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SUMMARY:Grammar\, pragmatics and referential interpretation in English - J
 ulia Kolkmann (University of York)
DTSTART:20171102T163000Z
DTEND:20171102T183000Z
UID:TALK93847@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Giulia Bovolenta
DESCRIPTION:A seeming non-issue from a communicative point of view\, the r
 eferential interpretation of attributive possessive noun phrases such as J
 ohn’s bike and Mary’s jumper throws up many theoretical questions at t
 he grammar-pragmatics interface. For example\, one question pertains to th
 e role and locus of default interpretations (e.g. ‘the bike that John ow
 ns’\, ‘the jumper Mary is wearing’) in a pragmatic theory of possess
 ive interpretation (e.g. Levinson 2000\; Jaszczolt\, 2008\; Kolkmann 2016)
 . Another important question relates to the token-level interpretation of 
 possessive NPs\, which has so far been viewed as a straightforward matter 
 of pragmatic saturation (e.g. Recanati\, 2004\; Carston\, 2009)\, triggere
 d by their linguistic form. Despite such piece-meal attempts to explain po
 ssessive interpretations\, a coherent pragmatic account which is capable o
 f explaining the ease with which these NPs are used and understood in comm
 unication is still outstanding. \nThe aim of my talk is to sketch what I b
 elieve are the right ingredients for such an account. I will begin by high
 lighting its salience for a number of long-standing debates in the study o
 f default meaning. I’ll then move on to some empirical evidence which su
 ggests that possessive interpretation is a highly context- and speaker-dep
 endent process. I will end by extending these novel insights to other Engl
 ish noun phrases such as compounds (e.g. apple juice seat) (Downing\, 1977
 ) and proper noun modifiers (e.g. my Berlin boots) (Breban\, 2017). \n
LOCATION:GR-06/7\, Faculty of English\, 9 West Rd (Sidgwick Site)
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