Lambda-abstrakce a neurčitá zájmena v úzkém a širokém ohnisku

• Authors: Simik Radek

Title variants

EN

LAMBDA-ABSTRACTION AND INDEFINITE PRONOUNS IN NARROW AND BROAD FOCUS

• Languages of publication: CS

Abstracts

EN

Czech indefinite pronouns like 'nekdo' (someone) (unlike indefinite nouns like 'penize' (money)) cannot be pronounced in their base (postverbal) position unless they are interpreted as narrowly focused. Broad focus (focus on the whole verb phrase) is only facilitated with indefinite pronouns in a derived (preverbal) position. The analysis in this paper makes use of the fact that Czech indefinite pronouns are morphologically related to wh-words. It is argued that wh-words in Czech denote lambda-operators, which are viewed as functions from truth values to predicates. It follows that wh-words (and indefinite pronouns) must be interpreted in the sister-node of an expression denoting a truth value and therefore can never be interpreted in their base position. Finally, it is suggested how the analysis could be used to account for the behavior of the indefinite pronoun 'kdokoliv' (anyone), which is (under certain conditions) interpreted as a free choice item in a narrow focus (postverbal) position and as a negative polarity item in a broad focus (preverbal) position.

Keywords

EN

FREE CHOICE AND NEGATIVE POLARITY PHENOMENON; INDEFINITE PRONOUNS; LAMBDA-ABSTRACTION; NARROW AND BROAD FOCUS; TYPE-THEORY; WH-WORDS

Discipline

• PHILOLOGY_&_LINGUISTICS: PHILOLOGY & LINGUISTICS

• Publisher: Institute of the Czech Language, Czech Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Slovo a slovesnost: časopis pro otázky teorie a kultury jazyka (Slovo a slovesnost: A journal for the theory of language and language cultivation)
• Year: 2009
• Volume: 70
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 342-353
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Simik Radek

• Radek Simik, University of Groningen, CLCG, Postbus 716, Groningen, 9700 AS, Netherlands; http://dlib.lib.cas.cz/4668/

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

09CZAAAA067817