Michael Yoshitaka Erlewine

Elements of Formal Semantics: An Introduction to the Mathematical Theory of Meaning in Natural Language

Yoad Winter’s Elements of Formal Semantics is a lucid, well-organized, rather concise, and opinionated introductory textbook of formal natural language semantics. “Formal semantics” here refers to the study of sentence meaning and its tight connection to sentence structure, described with precision using mathematical methods. Elements introduces the central questions, concerns, and techniques of formal semantics, motivated by discussion of successively more complex phenomena in English. The end result presented is a particular flavor of categorial or type-logical grammar.

Covert Pied-Piping in English Multiple Wh-Questions

In this article, we argue for the existence of covert pied-piping in wh-questions through a previously unnoticed pattern of intervention effects in Superiority-obeying English multiple wh-questions. We show that the preference of covert pied-piping, unlike that of overt pied-piping, is for movement of larger constituents. We argue that this discrepancy stems from conflicting requirements of PF and LF: overt pied-piping feeds both LF and PF, but covert pied-piping feeds LF only. The study of covert pied-piping thus reveals the true preference of LF and narrow syntax with regard to pied-piping: larger pied-piping constituents are preferred over smaller ones. This preference can be overridden by certain PF constraints that apply to overt pied-piping.

Focus association by movement: Evidence from Tanglewood

We argue for the existence of covert focus movement in English focus association with only. Our evidence comes from Tanglewood configurations of the form in Kratzer 1991. We show that Tanglewood configurations are sensitive to syntactic islands, contrary to Kratzer’s claims and predictions. We propose that Tanglewood configurations always involve covert movement of the focused constituent—possibly with covert pied-piping—to bind a bound variable in the ellipsis site. This availability of covert pied-piping explains examples such as Kratzer’s where the Tanglewood construction appears to be island-insensitive. We show that covert focus movement is long-distance and not simply Quantifier Raising. Kratzer’s proposal that ellipsis enforces the identity of focus indices and several other previous approaches are shown to overgenerate Tanglewood readings.

Elements of Formal Semantics: An Introduction to the Mathematical Theory of Meaning in Natural LanguageYoad Winter (Utrecht University)Edinburgh, Scotland: Edinburgh University Press (Edinburgh Advanced Textbooks in Linguistics series, edited by Peter Ackema and Mitsuhiko Ota), 2016, xi+258 pp; paperback, ISBN 9780748640430, £24.99

Yoad Winter’s Elements of Formal Semantics is a lucid, well-organized, rather concise, and opinionated introductory textbook of formal natural language semantics. “Formal semantics” here refers to the study of sentence meaning and its tight connection to sentence structure, described with precision using mathematical methods. Elements introduces the central questions, concerns, and techniques of formal semantics, motivated by discussion of successively more complex phenomena in English. The end result presented is a particular flavor of categorial or type-logical grammar.

Book review: edinburgh, scotland: edinburgh university press edinburgh advanced textbooks in linguistics series, edited by peter ackema and mitsuhiko ota, 2016, xi+258 pp; paperback, isbn 9780748640430, ź24.99

Yoad Winter’s Elements of Formal Semantics is a lucid, well-organized, rather concise, and opinionated introductory textbook of formal natural language semantics. “Formal semantics” here refers to the study of sentence meaning and its tight connection to sentence structure, described with precision using mathematical methods. Elements introduces the central questions, concerns, and techniques of formal semantics, motivated by discussion of successively more complex phenomena in English. The end result presented is a particular flavor of categorial or type-logical grammar.