unos?
How about the singular? Is an anaphoric analysis possible?
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Proposal
Two remaining questions
How about ‘unos’ ?
Unos: a real indefinite article.
Unos behaves as expected for an indefinite that is subject to novelty:
it always carries a novel index.
(33)
Heim’s Novelty/familiarity condition (Heim 1982: 298):
Indefinite descriptions introduce new entities into the discourse
while definite descriptions must denote entities which have
previously been introduced in the discourse, i.e. refer to
existing entities.
Let p be an atomic formula containing noun phrase NPi .
Then, for all <g,w> 2 C: if NPi is definite, i must be in
dom(g), and if NPi is indefinite, i must not be in dom(g).
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Proposal
Two remaining questions
How about ‘unos’ ?
The indefinite introduces a novel discourse referent.
Additionally, the indefinite can be thought of as anti-unique, where
the context imposes uniqueness (cf. Heim 1982, Ionin 2006):
(34)
*John loves a mother of his.
(35)
A sailori came in. A sailork sat down.
So, unos follows this pattern of novelty (#unos de los NP).
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Proposal
Two remaining questions
How about ‘unos’ ?
But how about sentences like (36)?
(36)
Teachers A and B are on an excursion with [a group of
children, of whom they are in charge]K . Teacher A comes to
teacher B running:
Teacher A: ¿Te has enterado? [Unos niños]K ,J se han
perdido en el bosque.
‘Have you heard? Unos children got lost in the forest.’
Unos is neutral with respect to indices.
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Proposal
Two remaining questions
How about ‘unos’ ?
The behaviour of unos is not di↵erent from other indefinites which
can pick from a previously introduced set; cf. tres ’three’ in (37):
(37)
Teachers A and B are on an excursion with [a group of
children, of whom they are in charge]K . Teacher A comes to
teacher B running:
Teacher A: ¿Te has enterado? [Tres niños]K ,J se han
perdido en el bosque.
‘Have you heard? Three children got lost in the forest.’
If a discourse set is available, new quantifiers (indefinites) could
associate with this domain.
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Proposal
Two remaining questions
How about ‘unos’ ?
Conclusions (for ‘unos’):
Unos is a regular indefinite in that it carries an anti-uniqueness
presupposition.
The plural in unos is a regular plural, not an anaphoric one.
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Proposal
Two remaining questions
How about the singular?
Plural algunos is grammatical both with and without the partitive.
(38)
Context: Today we have a very famous writer visiting our school,
when she comes to my classroom I present my students to her saying
“these are my students”, and then, just wanting to impress her,
I continue:
p
a.
Algunos han leido Hamlet.
algunos read
Hamlet
Some have read Hamlet.
p
b.
Algunos de ellos han leido Hamlet.
algunos of them read
Hamlet
Some of them have read Hamlet.
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Proposal
Two remaining questions
How about the singular?
Singular ‘alguno’:
reference to the previous set is also possible with the singular.
(39)
Context: Today we have a very famous writer visiting our school,
when she comes to my classroom I present my students to her saying
“these are my students”, and then, just wanting to impress her,
I continue:
p
a.
Alguno ha leı́do Hamlet.
alguno read
Hamlet
b.
One (of them) has read Hamlet.
p
Alguno de ellos ha leido Hamlet.
alguno of them read
Hamlet
One of them has read Hamlet.
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Proposal
Two remaining questions
How about the singular?
Proposal for singular ‘alguno’:. partitive ellipsis.
(40)
[[alguno]] = alguno + pro PP [[+anaphoric]]
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Proposal
Two remaining questions
How about the singular?
The singular (alguno) is grammatical with the partitive, but the
speaker or the hearer cannot have a specific reference in mind. This is
consistent with referential vagueness:
(41)
a. Alguno de ellos ha leido Hamlet. Pero no te voy a decir quién,
alguno of them read
Hamlet but neg I go to say who
lo tendrás que averiguar tú.
cl have
that discover you
One of them has read Hamlet. But I won’t tell who that is, you’ll have
to figure it out.
b. Alguno de ellos ha leido Hamlet. Pero no tengo ni idea de
alguno of them read
Hamlet but neg I have neg idea of
quién es.
who is
One of them has read Hamlet. But I have no idea of who that is.
Etxeberria & Giannakidou
Anti-specificity & the role of number
DGfS 2016, Konstanz
45 / 49
Proposal
Two remaining questions
How about the singular?
The singular (alguno) is grammatical with the partitive in situations
where there is no overt antecedent:
(42)
Alguno de mis estudiantes ha leido Hamlet.
alguno of my students
read
Hamlet
One of my students has read Hamlet.
Etxeberria & Giannakidou
Anti-specificity & the role of number
DGfS 2016, Konstanz
46 / 49
Proposal
Two remaining questions
How about the singular?
Singular [algún + NP]:
can not be used to make reference to a previous set.
(43)
Context: Today we have a very famous writer visiting our school,
when she comes to my classroom I present my students to her saying
“these are my students”, and then, just wanting to impress her,
I continue:
a. #Algún estudiante ha leı́do Hamlet.
algún student
read
Hamlet
Some student has read Hamlet.
Singular [algún + NP] can not license partitive ellipsis.
Etxeberria & Giannakidou
Anti-specificity & the role of number
DGfS 2016, Konstanz
47 / 49
Conclusions
In the end:
Referential vagueness is:
variation in possible values, and
ignorance of which one the actual value is.
Algún/algunos have both (variation in possible values and
indeterminacy of reference).
This indeterminacy of reference is a property of all anti-specific items,
including FCI (Giannakidou 2001, Giannakidou & Quer 2013).
The apparent partitivity of algunos is not at odds with referential
vagueness.
’Partitivity’ is triggered by null anaphora in contexts that make an
antecedent available.
Etxeberria & Giannakidou
Anti-specificity & the role of number
DGfS 2016, Konstanz
48 / 49
. . . thank you!
Etxeberria & Giannakidou
Anti-specificity & the role of number
DGfS 2016, Konstanz
49 / 49