The intensional profiles of five hungarian imperative sentence types

Kleiber, Judit; Alberti, Gábor; Szabó, Veronika

doi:10.4312/linguistica.56.1.161-172

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 7 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The point is that it is not ab ovo decided whether AR (see λ') is led by selfinterest or cooperation while performing either a declarative (cf. Oishi, 2014), or an interrogative, or an imperative (see Kleiber et al, 2016). Referent r* in the relevant formula can refer to not only a singleton but, preferably, a set of people.…”

Section: Meaningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Compositional analysis of interrogative imperatives in Hungarian

Kleiber

Alberti

2017

LingBaW

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The paper investigates utterances which combine imperative and interrogative elements in Hungarian. We intend to explore the scope of the hypothesis that the pragmatico-semantic content of mixed-type sentences can be obtained compositionally. We present four types of interrogative imperative. The imperative factor is indicated by subjunctive morphology on the verb. The interrogative character is represented by (1) rise-fall intonation which marks polar questions, (2) the discourse marker ugye expressing bias, (3) the particle vajon expressing self-reflection or hesitation, and (4) wavy intonation which indicates surprise. We claim that such sentences are primarily questions with their main function being ‘request for instruction’. For the analysis, we take a formal pragmatico-semantic point of view. Our goal is to demonstrate how these sentences can be analyzed compositionally within a belief–desire–intention frame. We apply the formal dynamic discourse- and mind-representation theory ReALIS. We have found that the pragmatico-semantic content (intensional profile) of each type can be constructed via using two formal operations: concatenation and pragmasemantic blending. The composition produces the required output, namely that the interrogation / bias / speculation / surprise which pertains to an eventuality in the case of a simple question, pertains to the “commanding” of this eventuality in the case of interrogative imperatives.

show abstract

Section: Meaningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Compositional analysis of interrogative imperatives in Hungarian

Kleiber

Alberti

2017

LingBaW

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…For a similar approach to the semantics and pragmatics of imperatives in Hungarian, seeKleiber et al (2016). 9 Cf.Giannakidou (2001, 687) for an application and discussion of the almostmodification test in the case of FCIs in imperatives.Acta LinguisticaAcademica 66, 2019 Unauthenticated | Downloaded 01/10/22 05:11 AM UTCThe semantics of weak imperatives revisited…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The semantics of weak imperatives revisited: Evidence from free-choice item licensing

Halm

2019

Acta Linguistica Academica

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper provides a new analysis for the semantics and pragmatics of weak (permission/ acquiescence) imperatives. In a significant modification to the To-Do-List (or minimal semantics -strong pragmatic) theory of imperatives (Portner 2007;von Fintel & Iatridou 2017), I argue that in weak imperatives, the utterance of the imperative is directed not at the To-Do-List of the addressee, but at a separate list which contains the set of possible courses of action contemplated by the addressee (which I term the List of Actions Under Consideration by the addressee). I support this claim by a new detailed analysis of free-choice item licensing in imperatives (based on the dependent indefinite analysis of FCIs put forth by Giannakidou 2001). I also show how my model correctly predicts that strong imperatives are felicitous out of the blue whereas weak imperatives need the prejacent to be already part of the context. It is also pointed out how this new approach helps us cut through the familiar controversy of whether weak imperatives can create obligations. Finally, I argue that the strong vs. weak imperative distinction is orthogonal to the degree of speaker endorsement (pace von Fintel & Iatridou 2017): this claim is also supported by a new look at data from Rhaetoromance (Poletto & Zanuttini 2003), where the strong vs. weak imperative distinction is encoded overtly on the morphosyntactic level in a binary fashion.

show abstract

Crosslinguistic similarity and variation in the simultaneous morphology of sign languages

Brentari

Horton

Goldin‐Meadow

2020

The Linguistic Review

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Two differences between signed and spoken languages that have been widely discussed in the literature are: the degree to which morphology is expressed simultaneously (rather than sequentially), and the degree to which iconicity is used, particularly in predicates of motion and location, often referred to as classifier predicates. In this paper we analyze a set of properties marking agency and number in four sign languages for their crosslinguistic similarities and differences regarding simultaneity and iconicity. Data from American Sign Language (ASL), Italian Sign Language (LIS), British Sign Language (BSL), and Hong Kong Sign Language (HKSL) are analyzed. We find that iconic, cognitive, phonological, and morphological factors contribute to the distribution of these properties. We conduct two analyses—one of verbs and one of verb phrases. The analysis of classifier verbs shows that, as expected, all four languages exhibit many common formal and iconic properties in the expression of agency and number. The analysis of classifier verb phrases (VPs)—particularly, multiple-verb predicates—reveals (a) that it is grammatical in all four languages to express agency and number within a single verb, but also (b) that there is crosslinguistic variation in expressing agency and number across the four languages. We argue that this variation is motivated by how each language prioritizes, or ranks, several constraints. The rankings can be captured in Optimality Theory. Some constraints in this account, such as a constraint to be redundant, are found in all information systems and might be considered non-linguistic; however, the variation in constraint ranking in verb phrases reveals the grammatical and arbitrary nature of linguistic systems.

show abstract

The intensional profiles of five hungarian imperative sentence types

Cited by 3 publications

References 7 publications

Compositional analysis of interrogative imperatives in Hungarian

Compositional analysis of interrogative imperatives in Hungarian

The semantics of weak imperatives revisited: Evidence from free-choice item licensing

Crosslinguistic similarity and variation in the simultaneous morphology of sign languages

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About