Complex demonstratives, hidden arguments, and presupposition

Presupposition Role in the Compound-Complex Sentence

The article analyzes the role of presupposition in the compound-complex sentence. The authors examine the types of presuppositions and minimal compound-complex sentence as a field of presuppositions action. The analysis of these types of sentences by the material of the English language shows that several kinds of presuppositions are realized in them – contact or distant, - developing in the re...

Binding Arguments and Hidden Variables

In recent years, several philosophers have appealed to evidence about binding relations to show that various linguistic expressions are represented (at some level of linguistic representation) as having hidden variables (e.g., Stanley (2002), 368–369; Stanley and Szabó (2000), 243). In particular, the idea is that binding interactions between the relevant expressions and natural language quanti...

Syntactically Complex Demonstratives and Sortal Inherency

Two problems related to the analysis of noun phrases in which demonstratives occur are discussed: (1) it is shown that there exists an infinite number of syntactically complex demonstrative noun phrases and thus an infinite number of noun phrases which are neither purely referential not purely quantificational, (2) some problems concerning the semantic role of the common noun to which demonstra...

Complex demonstratives as quantifiers: objections and replies

In ‘‘Complex Demonstratives: A Quantificational Account’’ (MIT Press 2001) (henceforth CD), I argued that complex demonstratives are quantifiers. Many philosophers had held that demonstratives, both simple and complex, are referring terms. Since the publication of CD various objections to the account of complex demonstratives I defended in it have been raised. In the present work, I lay out the...

Reference and Ambiguity in Complex Demonstratives