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Question Embedding and the Semantics of Answers.

紀錄類型:	書目-語言資料,印刷品 : Monograph/item
書名/作者:	Question Embedding and the Semantics of Answers.
作者:	George, Benjamin Ross.
面頁冊數:	315 p.
附註:	Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 73-05, Section: A, page: 1765.
Contained By:	Dissertation Abstracts International73-05A.
標題:	Language, Linguistics.
ISBN:	9781267145055
摘要、提要註:	This dissertation is concerned with the semantics of questions and question embedding. Its investigative strategy is to set out the simplest theory (or, rather, the simplest one that I could think of) that accounts for what I take to be the core facts in the semantics of embedded 'wh'-questions, and then to prod at this theory, and subject it to various stresses, in order to see where it breaks, and where it doesn't break, and especially how it breaks.
電子資源:	http://pqdd.sinica.edu.tw/twdaoapp/servlet/advanced?query=3493397

Question Embedding and the Semantics of Answers.
George, Benjamin Ross.

Question Embedding and the Semantics of Answers. - 315 p.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 73-05, Section: A, page: 1765.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of California, Los Angeles, 2011.

This dissertation is concerned with the semantics of questions and question embedding. Its investigative strategy is to set out the simplest theory (or, rather, the simplest one that I could think of) that accounts for what I take to be the core facts in the semantics of embedded 'wh'-questions, and then to prod at this theory, and subject it to various stresses, in order to see where it breaks, and where it doesn't break, and especially how it breaks.

ISBN: 9781267145055Subjects--Topical Terms:

423211
Language, Linguistics.

Question Embedding and the Semantics of Answers.
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245 1 0 $a Question Embedding and the Semantics of Answers.
300 $a 315 p.
500 $a Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 73-05, Section: A, page: 1765.
500 $a Adviser: Jessica Rett.
502 $a Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of California, Los Angeles, 2011.
520 $a This dissertation is concerned with the semantics of questions and question embedding. Its investigative strategy is to set out the simplest theory (or, rather, the simplest one that I could think of) that accounts for what I take to be the core facts in the semantics of embedded 'wh'-questions, and then to prod at this theory, and subject it to various stresses, in order to see where it breaks, and where it doesn't break, and especially how it breaks.
520 $a The theory that I take as a point of departure is presented in Chapter 2. In its formal details, it combines ideas found in a number of familiar theories. Its implementation of strong exhaustivity and its treatment of ' wh'-phrases as lambda-abstraction operators are heavily influenced by Groenendijk and Stokhof (1984) (and, as in Groenendijk and Stokhof (1984), this latter point reflects a hope that the semantics of relative clauses and of 'wh'-questions can be situated in a general theory of 'wh'-clauses). From Hamblin (1973), it takes its approach to mention-some answers, and also the idea that the semantic contribution of a 'wh'-question is a set of possible answers for that question, the idea that this answer set is formed by existential quantification over possible values to 'fill in' for the 'wh'-phrases, and the idea that the answer set should include both true and untrue answers. Its treatment of embedding is based in spirit, bur not in its technical details, on the approach to strong exhaustivity with non-veridical embedders in Egre and Spector (2007). In this baseline theory, the semantic contribution of a 'wh'-question is taken to always be a set of possible answers, but questions are ambiguous between a mention-some reading (on which they contribute the set of all propositions identifying a value (or values) that could stand in for the 'wh'-phrase(s)) and a strongly exhaustive reading (on which they contribute the set of all propositions identifying exactly which values could stand in for the 'wh '-phrase(s)). On this account, when a question is embedded under a propositional attitude like 'know', the resulting sentence is true iff there exists an answer of which the attitude is true.
520 $a After developing this baseline theory, I begin to explore possible problems for it. In Chapter 3, I argue that, if domain restrictions and related effects are taken seriously, the baseline theory can handle some well-known data that have historically been used to argue for kinds of answers beyond mention-some and strongly exhaustive answers. I also review some smaller complications that appear to require modest revisions.
520 $a In Chapter 4, I turn to a basic problem with my account of embedding, and for virtually all available accounts of embedding under 'know ' and similar embedders. I argue that contrary to standard assumptions, the truth-conditions of sentences embedding questions under 'know ' cannot be expressed solely in terms of which propositions the subject knows, and that the same issue arises for 'forget', and perhaps for other embedders as well. I then sketch a revised semantics for these kinds of predicates that offers a richer, but still constrained, picture of their embedding semantics.
520 $a The remaining chapters are devoted to various loose ends and unresolved issues. In Chapter 5, I briefly explore the applications of the baseline theory to other kinds of embedded questions. I conclude that it should be relatively easy to accommodate 'yes'/ 'no' questions and (at least) simple concealed questions within the system, but that alternative questions will require some additional work. In Chapter 6 I revisit the issue of mention-some readings, and explore the strengths and weaknesses of various ways of explaining these readings away or limiting their availability. I conclude the dissertation in Chapter 7 by taking stock of the main results of previous chapters and briefly surveying some of the major issues not addressed in the preceding chapters.
590 $a School code: 0031.
650 4 $a Language, Linguistics. $3 423211
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710 2 $a University of California, Los Angeles. $3 423131
773 0 $t Dissertation Abstracts International $g 73-05A.
790 1 0 $a Rett, Jessica, $e advisor
790 $a 0031
791 $a Ph.D.
792 $a 2011
856 4 0 $u http://pqdd.sinica.edu.tw/twdaoapp/servlet/advanced?query=3493397