On Chierchia’s “Reference to Kinds Across Languages”

Abstract

This chapter introduces the core aspects of the theory of variation proposed in Chierchia (Nat Lang Semant 6(4):339–405, 1998). Focusing primarily on noun phrases without overt determiners, Chierchia gives a principled account of what is universal and what can vary in the mapping from form to meaning within and across languages. He takes a neo-Carlsonian approach where bare plurals canonically refer to kinds, regardless of whether or not they occur as arguments of kind-level predicates. He not only captures the core readings of bare plurals but also accounts for readings that are not standardly associated with them. Most significantly, he offers a fresh perspective on cross-linguistic variation in terms of a semantic parameter constraining the type of meaning available at the level of NP, the nominal structure below determiners or quantifiers, in a given language. Following a brief sketch of the challenge that bare arguments pose for syntax and semantics in section “Introduction”, the details of Chierchia’s theory are presented in section “A Neo-Carlsonian Theory of Variation”. Sections “On Covert Type-Shifting”, “The [-pred, +arg] Setting”, and “On Singular and Definite Kind Terms” deal with the very significant responses that different aspects of the theory have generated since Chierchia’s initial proposal.KeywordsReference to kindsCross-linguistic variationSemantic parametersSingular-plural-mass nounsRanked type-shiftsBlocking effectsNull determiners