Subsective modifier
Inlinguistics,asubsective modifieris an expression whichmodifiesanother by delivering asubsetof itsdenotation.For instance, the Englishadjective"skilled" is subsective since being a skilled surgeon entails being a surgeon. By contrast, the English adjective "alleged" is non-subsective since an "alleged spy" need not be an actual spy.[1][2][3]
![{\displaystyle [\![{\text{skilled surgeon}}]\!]\subseteq [\![{\text{surgeon}}]\!]}](https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/media/math/render/svg/ec6ee78a045dfd7016abde5f02956b07a865ef01)
A modifier can be subsective without beingintersective.For instance, calling someone an "old friend"entailsthat they are a friend but does not entail that they are elderly. The term "subsective" is most often applied to modifiers which are notintersectiveand non-intersectivity is sometimes treated as part of its definition.[1]
There is no standard analysis for thesemanticsof (non-intersective) subsective modifiers. Early work such asMontague(1970) took subsective adjectives as evidence that adjectives do not denote properties which compose intersectively but rather functions which take and return a property which may or may not make an intersective semantic contribution.[1][4][5]However, subsequent work has shown that variants of the property-based analysis can in fact account for the data. For instance,vaguepredicates often pass standard tests for nonintersectivity, e.g. "Neutrons arebigsubatomic particles "doesn't entail that neutrons are actually big but have in fact be analyzed as intersective using degree semantics. Current work tends to assume that the phenomenon of subsectivity is not anatural class.[6][2]
Adverbial readings
[edit]Subsectivity can arise when an adjective receives an adverbial reading. For instance, the subsective modifiers in the examples below do not express intrinsic qualities of the subject but rather the manner in which the subject typically performs a particular action. (Without the parenthetical, these examples would be ambiguous between an adverbial reading and a garden variety intersective reading.)[7][8][9][3][10]
- Oleg is abeautifuldancer (even though he himself is ugly).
- Vanessa is ameticulousexperimentalist (even though she's a slob).
- Shaggy is afierceadvocate of gluttony (even though he's a coward).
Examples of this sort have been analyzed within aDavidsoniansemantics as modifying an event variable introduced by the noun. In this analysis, an agentive noun such as "dancer" is formed by applying agenericquantifiergento apredicate)which is true of dancing events. The quantifiergenprovides ahabitual-like meaning, taking a predicate of events and returning a predicate) which is true of an individual if they are theagentof the typical such event.[7]
- gen
![{\displaystyle [\![{\text{dance}}]\!]=\{e\,|\,e{\text{ is a dancing event }}\}}](https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/media/math/render/svg/7d72dd00000b7280eda5a1433fc410b74c67442c)
![{\displaystyle \!{\text{ dance}}]\!]=\{x\,|\,x{\text{ is the agent of all contextually relevant dancing events }}\}}](https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/media/math/render/svg/f5228b6739dc0c262bde8e0eee5f3afd8fddeced)
In this analysis, adjectives such as "beautiful", "meticulous", and "fierce" can denote properties either of events or of individuals.
![{\displaystyle [\![{\text{beautiful}}_{1}]\!]=\{e\,|\,e{\text{ is beautiful }}\}}](https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/media/math/render/svg/836c73e86ebefc8fd191d8a5618d4b401adbf476)
![{\displaystyle [\![{\text{beautiful}}_{2}]\!]=\{x\,|\,x{\text{ is beautiful }}\}}](https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/media/math/render/svg/ba150073bf1d693053a31fd703eccdb3658d55f7)
When the adjective takesscopeabovegenit must be interpreted as a predicate of individuals; when it scopes belowgenit must be interpreted as a predicate of events. In this latter case, the denotation of the adjective can still compose intersectively.[7]
![{\displaystyle [\![{\text{beautiful}}_{1}{\text{dance}}]\!]=\{e\,|\,e{\text{ is beautiful }}\}\cap \{e\,|\,e{\text{ is a dancing event }}\}}](https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/media/math/render/svg/aa5fbe363c42a22312599d872415f02d3f7452ba)
Thus, on this analysis, to say that Oleg is a beautiful dancer is to say that he is the typical agent of typical beautiful dancing events. This is technically an intersective reading since it is derived by intersecting the modifier with the noun. However, it does not look like a typical intersective meaning since it does not require that Oleg himself be an element of that intersection—rather that he be the agent of certain events in that intersection.[7]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^abcMorzycki, Marcin (2016).Modification(PDF).Cambridge University Press. pp. 16–19.
- ^abKennedy, Chris (2012)."Adjectives"(PDF).In Graff Fara, Delia; Russell, Gillian (eds.).The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Language.Routledge.
- ^abMcNally, Louise(2016). "Modification". InAloni, Maria;Dekker, Paul (eds.).The Cambridge Handbook of Formal Semantics.Cambridge University Press. pp. 442–464.doi:10.1017/CBO9781139236157.016.ISBN9781107028395.
- ^Kamp, Hans(1975). "Two theories about adjectives". In Keenan, Edward (ed.).Formal Semantics of Natural Language.Cambridge University Press.
- ^Montague, Richard(1970). "English as a Formal Language". In Visentini, Bruno (ed.).Linguaggi nella Società e nella Tecnica.Edizioni di Comunità.
- ^Morzycki, Marcin (2016).Modification(PDF).Cambridge University Press. pp. 16–22.
- ^abcdMorzycki, Marcin (2016).Modification(PDF).Cambridge University Press. pp. 34–41.
- ^Larson, Richard (1999)."Semantics of adjectival modification".LOT Winter School Lectures, Amsterdam.
- ^Bolinger, Dwight (1967). "Adjectives in English: attribution and predication".Lingua.18:1–34.doi:10.1016/0024-3841(67)90018-6.
- ^Larson, Richard (1998)."Events and modification in nominals".SALT.8:145.doi:10.3765/salt.v8i0.2803.