Caterina Mauri

Building and Interpreting Ad Hoc Categories: A Linguistic Analysis

The aim of this paper is to examine in a systematic way the linguistic expression of a particular type of categorization process, namely the construction of ad hoc categories. Based on a 60 language-sample and corpus data from English and Italian, it will be shown that the strategies used to refer to ad hoc categories are mobilized from a variety of different grammatical areas, ranging from connectives to special plural forms and derivational affixes. We will first provide a detailed semantic analysis of the constructions under exam, and then move to the examination of the morphosyntactic and functional patterns of variation attested in our data. Though highly differentiated, the pool of strategies employed to make reference to ad hoc categories shows systematic correlations between specific morphosyntactic features, different degrees of context dependency and different types of abstraction processes (e.g., leading to the construction of a set, a frame or a class). We will conclude with a preliminary analysis of how ad hoc categories are built and used in discourse. Corpus data will lead us to propose a shift of attention from ad hoc categories themselves to on line categorization, namely the process through which categories are abstracted from specific exemplars in context, regardless of their common or ad hoc nature.

The development of adversative connectives in Italian: Stages and factors at play

Abstract In this paper we propose a multiple-stage model for the development of interclausal adversative connectives, based on the qualitative and quantitative examination of the three Italian connectives però, tuttavia and mentre. The main purpose of this study is the identification of the respective roles played by frequency, syntax, and context in the development of the adversative function. In the analysis of each of the three diachronic paths at issue, we keep the semantic parameters separate from the syntactic ones, monitoring both the semantic (in)compatibility of each occurrence with the source and the target meaning, identifying three macro-types of contexts (incompatible with the target meaning, compatible with both the source and the target meaning, incompatible with the source meaning), and outlining the syntactic features characterizing each context type through the centuries. Our data show that, despite the differences, the three paths show a number of recurrent properties, which underline the central function of frequency in triggering and spreading the change and the importance of constructions as the units that speakers process, elaborate and innovate. Finally, based on the relative frequency of context types over time, we propose a four-stage model that describes the successive steps of development of the adversative function.

Gradualness and pace in grammaticalization: The case of adversative connectives

In this article we illustrate some cases of parallel diachronic changes in the domain of interclausal adversative connectives, in which Romance languages develop roughly the same function from the same Latin lexical source through similar paths, but at different time rates. This study supports the idea that regularities in semantic change can be effectively captured if a model in stages is adopted, which allows to observe micro-changes correlated to different types of context and to different frequencies of occurrence of the items at issue. In the cases under exam, French seems to follow a faster pace, being ahead of other Romance languages, and at the same time it shows a tendency toward innovation. In the search for explanations for the different behaviors of French, Italian and Spanish, we discuss some hypotheses, calling into question the role of external factors possibly involved in the development of adversative connectives.

Why use or

Abstract Or constructions introduce a set of alternatives into the discourse. But alternativity does not exhaust speakers’ intended messages. Speakers use the profiled or alternatives as a starting point for expressing a variety of readings. Ever since (Grice, H. Paul. 1989. Studies in the way of words. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press) and (Horn. 1972. On the semantic properties of the logical operators in English. Los Angeles, CA: University of California Los Angeles dissertation), the standard approach has assumed that or has an inclusive lexical meaning and a predominantly exclusive use, thus focusing on two readings. While another, “free choice”, reading has been added to the repertoire, accounting for the exclusive reading remains a goal all or theorists must meet. We here propose that both “inclusive” and “exclusive” interpretations, as currently defined, do not capture speakers’ intended readings, which we equate with the relevance-theoretic explicature. Adopting a usage-based approach to language, we examined all the or occurrences in the Santa Barbara Corpus of spoken American English (1053 tokens), and found that speakers use or utterances for a far richer variety of readings than has been recognized. In line with Cognitive Linguistics, we propose that speakers’ communicated intentions are better analyzed in terms of subjective construals, rather than the objective conditions obtaining when the or proposition is true. We argue that in two of these readings speakers are not necessarily committed to even one of the alternatives being the case. In the most frequent reading, the overt disjuncts only serve as pointers to a higher-level concept, and it is that concept that the speaker intends to refer to.

Linguistic strategies for ad hoc categorization: theoretical assessment and cross-linguistic variation

Abstract Ad hoc categorization is the bottom-up abstraction of a category starting from concrete exemplars of the category itself. When we observe linguistic data, we find various phenomena that provide evidence for the ubiquity of such an on-line, goal-driven and context-dependent categorization in everyday communication. Beyond offering concept labels in the form of words, language indeed provides speakers with a great number of strategies to convey reference to a class by naming representative individuals. After providing a semantic and pragmatic account of ad hoc categorization in terms of indexicality, we will survey ad hoc categorization strategies in discourse and across languages: they can be syntactic (lists, general extenders, exemplifying constructions), morphological (heterogeneous plurals, collectives, aggregates, compounds), or in-between (reduplication). We will argue that all these strategies show a similar abstract structure consisting in a categorization trigger, that is, some prosodic, morphological or syntactic element triggering the abstractive inferential process towards the category identification, plus a linguistic expression referring to some overt category member, which is processed as the starting point for abstraction. The diachronic connections between these strategies and the pathways leading to their emergence and conventionalization also speak in favor of their unified treatment.

Mappe semantiche tra sincronia e diacronia: l’evoluzione delle strategie congiuntive e avversative nelle lingue slave

This paper takes a twofold perspective in examining the semantics of the conjunctive and adversative markers attested in the Slavic languages. First, it gives a unified picture of the synchronic variation by means of semantic maps, that highlight the regularity underlying the attested polysemy patterns. Then, it goes back to data from Old Church Slavonic, trying to outline the diachronic processes that led to the actual semantics of the attested markers. The identified semantic changes are not random, but appear to develop along the conceptual space identified on a synchronic basis. Finally, the theoretical implications of the correspondence between synchronic and diachronic data are discussed.