Unifying Local and Nonlocal Modelling of Respective and Symmetrical Predicates

Abstract

We propose a unified analysis of ‘respective’ readings of plural and conjoined expressions and the internal readings of symmetrical predicates such as same and different. The two problems have both been recognized as significant challenges in the literature of syntax and semantics, but so far there is no analysis which captures their close parallel via some uniform mechanism. In fact, the representative compositional analyses of the two phenomena in the current literature (Gawron and Kehler (2004) (G&K) on ‘respective’ readings and Barker (2007) on symmetrical predicates) look superficially quite different from each other, where one (Barker) employs a movement-like nonlocal mechanism for mediating the dependency between the relevant terms whereas the other (G&K) achieves a similar effect via a chain of local composition operations.

In this paper, we first point out the parallels and interactions between the two phenomena that motivate a unified analysis. We then briefly review G&K’s and Barker’s analyses and show that the G&K-style analysis can be modelled by the Barker-style analysis once we formulate the relevant rules within an explicit syntax-semantics interface couched in a variant of Type-Logical Categorial Grammar called Hybrid TLCG. After clarifying the hitherto unnoticed formal relations between the Barker-style nonlocal modelling and the G&K-style local modelling by focusing on the analysis of ‘respective’ readings, we present our unified analysis of ‘respective’ readings and symmetrical predicates and show how their parallel behaviors and interactions can be systematically accounted for.