The Sortal Dependence of Demonstrative Reference

The Role of Perception in Demonstrative Reference

Re-analyzing the function of demonstrative reference in Tajik

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Common Ground and the Understanding of Demonstrative Reference

Suppose a speaker gestures toward four flowers and asks a listener, "How would you describe the color of this f lower?" How does the listener infer which of the four flowers is being referred to? It is proposed that he selects the one he judges to be most salient with respect to the speaker 's and his common ground-the i r mutual knowledge, beliefs, and suppositions. In a field experiment, it w...

The Sortal Theory of Plurals

This paper explores the hypothesis of a semantics for plurals with no atomic partial order defined on the domain of quantification, and thus no ontological distinction between singular and plural individuals. The idea is that the work usually done in the semantics by the atomic partial order is instead done by the syntax, which makes available to the semantics a phonologically covert sortal whi...

A Focus-Based Study of English Demonstrative Reference With Special Reference to the Genre of Written Advertisements