40 Jahre Partikelforschung/40 Years of Particle Research Bern, 11.-13. Februar 2009 Abstract |
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Hardarik Blühdorn (Mannheim): A Semantic Typology of Sentence Connectives Sentence connectives are conjunctions, adverbs or adverbial particles which share the function of encoding semantic relations between „sentences“ (i.e., speech acts, some of which assert propositions, which describe states of affairs, some of which envolve physical objects as participants). The relata linked by any semantic relation will fall into one of four distinct categories, defining four conceptual domains: physical objects (domain of space), states of affairs (domain of time), propositions (epistemic domain), or (speech) acts (deontic-illocutionary domain). The encodable relations can be divided into four general types: similarity relations, situating relations, conditional relations, and causal relations. Relation types and conceptual domains structure the universe of semantic relations between „sentences“. Connectives differ as to the interpretations they permit in terms of relation type and category of relata. Some connectives, such as German seitdem (‚since’), are specialized on relations of one certain type (in this case: situating relations) and relata of one certain category (in this case: states of affairs). Others, such as German weil (‚because’) or trotzdem (‚nevertheless’), are specialized on relations of a certain type (in this case: causal relations), but are underspecified with respect to the category of the relata (in this case: allow readings in which their relata are states of affairs or propositions or even speech acts). A third group, such as German sobald (‚as soon as’), are specialized on relata of a certain category (in this case: states of affairs), but are underspecified with respect to the type of relation (in this case: allow situating, conditional and causal readings). Connectives of a fourth group, exemplified by German da (‚then’, ‚as’), are underspecified both for the type of relation and the category of relata. They allow situating, conditional and causal readings, and their relata can be of any category. An even higher degree of underspecification is found in connectives like und (‚and’) and oder (‚or’). The connectives of a language can be divided into semantic classes according to the restrictions they impose on interpretation with respect to the types of relations and the categories of the connected relata. The connectives of German will be taken as an example for illustration. References Blühdorn, Hardarik (to be published): „On the syntax and semantics of sentence connectives“. To be published in: Linguistik online 2009 [Draft available under: http://www.ids-mannheim.de/gra/texte/blu_connectives.pdf]. Posner, Roland (1980): „Semantics and pragmatics of sentence connectives in natural language“. In: Searle, John R., Ferenc Kiefer & Manfred Bierwisch (eds.). Speech Act Theory and Pragmatics. Dordrecht, Reidel: 169–203. Sweetser, Eve (1990): From etymology to pragmatics. Metaphorical and cultural aspects of semantic structure. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. |
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