modal adverbs and discourse implicatures semantics.

This research explored the feasibility of using multidimensional scaling (MDS) analysis in novel combination with other techniques to study comprehension of epistemic adverbs expressing doubt and certainty (e.g., evidently, obviously, probably ) as they relate to health communication in clinical settings. In Study 1, Australian English speakers performed a dissimilarity-rating task with sentence pairs containing the target stimuli, presented as “doctors' opinions.” Ratings were analyzed using a combination of cultural consensus analysis (factor analysis across participants), weighted-data classical-MDS, and cluster (...) analysis. Analyses revealed strong within-community consistency for a 3-dimensional semantic space solution that took into account individual differences, strong statistical acceptability of the MDS results in terms of stress and explained variance, and semantic configurations that were interpretable in terms of linguistic analyses of the target adverbs. The results confirmed the feasibility of using MDS in this context. Study 2 replicated the results with Canadian English speakers on the same task. Semantic analyses and stress decomposition analysis were performed on the Australian and Canadian data sets, revealing similarities and differences between the two groups. Overall, the results support using MDS to study comprehension of words critical for health communication, including in future studies, for example, second language speaking patients and/or practitioners. More broadly, the results indicate that the techniques described should be promising for comprehension studies in many communicative domains, in both clinical settings and beyond, and including those targeting other aspects of language and focusing on comparisons across different speech communities. (shrink)

This paper introduces two languages and associated logics designed to afford perspicuous representations of a range of natural language arguments involving adverbs and the like: first-order logic with basic adverbs (FOL-BA) and first-order logic with scoped adverbs (FOL-SA). The guiding logical idea is that an adverb can come between a term and the rest of the statement it is a part of, resulting in a logically stronger statement. I explain various interesting challenges that arise in the attempt (...) to implement the guiding idea, and provide solutions for some but not all of them. I conclude by outlining some directions for further research. (shrink)

This chapter contains sections titled: References.

In this volume leading researchers present new work on the semantics and pragmatics of adjectives and adverbs, and their interfaces with syntax. Its concerns include the semantics of gradability; the relationship between adjectival scales and verbal aspect; the relationship between meaning and the positions of adjectives and adverbs in nominal and verbal projections; and the fine-grained semantics of different subclasses of adverbs and adverbs. Its goals are to provide a comprehensive vision of the linguistically significant structural (...) and interpretive properties of adjectives and adverbs, to highlight the similarities between these two categories, and to signal the importance of a careful and detailed integration of lexical and compositional semantics. The editors open the book with an overview of current research before introducing and contextualizing the remaining chapters. The work is aimed at scholars and advanced students of syntax, semantics, formal pragmatics, and discourse. It will also appeal to researchers in philosophy, psycholinguistics, and language acquisition interested in the syntax and semantics of adjectives and adverbs. (shrink)

Nous abordons, dans cet article, le fonctionnement discursif des adverbiaux de localisation spatiale dehors et au dehors. Notre objectif est de mettre en valeur leur rôle dans la structuration du discours. Nous proposons aussi un examen des propriétés combinatoires et des conditions d’emploi de ces deux expressions dans les séquences narratives.. Nous montrerons enfin que, dans certains contextes, la valeur spatiale liée à l’emploi de ces adverbiaux peut être dédoublée d’une valeur temporelle.

Dans son Commentaire au Traité De l’interprétation d’Aristote, Ammonius réfute une position, qu’il attribue à Alexandre d’Aphrodise, d’ après laquelle les « adverbes » ( epirrhêmata ) appartiennent à l’espèce des onomata. Bien qu’il soit malaisé de reconstruire la position exacte d’Alexandre sur la base du Commentaire d’Ammonius, je souhaite montrer qu’on peut en offrir une version cohérente en recourant principalement au commentaire d’Alexandre aux Topiques, à propos des différentes sortes d’adverbes. À l’inverse, semble-t-il, d’Ammonius, Alexandre aurait distingué deux classes (...) dans les adverbes dont traite Aristote dans ses écrits logiques : d’une part les tropoi ou opérateurs modaux ; d’autre part, les ptôseis, c’est-à-dire cette sorte particulière d’inflexions (les adverbes en -ôs dérivant d’un nom, en général d’un nom abstrait)qui jouent un rôle crucial dans nombre des topoi qu’ Aristote présente dans les Topiques. (shrink)

In “Descriptions as Predicates” (Fara 2001) I argued that definite and indefinite descriptions should be given a uniform semantic treatment as predicates rather than as quantifier phrases. The aim of the current paper is to clarify and elaborate one of the arguments for the descriptions-aspredicates view, one that concerns the interaction of descriptions with adverbs of quantification.

If Socrates is running slowly, he must be running. Likewise, if he’s not running, he must not be running slowly. Haze (2024) proposes an extension of first-order logic inspired by this characteristic inferential behaviour of words like ‘slowly’: FOL-SA (first-order logic with scoped adverbs). Haze presents the logic model-theoretically using a hierarchy of models, where the level of a model corresponds to the number of nestings of adverb formulas within adverb formulas, and leaves open the investigation of its proof (...) theory. In this paper we develop a semantic tableaux proof system for FOL-SA, prove its soundness and completeness, and outline some directions for further research. (shrink)

Argumentative indicators of discourse relations constitute crucial cues for the mining of arguments. However, a comprehensive lexicon of these linguistic devices is so far lacking due to the scarcity of corpora argumentatively annotated and the absence of an empirically validated analytic methodology. Recent studies have shown that modals, that express that things might be otherwise, and evidentials, that point to the presence of information sources, are good candidates to work as argumentative indicators. On these grounds, we propose a systematic, non-language (...) specific corpus-based procedure to identify indicators of argumentative discourse relations. We test the design of a multi-level annotation through the analysis of the English and Italian epistential adverbs evidently and evidentemente in comparable corpora of newspaper articles. We show that the annotation guidelines achieve consistent analytical results with expert annotators. Data analysis reveals that the two adverbs work as argumentative indicator both at the structural and at the inferential level: besides pointing to the presence of premises-conclusion relations, they recurrently pattern with causal argument schemes from the effect to the cause. The Italian adverb evidentemente is less polysemous and more frequent, thus working as a more reliable indicator. (shrink)

Epistemic modal verbs and adverbs of necessity are claimed to be positive polarity items. We study their behavior by examining modal spread, a phenomenon that appears redundant or even anomalous, since it involves two apparent modal operators being interpreted as a single modality. We propose an analysis in which the modal adverb is an argument of the MUST modal, providing a meta-evaluation \ which ranks the Ideal, stereotypical worlds in the modal base as better possibilities than the Non-Ideal worlds (...) in it. MUST and possibility modals differ in that the latter have an empty \, a default that can be negotiated. Languages vary in the malleability of this parameter. Positive polarity is derived as a conflict between the ranking imposed by \—which requires that the Ideal worlds be better possibilities than Non-Ideal worlds—and the effect of higher negation which renders the Ideal set non-homogenous. Applying the ordering over such a non-homogeneous set would express preference towards both p and \ worlds thus rendering the sentence uninformative. Negative polarity MUST and possibility modals, on the other hand, contain an empty \, application of higher negation therefore poses no problem. This account is the first to connect modal spread to positive polarity of necessity modals, and captures the properties of both in a unified analysis. (shrink)

David Wiggins; XIV*—Verbs and Adverbs, and Some Other Modes of Grammatical Combination, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Volume 86, Issue 1, 1 June 1986.

Argumentative indicators of discourse relations constitute crucial cues for the mining of arguments. However, a comprehensive lexicon of these linguistic devices is so far lacking due to the scarcity of corpora argumentatively annotated and the absence of an empirically validated analytic methodology. Recent studies have shown that modals, that express that things might be otherwise, and evidentials, that point to the presence of information sources, are good candidates to work as argumentative indicators. On these grounds, we propose a systematic, non-language (...) specific corpus-based procedure to identify indicators of argumentative discourse relations. We test the design of a multi-level annotation through the analysis of the English and Italian epistential adverbs evidently and evidentemente in comparable corpora of newspaper articles. We show that the annotation guidelines achieve consistent analytical results with expert annotators. Data analysis reveals that the two adverbs work as argumentative indicator both at the structural and at the inferential level: besides pointing to the presence of premises-conclusion relations, they recurrently pattern with causal argument schemes from the effect to the cause. The Italian adverb evidentemente is less polysemous and more frequent, thus working as a more reliable indicator. (shrink)

Validity of dynamic temporal reasoning is semantically characterized for English and Dutch aspectual adverbs in Discourse Representation Theory. This dynamic perspective determines how the content needs to be revised and what information is preserved across updates, when the order of premises is considered relevant. Resetting contextual parameters relies on modelling the basic aspectual polarity transitions and temporal reasoning extensionally. For intensional aspectual adverbials the speaker’s attitudes regarding past alternatives to and possible continuations of the current state come into play. (...) Additional considerations are offered for generalizing this system to the full logical space for linguistic universals, lexicalized quite differently in Dutch and English. (shrink)

Introduction: The effect of promoting a physical reaction by the described action is called the action-sentence compatibility effect. It has been verified that physical motion changes depending on the time phase and grammatical expression. However, it is unclear how adverbs and onomatopoeia change motion simulations and subsequent movements.Methods: The subjects were 35 healthy adults. We prepared 20 sentences each, expressing actions related to hands and feet. These were converted into 80 sentences, with the words “Slow” or “Quick” added to (...) the words related to the speed of movement, and 80 sentences with the words “Fast” and onomatopoeia “Satto” added. Additionally, 20 unnatural sentences were prepared for each stimulus set as pseudo sentences. Choice reaction time was adopted; subjects pressed the button with their right hand only when the presented text was correctly understood. The reaction time and the number of errors were recorded and compared.Results: As a result of a two-way repeated ANOVA, an interaction effect was observed in RTs and NoE in set A. “Hand and Fast” had significantly faster RTs than “Hand and Slow” and “Foot and Fast.” Furthermore, “Hand and Fast” had a significantly higher NoE than others. In set B, the main effects were observed in both RTs and NoE. “Hand” and “Satto” had significantly faster RTs than “Foot” and “Quick,” respectively. Additionally, an interaction effect was observed in NoE, wherein “Foot and Satto” was significantly higher than “Hand and Satto” and “Foot and Quick.”Conclusion: In this study, the word “Fast” promoted hand response, reaffirming ACE. The onomatopoeia “Satto” was a word that conveys the speed of movement, but it was suggested that the degree of understanding may be influenced by the body part and the attributes of the subject. (shrink)

In this paper I investigate adverbial modication as an operation ap- plying an adverb or adverbial phrase to a predicate and thereby creating a new predicate. To this end I dene languages determined by a set P red of simple predicates, a system Mod of predicate modiers, and a class X of individual constants. If L is such a language, it employs the symbols that determine it and, in addition, the following symbols: ; f; \; 0 ; 8; individual variables; (...) and punctuation symbols. (shrink)

This paper proposes that a core semantic property of temporal locating adverbs is the ability to introduce a new time discourse referent. The core data comes from that same day in narrative discourse. I argue that unlike other previously studied temporal locating adverbs—which introduce a new time discourse referent and relate it to the speech time or a salient time introduced into the discourse context—that same day is ‘twice anaphoric’, i.e. it retrieves two salient times from the input (...) context without introducing one of its own. Moreover, I argue that the adverb currently is like that same day in not introducing a new time discourse referent. Unlike that same day, however, currently has both a deictic and an anaphoric usage analogous to on Sunday. The analysis that I propose is implemented within Compositional Discourse Representation Theory. It illustrates how adverbial meaning can be integrated within a more general theory of temporal interpretation. (shrink)

Generics and frequency statements are puzzling phenomena: they are lawlike, yet contingent. They may be true even in the absence of any supporting instances, and extending the size of their domain does not change their truth conditions. Generics and frequency statements are parametric on time, but not on possible worlds; they cannot be applied to temporary generalizations, and yet are contingent. These constructions require a regular distribution of events along the time axis. Truth judgments of generics vary considerably across speakers, (...) whereas truth judgments of frequency statements are much more uniform. A generic may be false even if the vast majority of individuals in its domain satisfy the predicated property, whereas a frequency statement using, e.g., usually would be true. This paper argues that all these seemingly unrelated puzzles have a single underlying cause: generics and frequency statements express probability judgments, and these, in turn, are interpreted as statements of hypothetical relative frequency. (shrink)

I might summarize this section by saying that the English tenses, according to this analysis, form quite a motley group. PAST, PRES and FUT serve to relate reference time to speech time, while WOULD and USED-TO behave like Priorian operators, shifting the point of evaluation away from the reference time. HAVE also shifts the point of evaluation away from the reference time, but in a more complicated way. And FUT, in contrast to PRES and PAST, is a substitution operator, putting (...) the reference time of its clause in the plate of the speech time of subordinate clauses. (shrink)

In our study, we plan to continue our analyses of the class of Romanian adverbs, which we have already carried out for a long time, by proposing to identify particular aspects relating to this part of discourse. Interest in Romanian is justified by the fact that this language has repeatedly proven to be very conservative compared to Latin, due to its isolation from the Romance continuum.Essentially, the study aims to qualify and point out certain little-known aspects linked to the (...) so-called Romanian adverbs-adjectives. To support our investigation, we utilize a corpus consisting of texts from the 16th century (Corpus CAR.XVI), which are widely valued in Romanian diachronic grammar and, recently, in Romance linguistics.The type of adverbs mentioned not only characterizes the Romanian language, as it is also sporadically attested to in the Romance languages and generally in some dialects of the Italo-Romance linguistic complex.The interpretation of the language facts will be made from several perspectives, including etymological, quantitative and functional ones, which ensures better understanding and, at the same time, facilitates an appropriate, complex and nearly complete analysis. (shrink)

In this paper, I endorse and discuss “desire temporalism”—the view that desire contents are temporal. Though it makes a claim limited to desire contents, it is considerably stronger than standard temporalism (at least, when it comes to desires), which is simply the view that there are temporal contents. Having introduced desire temporalism, I focus on a potential objection to it. The objection proceeds from the plausible observation that desire ascriptions with certain kinds of temporal adverbials can serve as counterexamples to (...) desire temporalism. This is so if temporal adverbials denote times which correspond to the time indications in the ascribed attitude content. I respond to this objection by arguing that these temporal adverbials do not play such a role—instead of corresponding to time indications in the desire content, we can see them as contributing to the circumstance of evaluation relative to which the content is assessed. This would allow desire temporalism to evade the objection. Looking for a way to implement this idea, I consider Brogaard’s (2012) composite tense operators as a promising avenue to explore, but opt instead for an approach to tense more popular in formal semantics, according to which tenses are temporal pronouns. In the final section of the paper, I show how this pronominal theory of tense can be pressed into service of just such a claim as advanced earlier, so we have a way of evading the challenge posed by these time-denoting temporal adverbials. (shrink)

This chapter discusses the style of ethical treatises in the three ethical books of Aristotle: the _Nicomachean Ethics_, the _Eudemian Ethics_, and the _Aristotelian Ethics_. It pays particular attention to the pronouns, adverbs, and prepositions in these treatises, since these provide abundant material for a statistical study of style.

This paper is about a topic in the semantics of interrogatives.1 In what follows a number of assumptions figure at the background which, though intuitively appealing, have not gone unchallenged, and it seems therefore only fair to draw the reader’s attention to them at the outset. The first assumption concerns a very global intuition about the kind of semantic objects that we associate with interrogatives. The intuition is that there is an intimate relationship between interrogatives and their answers: an interrogative (...) determines what counts as an answer.2 Given a certain, independently motivated, view on what constitutes the meaning of an answer, this intuition, in return, determines what constitutes the meaning of an interrogative. For example, starting from the observation that answers are true or false in situations, we may be led to the view that answers express propositions, i.e., objects which determine a truth value in a situation. Given that much, our basic intuition says that interrogatives are to be associated with objects which determine propositions. Such objects will be referred to as ‘questions’ in what follows. Notice that all this is largely framework independent: we have made no assumptions yet about what situations, propositions, and questions are, we have only related them in a certain systematic way. In fact we will use a more or less standard, but certainly not uncontroversial, specification in what follows: situations are identified with (total) possible worlds; propositions with sets of worlds; and questions with equivalence relations on the set of worlds. The second assumption that plays a role in what follows is of a more linguistic nature. Interrogatives typically occur in two ways: as independent expressions, and as complements of certain verbs. The assumption is that these two ways of occurring are systematically related, not just syntactically but also semantically.3 Notice that the exact nature of this relationship is underdeter.. (shrink)

This chapter analyzes the contribution of intensional adverbs such as ‘intentionally’ in action sentences of the form, _x A_-ed intentionally. The adverb is treated as attributing to the agent an intention-in-action, directed _de re_ at the agent’s primitive action, to bring about via that primitive action an event of the type expressed by the action verb, and as requiring that the agent have done what he did because of the successful execution of that intention. Thus, to say someone did (...) something intentionally is to say she did it as a result of successfully executing an intention-in-action directed _de re_ at that very action. (shrink)

The paper examines the semantic effects of modification in phrases combining verbs with so-called short adverbs in French, that is, adjectives (A) used as modifiers of the verb (V), as in aller direct ‘to go direct’ (VA structures). For this purpose, a sample of over 3200 attested examples has been analyzed. Far from being simple verb modifiers in the sense of “manner” modification, the qualitative analysis shows that short adverbs also refer to other features of the event, e.g. (...) participant, instrument, source, goal, result, circumstance, and the speaker’s attitude. These manifold modification scopes are then described by means of a newly created event-modification frame. The theoretical discussion of these results tackles the relationship between structure, construction, and baseline elaboration, constructions being conceived as cognitive developments of baseline VA structure. Baseline elaboration thus turns out to be a necessary complementary approach to construction grammar. However, neither construction nor baseline elaboration allows the full prediction of the meaning of a given VA structure since both ways of accessing meaning leave considerable space for inferential interpretation. The corpus also allows the quantification of the modified event features, that is, the frequency with which the slots of the frame are accessed by modification via VA structure. Quantification thereby provides the general modification profile of VA structures (as opposed to the individual modification profiling of a given VA structure in a single utterance). (shrink)

The present study aimed to investigate how native Japanese speakers learning Chinese choose preferred positions for temporal adverbs depending on their level of Chinese proficiency. A naturalness judgment task conducted on native Chinese speakers showed that the most natural position for Chinese temporal adverbs was before the subject and that placement after the locative prepositional phrase was incorrect. The same task applied to native Japanese speakers found the most natural position for Japanese temporal adverbs was also before (...) the subject. Further, when they appear at the beginning of a sentence, they provide the time for the entire sentence. Accordingly, temporal topicalization appears to influence naturalness decisions by both native Chinese and Japanese speakers. A point of difference was that in Japanese, a temporal adverb placed after a locative prepositional phrase was judged to be acceptable. When the same task was given to native Japanese speakers learning Chinese divided into three Chinese proficiency level groups, placement before the subject was the most preferred by the higher Chinese proficiency group. In addition, placement after the locative prepositional phrase was unfavored by them while the same position was frequently selected by the lower level group. As Chinese proficiency increases it appears that the preferred temporal adverb position is before the subject and the placement after the locative prepositional is judged to be unnatural. Thus, a sense of suitable temporal adverb positions in Chinese is influenced by the level of Chinese proficiency of native Japanese speakers. (shrink)