Abstract
This paper presents an analysis of coercion and related phenomena in the framework of Dependent Type Semantics (DTS). Using underspecified terms in DTS, we present an analysis of selectional restriction as presupposition; we then combine it with a type called ‘transfer frame’ to provide an analysis of coercion. Our analysis focuses on the fact that coercion is triggered not only by type mismatch between predicates and their arguments, but also by more general inference with contextual information. We show how the analysis can be extended to copredication of logical polysemy and complement coercion. Finally, we will suggest that this analysis can shed light on an aspect of complicity that is invoked in interpreting coercion and other meaning-shifting phenomena.
Highlights
There is a problem with the naive assumption that coercion is only triggered by type mismatch: it can be contextually triggered without any type mismatch, so as to find a more relevant interpretation
This paper proposes a formal analysis of coercion in the framework of Dependent Type Semantics (DTS) (Bekki 2014; Bekki & Mineshima 2017), a framework of proof-theoretic semantics that combines dependent types with the mechanism of underspecification for handling anaphora and presupposition
We show that it can be extended to related phenomena, including copredication and complement coercion
Summary
In the literal reading of (5-a), the target term should be identical to the source term j, both being an animate entity; in such a case, we can use the equality relation between animate entities for R Assuming that it is established in the global context that John is an animate entity, we can construct a 5-tuple as shown in Figure 5.14 By substituting @ in (13) with this 5-tuple, we obtain an SR escape(π1((j, t), anim, t, =, refl(j, t))), which computes to escape(j, t), where t is a proof term for animate(j). Namely, the proposition that the term two satisfies the selectional restriction of the predicate green In this case, the information in the antecedent, colored(two), is passed to the consequent using the formation rule (ΠF ) in Figure 1; according to this rule, (x : A) → B is a type if (i) A is a type and (ii) B is a type under the assumption that there is some proof term x for A. Φenjoy is a function from events to types; φenjoy(e) means the event e satisfies the selectional restriction associated with the verb enjoy. the lexical entry of the transitive verb enjoy is given as follows
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