Abstract
This paper presents an analysis of the English instrumental markers with and verbal use. As with other thematic roles, the semantic generalizations encoded by the role Instrument have been difficult to precisely characterize. In this study, we analyze the distinct semantic contributions of with and use, illuminating several properties of instrumental meaning. In particular, use specifies that the agent must act intentionally, which we formalize as universal quantification over possible worlds within a Montague-style compositional framework. By contrast, with encodes a constraint whereby an instrument is a direct extension of the force initiated by the agent. This analysis is most consistent with theories in which thematic roles are clusters of event properties, rather than categories defined in terms of necessary and sufficient conditions; our analysis does not make use of Instrument as a primitive role.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Article number | ffx003 |
| Pages (from-to) | 507-537 |
| Number of pages | 31 |
| Journal | Journal of Semantics |
| Volume | 34 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Aug 1 2017 |
Funding
This research was partly supported by NSF IGERT grant #9972807 awarded to the Johns Hopkins University Cognitive Science department. Earlier versions of some of the material presented here appear in Rissman (2013b, 2011). Thank you to Paul Smolensky and Alexander Williams, and members of the Johns Hopkins Semantics Lab for invaluable feedback and advice. Thank you also to the attendees and reviewers for SALT 21, NELS 41 and MACSIM 2010 for their questions and discussion.
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
- Linguistics and Language
- Artificial Intelligence