Dynamic Binding and the E-Type Strategy: Evidence from Japanese

Abstract

No abstract.

Two kinds of definites in numeral classifier languages

“…In these contexts, however, both bare nouns and null pronouns allow the sloppy interpretation, where the paycheck or Prime Minister changes with the situation. Kurafuji (1998Kurafuji ( , 1999 observes the same contrast for null versus overt pronouns in Japanese. He analyzes overt pronouns in Japanese as dynamically bound indexicals, consistent with the analysis here, while null pronouns are analyzed as functions from situations or individuals to the maximum individual in that situation, his 'E-type pronouns', following Chierchia (1992Chierchia ( , 1995.…”

“…This analysis makes the right predictions in 'pronoun of laziness' contexts, as bare nominals but not indexical expressions receive sloppy interpretations. This final observation is reminiscent of Kurafuji's (1998) finding that Japanese null pronouns prefer sloppy readings in these contexts while overt pronouns only allow strict readings. I show that Kurafuji's generalization follows if the uniqueness versus familiarity distinction described above is mirrored in whether pronouns are covert or overt.…”

“…6 Here and below, both overt and null pronouns are possible. However, null and overt pronouns have different meanings, as has been shown by Kurafuji (1998Kurafuji ( , 1999. See section 4.3 for discussion.…”

Indexed definiteness

“…The variable introduced by D/idx is what Groenendijk & Stokhof (1990) call a discourse marker, an element of D e , formally distinct from the regular metalanguage variables used by the compositional procedure. The idea that discourse markers constitute a distinct set of variables from regular metalanguage variables has been used to account for a variety of phenomena including donkey anaphora (Groenendijk & Stokhof 1990;Chierchia 1995), the distinction between null and overt pronouns (Kurafuji 1998), and the semantic behavior of anaphoric definites (Schwarz 2009), and recently, weak crossover (Chierchia 2020).…”

“…Typically if one set of pronouns allow descriptive or sloppy readings it will be with weak or null pronouns (e.g. Kurafuji 1998;Oku 1998;Saito et al 2008…”