Henriëtte de Swart

Aspect Shift and Coercion

This paper develops an analysis of aspect shift and applies it to French and English. The Progressive, the Perfect/Parfait, and duration adverbials introduced by in or for are interpreted as aspectual operators which modify eventuality descriptions. The French past tenses are sensitive to aspect, but they do not change the aspectual class of the eventuality description themselves. Instead, they presuppose that the eventuality description they operate on is of the right aspectual type: the Passee Simple and Imparfait are tense operators which locate respectively events and states in the past. Free aspectual transitions may be triggered by coercion in order to satisfy the aspectual requirements on aspectual and temporal operators. The analysis is formulated within the framework of Discourse Representation Theory (DRT).This paper develops an analysis of aspect shift and applies it to French and English. The Progressive, the Perfect/Parfait, and duration adverbials introduced by in or for are interpreted as aspectual operators which modify eventuality descriptions. The French past tenses are sensitive to aspect, but they do not change the aspectual class of the eventuality description themselves. Instead, they presuppose that the eventuality description they operate on is of the right aspectual type: the Passeé Simple and Imparfait are tense operators which locate respectively events and states in the past. Free aspectual transitions may be triggered by coercion in order to satisfy the aspectual requirements on aspectual and temporal operators. The analysis is formulated within the framework of Discourse Representation Theory (DRT).

Negation and negative concord in Romance

This paper addresses the two interpretations that a combination ofnegative indefinites can get in concord languages like French:a concord reading, which amounts to a single negation, and a doublenegation reading. We develop an analysis within a polyadic framework,where a sequence of negative indefinites can be interpreted as aniteration of quantifiers or via resumption. The first option leadsto a scopal relation, interpreted as double negation. The secondoption leads to the construction of a polyadic negative quantifiercorresponding to the concord reading. Given that sentential negationparticipates in negative concord, we develop an extension of thepolyadic approach which can deal with non-variable binding operators,treating the contribution of negation in a concord context assemantically empty. Our semantic analysis, incorporated into agrammatical analysis formulated in HPSG, crucially relies on theassumption that quantifiers can be combined in more than one wayupon retrieval from the quantifier store. We also considercross-linguistic variation regarding the participation ofsentential negation in negative concord.

Licensing of negative polarity items under inverse scope

Negative polarity items are licensed ‘in the scope’ of their trigger. In this article, I take a closer look at the relevant notion of scope, which is shown to involve syntactic, semantic and pragmatic considerations. In general, a position in the c-command domain of its trigger at S-structure is sufficient for an NPI to be licensed. If the NPI precedes its trigger, the sentence is felicitous only if the NPI can be interpreted in the semantic scope of its trigger. The possibility of an inverse scope reading of negation is subject to a pragmatic constraint, which requires the sentence to convey positive information. The incapability of bare NPIs involving any in English or ook maar in Dutch to satisfy this constraint explains why they cannot precede their trigger. Embedded NPIs and the NPI hoeven ‘need to’ in Dutch can satisfy the pragmatic constraint on inverse scope, and are therefore licensed outside of the c-command domain of the trigger.

Scope Ambiguities with Negative Quantifiers

Jacobs (1980,1991) and Rullmann (1995) claim that lexical decomposition of the German determiner kein ‘no’ and its Dutch counterpart geen ‘no’ is necessary to account for readings in which a scope-bearing operator such as an intensional verb or a universal quantifier intervenes between the negation and the existential quantifier part of the determiner. In this paper, I argue that lexical decomposition is not only undesirable, but empirically incorrect. As an alternative, I develop a higher-order interpretation of negative quantifiers in terms of quantification over properties. The analysis is built on the observation that split readings are restricted to monotone decreasing NPs in predicative positions.

Negation and the Temporal Structure of Narrative Discourse

This paper develops an analysis of the temporal role of negative sentences in narrative discourse in Etigfati and French. The analysis focuses on differences in the aspectual systems of English and French, and their consequences for the interpretation of negation and quantification. A recursive rule for the introduction of discourse referents characterizes both quantificational and negated sequences as complex states. The notion of coercion explains why states (including complex states) can behave as events at the level of narrative discourse. The analysis is implemented in the framework of Discourse Representation Theory (DKI) developed by Kamp & Reyle (1993).

Meaning and Use of not…until

Time adverbials introduced by until impose restrictions on the aspectual class of the main clause they combine with: they only combine with durative sentences. In negative sentences, the situation is more complex. The question arises whether negative sentences are durative, or whether there is a separate use of until as a negative polarity item. In this paper, I discuss the three treatments of not ... until that are characterized in the literature as the scope analysis, the ambiguity thesis and the lexical composition approach. I work out the interpretation of the three approaches in an event-based semantics, and argue that they are truth-conditionally equivalent in sentences containing an explicit negation. Furthermore, they generate the same pragmatic implicatures. A separate negative polarity use of until is motivated by sentences containing NPI-licensers different from explicit negation, though. The observation that the scope analysis, the ambiguity thesis and the lexical composition approach are semantically and pragmatically equivalent in sentences containing an explicit negation helps us describe the similarities and differences between the expression of exclusion of a range of values on the time axis in a variety of languages

Weak readings of indefinites : type-shifting and closure

The starting point of our investigation is the assumption that weak indefinite NPs have a well-formed denotation of type he; ti. This paper explores the consequences of this flexible type-theoretic approach at the compositional level. Some expressions (e.g., predicativebe) select for arguments of type h ; ti. The combination of predicative NPs with stage-level predicates and other expressions which do not necessarily select for arguments of type he; ti creates a type mismatch which can be solved by defining modes of composition other than function application. These closure operations are argued to be lexicalized in light verbs like haveand intensional verbs likeseek. They are grammaticalized in the existential hereconstruction.

Language learning experience in school context and metacognitive awareness of multilingual children

Abstract What is the influence of a language learning experience (LLE) in a school context on the metacognitive development of children? To answer that question, we presented 54 multilingual preschoolers with two movie clips and examined their reactions to an exolingual situation of communication. These preschoolers were aged four and a half to six and a half. We observed how they treated the reception of information during situations of communication in which they did not share the same language as their interlocutor. We hypothesised that children with a LLE in a formal context would outperform children without that specific experience (nLLE) with respect to their communicative abilities in this test paradigm. Furthermore, we hypothesised that the differences observed might be due to the fact that LLE children would be more aware of contextual cues than nLLE children. As a result, the LLE children might be more inclined to answer the actor and less inclined to give up the exchange. Our results confirm that a formal learning context (LLE) significantly improves metacognitive awareness and that this is a relevant factor in facilitating the treatment of communicative interactions.

Influence of the context of learning a language on the strategic competence of children

The present study was set up to evaluate the extent to which the context in which a foreign language is learned can influence the strategic competence of children. To assess this we conducted a series of think aloud protocols with 101 children. We compared children who have learned an additional language in a formal context (abbreviated LLE, i.e. Language Learning Experience) to those who have acquired two languages in a non-formal context and before the age of 4 (i.e. ‘simultaneous bilingual’ children, abbreviated nLLE, i.e. without a Language Learning Experience). The primary outcome measure consisted of the children’s reactions to situations of communication where they could not understand the language. We hypothesized that LLE children would outperform nLLE children in their awareness of and willingness to use communicative strategies. We found that LLE children accessed more strategies and diversified their strategies more often. These findings are in line with our previous findings and indicate that LLE is a highly relevant factor when studying the strategic competence of children.

Emergence of patterns of strategic competence in young plurilingual children involved in French international schools

Abstract In a previous study, we demonstrated that the experience of learning a new language positively influences the metacognitive awareness of young plurilingual children in terms of willingness to communicate and strategic competence. In the present study, we expanded the analyses of the observations of 101 children to examine two hypotheses. First, we hypothesized that the strategies reported by the children would group into a limited number of strategic clusters. Second, we predicted that the childrens awareness of strategies would depend not only on the experience of learning a new language but also on age. The factor analysis of the strategies used indicated three clusters, which we termed Speaker, Hearer, and External orientations. The analyses showed a significant effect of learning a new language in a formal context and after the age of four years, abbreviated LLE, that is Language Learning Experience, on the Speaker orientation. In addition, age showed a linear effect on the three identified clusters of strategies. These findings are highly relevant as they may help to shed light into why young plurilingual learners use strategies differently.