Adorning Materials in Middles

Yoon-kyoung Joh 서울대학교 언어교육원 2020 語學硏究 Vol.56 No.1

This paper claims that adorning materials in middles can commonly be translated into adverbials since modality, negation, and focus can all be expressed using various types of adverbials. Through the analytical lens that views middle constructions as distributivity constructions that are essentially reduced to plurality, this common property among adorning materials in middles is highly interesting. Thus, this paper accounts for the adorning materials in middles in Joh’s (2016) analysis, which treats adverbials in middles as one of distributivity’s core arguments. This paper also discusses how adverbials that are implicitly inserted in middle sentences can be conditioned. To answer this question, this paper relies on the differentiating effect that Sohn (2003) examined, extending the previously proposed unexpectedness condition.

Syntactic Differences of Plurality Markers

Joh,Yoon-kyoung 한국영미어문학회 2011 영미어문학 Vol.- No.98

There are two crucial syntactic differences found among plurality markers. Dependent plurals and anti-quantifiers work at the phrasal level as opposed to ordinary plurals that apply to the lexical level. More specifically, ordinary plurals are adjoined to the X level while anti-quantifiers attach to the full-fledged XP level. Dependent plurals, however, have the in-between status syntactically and combine with the X'-structure. Another difference is found between ordinary plurals and dependent plurals, on the one hand, and anti-quantifiers, on the other, in the respect that the former is a morpheme while the latter is a phrase that can take its own complement. These different statuses seem to account for why plural forms are intrinsically ambiguous whereas anti-quantifiers are unambiguously more expressive in their semantics as well as in their syntax than ordinary plurals and dependent plurals.

The Non-strang-definiteness Condition on Distributivity

Joh, Yoon-Kyoung Korean Society for Language and Information 2008 언어와 정보 Vol.12 No.2

This paper examines a condition that licenses distributivity. Choe (1987) and Link (1998) have proposed an indefiniteness condition on distributivity. However, detecting counter-examples, Zimmermann (2002) has argued for a non-specificity condition. This paper primarily revises the indefiniteness/non-specificity condition. Observing that the systematic class of the exceptions belongs to weak definites proposed by Poesio (1994), I claim that the property that constrains distributivity is non-strong-definiteness. Based on Landman (2000), I further explain the non-strong-definiteness condition and argue that the condition does not need to be imposed on the grammar independently. The new condition naturally accounts for Spector's (2003) scopal asymmetry. Even more, defining donkey pronouns as weak definites, I cope with various properties of donkey sentences.

Uniformity between Dependent Plurals and Anti-quantifiers

Joh, Yoon-kyoung 한국중앙영어영문학회 2010 영어영문학연구 Vol.52 No.4

This paper presents a unified compositional analysis for dependent plurals and anti-quantifiers. Choe (1987) has previously put forth a theory of distributivity, acknowledging the parallelism between dependent plurals and anti-quantifiers. Yet, his theory faces some shortcomings. Developing the limitations, I address a number of unanswered questions, arguing that both dependent plurals and anti-quantifiers are pluralization operators. Although dependent plurals and anti-quantifiers are essentially uniform, their functions are not entirely overlapped. Therefore, in capturing their uniformity, I also articulate the slight distinction between them which is the very reason why the two different forms exist in the grammar. My account that spells out not only the essential similarity but also the marginal difference between dependent plurals and anti-quantifiers has not a few advantages compared to Choe (1987). My analysis doesn’t need an i-part operation that is stipulative. I don’t face apparent counter-examples. My account relieves the grammar to high extent by not postulating an independent module of distributivity. Even more, in my account, the fact that dependent plurals produce distributivity is not coincidental but reflects a fundamental linguistic principle. Fifth, my account correctly captures that dependent plurals are more basic than anti-quantifiers in their function. Lastly, my analysis is compositional and thus is fully formalized.

Embedded Distributivity

Joh, Yoon-Kyoung Korean Society for Language and Information 2010 언어와 정보 Vol.14 No.2

Distributivity has been one of the central topics in formal semantics. However, no due attention has been paid to embedded distributivity that very frequently occurs in natural languages. In this paper, I propose a formal analysis for embedded distributivity. In analyzing embedded distributivity, I employ no complicated mechanisms but pluralization. Since distributivity is reduced to plurality as Landman (2000) argues, employing plural formation is not an ad hoc approach to embedded distributivity. That is, the plural variable inserted in the process of deriving embedded distributivity is motivated in a principled manner since the pluralization occurs inside a pluralization operator. Moreover, I point out that the plural variable made available is not restricted to entities.

A Semantic Analysis of Denominal Verbs in English

Yoon-kyoung Joh 한국영어학학회 2001 영어학연구 Vol.- No.12

The Expression Seeing Getting the Meaning of Dating: Metonymic or Metaphoric?

Yoon-kyoung Joh 한국영어학학회 2020 영어학연구 Vol.26 No.1

This paper claims that the semantic change of the expression seeing getting the meaning of dating is not exclusively a metonymic process, refuting Sullivan (2007, 2013) but the overlapped case between the metonymic inferencing and the metaphoric extension. The evidence is found in various aspects. First, the metaphor DATING IS SEEING can also appear in cartoons or movies even though it might have received little attention yet. Second, the semantic change can pass the systematic extensions test. Third, there is a legitimate reason for the semantic change to fail the inflection test. In addition to the three arguments, this paper presents a new argument that there are recognizable differences between SEEING and DATING, which can serve as evidence for metaphoric extensions since metaphor is based upon similarity via comparison of two separate domains which easily allows for differences.

Denotation and Implicature of Distributivity

Yoon-kyoung Joh 한국영어학학회 2010 영어학연구 Vol.16 No.3

Landman (2000) reduces distributivity to plurality mostly from the semantic point of view. This paper fundamentally points out that distributivity amounts to plurality not only at the semantic level but also at the pragmatic level. First, sorting out several plausible interpretations associated with distributivity, I spell out the denotation and implicature of distributivity. Thoroughly understanding distributivity at two different levels of interpretation, I further discuss that the denotation and implicature of distributivity reveal parallel patterns with those of plurality. Just like plurality forms a strength scale with singularity, distributivity forms a strength scale with collectivity. On the basis of the scale, the implicature of distributivity is arrived at by subtracting the denotation of collectivity from the denotation of distributivity. This is the same process how the implicature of plurality is derived. Noting the intriguing parallelism, I confirm the fact that Landman introduces to the grammar, i.e., distributivity amounts to plurality.

Metaphorical Mechanisms for Denominal Verbs

Joh, Yoon-kyoung 한국중앙영어영문학회 2020 영어영문학연구 Vol.62 No.1

This paper provides an answer to the problem detected for Qualia-based accounts for denominal verbs. The semantics of denominal verbs are regulated not only by our world knowledge but also by contextual information. The former can be easily captured by Qualia-based accounts but the latter has been the limitation for them. This paper has shown that metaphorical mechanisms that are constrained by our cognitive structure can help overcome the limitation of Qualia-based accounts for denominal verbs. In doing so, this paper has shown two types of metaphorical overriding: explicit metaphorical overriding and implicit metaphorical overridng. Furthermore, this paper has revised Joh (2017) in a way that the delinking process for metaphors is not the necessary part of metaphors but distinctions between contextual extending and contextual overriding cases must be kept. Contextual effects are prevalent in almost all linguistic expressions but this paper attempted to capture those effects focusing on English denominal verbs under the Generative Lexicon Theory. Yet, more investigations should be conducted more thoroughly regarding what can be called contextuals which are especially strongly affected by the context.

Echoing in the Sprouting Construction

Yoon-kyoung Joh 21세기영어영문학회 2013 21세기영어영문학회 학술대회 Vol.2013 No.09