Synopses & Reviews
The papers in this volume address two main topics: Q1: What is the nature, and especially the scope, of ellipsis in natural language? Q2: What are the linguistic/philosophical implications of what one takes the nature/scope of ellipsis to be? Each of these main topics includes a large sub-part that deals specifically with nonsentential speech. Within the first main topic, Q1, there arises the sub-issue of whether nonsentential speech falls within the scope of ellipsis or not; within the second main topic, Q2, there arises the sub-issue of what linguistic/philosophical implications follow, if nonsentential speech does/does not count as ellipsis. This book is unique in that it offers the reader; Papers on the boundary between philosophy and linguistics, Applications of advanced work in theoretical linguistics to traditional philosophical questions, It is the only volume of papers ever published on sub-sentential speech, Major contribution to our understanding of ellipsis in natural language, presently a central topic in syntactic theory. This book is of interest to professionals and advanced graduate students in the fields of philosophy of language, semantics, and syntax.
Table of Contents
I: The Nature and Scope of Ellipsis. A: How Many Varieties? Against Reconstruction in Ellipsis; M. Dalrymple. The Semantics of Nominal Exclamatives; P. Portner, R. Zanuttini. B: Ellipsis and Nonsentential Speech: The Genuineness Issue. Nonsententials in Minimalism; E. Barton, L. Progovac. A Note on Alleged Cases of Nonsentential Assertion; P. Ludlow. On the Interpretation and Performance of Nonsentential Assertions; L. Clapp. Nonsentences, Implicature, and Success in Communication; T. Kenyon. The link between sentences and 'assertion': An Evolutionary Accident? A. Carstairs-McCarthy. II: Implications. Knowledge by Acquaintance and Meaning in Isolation; A. Botterell. Co-extensive Theories and Unembedded Definite Descriptions; A. Barber. The Ellipsis Account of Fiction-Talk; M. Reimer. Quinean Interpretation and Anti-Vernacularism; S. Davis. Saying What You Mean: Unarticulated Constituents and Communications; E. Borg.