Comments for Semantics etc.

Comment on Does Japanese Have a Word for “Water”? by flasherfffff

flasherfffff — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 09:43:52 +0000

the same in ancient Chinese.
In ancient Chinese,hot water is ‘tang’,and the word ’shui’ which means water in modern Chinese is for river.

Comment on S&P Open for Submissions! by flasherfffff

flasherfffff — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 09:11:37 +0000

what about articles written in Chinese?

Comment on i-within-i? by heacu

heacu — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 15:07:46 +0000

The de re reading may be plausible, but nonetheless it doesn’t seem right. What is bizarre is being an unknown author of your most famous work (completely de dicto), not just being an unknown author of x (completely de re), or being the unknown author of x’s most famous work (de re pronoun, de dicto description).

Yet, I do think it’s correct of ccshan to say that the his of “his most famous work” is anaphoric to the earlier mention of Charles Webb, and not to “unknown author”. Note that if there is no prior antecedent, then the phrase doesn’t work:

??The unknown author of his most famous work was at the party yesterday.

Agreeing with ccshan, I would say that the problem here is that there is no antecedent for “his”.

What about the following alternative?

…bizarre fate of being [x=his most famous work, (unknown author of x)]

This way, “his most famous work” is still in the scope of bizarre. But, it’s not in the scope of unknown. Is that a problem?

Comment on i-within-i? by ccshan

ccshan — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 02:07:48 +0000

The pronoun “his” in “the unknown author of his most famous work” could be bound by either the preceding proper name “Charles Webb” or the noun “(unknown) author”. The former binding isn’t really i-within-i, whereas the latter binding is. The two readings are different, thanks to the intensionality of “bizarre fate”: is it bizarre for someone_i to be the unknown author of Charles Webb’s most famous work (de re), or is it bizarre for someone_i to be the unknown author of his_i most famous work (de dicto)? Given that the de-re reading is plausible, this particular sentence doesn’t really provide evidence that i-within-i can be ok.

Comment on SALT 18 Program by potts

potts — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 21:22:21 +0000

iPhone users should get a shiny SALT 18 Home screen icon for the program. The graphic was designed by Jan Anderssen. iPhone adds the cool sheen.

We’ll be adding links to the abstracts on Monday. We’re just giving the authors a few days to revise them (if they wish) in light of their reviewers’ comments.

Comment on Pragmaticalist? Pragmateur? by JohnAndres

JohnAndres — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 07:02:06 +0000

Pragmaticist was my obvious choice. However, syntactician has been cited. AND, I’ll add:

phonetician

Comment on Does Japanese Have a Word for “Water”? by fintel

fintel — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 11:02:57 +0000

“mizu” and “yu” are said by different people but the second speaker answers positively to the yes/no-question of the first speaker. So, the second speaker is in effect demonstrating that “mizu” covers both cold and hot water. If “mizu” meant “cold water”, the second speaker should have answered “No, there’s only yu”.
Your proposed test is interesting as well, but the test I report here is just as much a real test as yours.

Comment on Does Japanese Have a Word for “Water”? by Zuoan

Zuoan — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 06:24:00 +0000

This is a nice counter-example but ‘mizu’ and ‘yu’ are said by different people. Perhaps the real test is if the same speaker can use both words in the same utterance. Can someone say something like this in Japanese “I want some mizu. Yu or cold mizu is fine”?

Comment on Ch-ch-changes, again by Tony Marmo

Tony Marmo — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 12:01:46 +0000

It is a very good idea, and count on me for any help you want. I know you have a team of more than qualified co-workers, but in case you need any extra hand for anything, here am I.

Comment on A New Journal Announced by Tony Marmo

Tony Marmo — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 07:07:53 +0000

An excellent idea. But who will be the members of the editorial board?