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<DIV></DIV><FONT size=1><FONT face="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt">The Department of Linguistics at USC proudly
presents:<BR></SPAN></FONT></FONT><FONT face="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><B><BR></B></SPAN><B><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11.5pt">Stubbornly distributive predicates, multi-participant
nouns and the mass/count distinction<BR></SPAN></B><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><BR>Roger Schwarzschild<BR>Rutgers
University<BR></SPAN><FONT size=1><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt"><BR></SPAN></FONT><FONT size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt">Monday, March 2, 2009 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm<BR>Grace Ford
Salvatori 118<BR><BR>Following the talk, dinner will be served in the
Linguistics Conference Room<BR><BR>Abstract:<BR> <BR>There are predicates
that I call “stubbornly distributive” based on what happens when they are
combined with plural count noun phrases. I will use these stubbornly
distributive predicates to identify and analyze “multi-participant nouns”.
Multi-participant nouns form a subset of mass nouns. Traffic and
rubble are multi-participant nouns but furniture and luggage turn out not to be.
Importantly, ‘typical’ mass nouns like water pattern as multi-participant
nouns. Their analysis in this context will be an occasion to take a fresh
look at the semantics of the count/mass distinction.<BR><BR>The proposed
analysis will rely on the hypothesis that nouns, like verbs and adjectives, are
event predicates. Boy is true of an event whose sole participant is a boy.
In this framework, the meaning of a noun determines which events are in its
extension. Whether or not a given event is in its extension can depend on:
(a) the nature of the participants in the event, (b) the number of participants
and (c) relations among participants. By allowing (a) to be just one
component in the meaning of a noun, it becomes easier to outline a semantic
basis for the mass/count distinction with the following character. On the
one hand, facts about the referents of a noun phrase <B>influence </B>the
categorization of the head nouns: properties of water and of dogs, surely
are relevant to the status of the nouns water and dog. On the other hand,
properties of referents shouldn’t <B>determine </B>the status of the head, for
as has often been observed, co-referential noun phrases can differ in the
mass/count status of their head nouns. <BR></SPAN></FONT><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><B><BR><BR></B></SPAN><FONT size=1><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt"><BR><BR>Email inquiries to: <FONT color=#1c1ece><U><A
href="lingtalk@college.usc.edu">lingtalk@college.usc.edu</A></U></FONT>
<BR><FONT color=#1c1ece><U><A
href="http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/ling/newsevents/colloquia.shtml">http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/ling/newsevents/colloquia.shtml</A></U></FONT></SPAN></FONT></FONT>
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