Semantics (W3)

Semion

Uni Stanford
Kratzer, Angelika
Situations in Natural Language Semantics

First published Mon Feb 12, 2007; substantive revision Mon Jan 20, 2014

Situation semantics was developed as an alternative to possible worlds semantics. In situation semantics, linguistic expressions are evaluated with respect to partial, rather than complete, worlds. There is no consensus about what situations are, just as there is no consensus about what possible worlds or events are. According to some, situations are structured entities consisting of relations and individuals standing in those relations. According to others, situations are particulars. In spite of unresolved foundational issues, the partiality provided by situation semantics has led to some genuinely new approaches to a variety of phenomena in natural language semantics. In the way of illustration, this article includes relatively detailed overviews of a few selected areas where situation semantics has been successful: implicit quantifier domain restrictions, donkey pronouns, and exhaustive interpretations. It moreover addresses the question of how Davidsonian event semantics can be embedded in a semantics based on situations. Other areas where a situation semantics perspective has led to progress include attitude ascriptions, questions, tense, aspect, nominalizations, implicit arguments, point of view, counterfactual conditionals, and discourse relations.

• 1. Situations in direct perception reports
• 2. States of affairs, infons, and information content
• 3. Austinian topic situations
• 4. Situation semantics and implicit domain restrictions
• 5. Situation variables or unarticulated constituents?
• 6. Situations, minimality, and donkey sentences
• 7. Minimality and exemplification
• 8. Exemplification and exhaustive interpretations
• 9. Situation semantics and Davidsonian event semantics
• Bibliography
• References mentioned in the text
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Pinker, Steven
Linguist
The Language Instinct
Words and Rules

Steven Pinker is the Johnstone Family Professor in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University. Until 2003, he taught in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT. He conducts research on language and cognition, writes for publications such as the New York Times, Time, and Slate, and is the author of six books, including "The Language Instinct", How the Mind Works, "Words and Rules", and The Blank Slate.