Schlenker (2004b): Sequence Phenomena and Double Access Readings Generalized #
This file formalizes the chapter's two remarks. The first is that sequence of tense is one
instance of an agreement mechanism shared by person, tense and mood. An attitude verb quantifies
over the contexts compatible with the attitude, an embedded argument read de se is a coordinate
of the bound context variable, and the features it is pronounced with are copied from the
arguments of the embedding verb by the formation rule (22) (Features.ofArgs) without being
interpreted. The fragment of Appendix A is given as terms carrying features (Term,
TimeTerm), formulas with the attitude construction (Formula), and their value and
definedness at an assignment and an utterance context. A de se report then has the truth
conditions of (13b) and inherits no presupposition from its embedded features, whereas
interpreting a person, tense or mood feature on a coordinate makes its presupposition project
universally over the attitude's contexts, which the examples (16), (19) and (21) refute
(past_coord_weird, ind_coord_not_weird_iff). Features are transmitted unchanged down a chain
of attitudes, also through a future auxiliary, which (22) keeps out of agreement
(Features.ofArgs_coord_fut), as the example (24) of [KR83] requires.
The second remark generalizes the upper limit constraint of [Abu97] from tense to mood.
After the de re transformation a tense or mood denotes a description of times or worlds relative
to the local context, and the coordinate of that context is an upper limit for it: a time
description may not lie entirely after the context's time, and a world description must contain
its world, one constraint for both (ULC). Double access for tense follows as in Abusch, and the
same argument yields its modal counterpart, the reading on which the agent's thought is about the
actual world as well as the world of the thought act (doubleAccess_of_ulc,
worldDoubleAccess_of_ulc): in both the description contains the coordinate of the thought and
the actual one.
Implementation notes #
- Failure of denotation is a definedness predicate beside a total value rather than a partial denotation, and the diacritic of a context variable is read off the enclosing attitude's arguments by (22) rather than stored on its coordinates, so the feature a term is pronounced with is the feature appearing in it. Disjunction is omitted. Vividness of descriptions is left to the hypotheses of the double access theorems.
- The chapter states the upper limit constraint for present and past time terms and indicative world terms only; the constraint here is on descriptions, and which terms it applies to is left to its application.
References #
The fragment (Appendix A) #
Equations
- Schlenker2004b.instDecidableEqPersonFeature x✝ y✝ = if h : x✝.ctorIdx = y✝.ctorIdx then isTrue ⋯ else isFalse ⋯
Equations
- Schlenker2004b.instDecidableEqTenseFeature x✝ y✝ = if h : x✝.ctorIdx = y✝.ctorIdx then isTrue ⋯ else isFalse ⋯
Equations
- Schlenker2004b.instDecidableEqMoodFeature x✝ y✝ = if h : x✝.ctorIdx = y✝.ctorIdx then isTrue ⋯ else isFalse ⋯
The feature triple a complementizer carries, each coordinate possibly absent.
- person : Option PersonFeature
- tense : Option TenseFeature
- mood : Option MoodFeature
Instances For
Equations
- One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.
Instances For
A time term: a term, or a future built on a time term with a variable of its own.
- base (t : Term TenseFeature) : TimeTerm
- fut (k : ℕ) (t : TimeTerm) : TimeTerm
Instances For
The feature appearing in a term, which is also the feature it is pronounced with; the
diacritic of a context variable is supplied by the environment env (Appendix A, Note A).
Equations
- Schlenker2004b.Term.feature proj env (Schlenker2004b.Term.var k) = none
- Schlenker2004b.Term.feature proj env (Schlenker2004b.Term.coord i) = proj (env i)
- Schlenker2004b.Term.feature proj env (Schlenker2004b.Term.feat f t) = some f
Instances For
The tense feature appearing in a time term; a future auxiliary contributes none.
Equations
Instances For
(22): the diacritic of the complementizer of an attitude verb with arguments i, t and
w, the person, tense and mood features appearing in them.
Equations
- One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.
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An attitude verb whose arguments are the coordinates of the context variable c_k passes
that variable's diacritic on unchanged.
(24): the diacritic passes through a future auxiliary on the time argument, so would, the future of a past coordinate, transmits past.
A model of the fragment: the genders behind he and she, the simple predicates, and the contexts compatible with each attitude verb at an individual, time and world, when there is such an attitude.
- male : E → T → W → Prop
Being male at a time in a world.
- female : E → T → W → Prop
Being female at a time in a world.
- pred : ℕ → E → T → W → Prop
The simple predicates, indexed.
- att : ℕ → E → T → W → Option (Set (Reference.Context W E P T))
The contexts compatible with attitude verb
Vheld by an individual at a time in a world, if there is such an attitude.
Instances For
An assignment of values to the individual, time, world and context variables.
- ind : ℕ → E
Values of the individual variables.
- time : ℕ → T
Values of the time variables.
- world : ℕ → W
Values of the world variables.
- ctx : ℕ → Reference.Context W E P T
Values of the context variables.
Instances For
The assignment with the context variable k set to c.
Equations
Instances For
The presupposition of a person feature at the utterance context c₀.
Equations
- Schlenker2004b.PersonFeature.Presup M c₀ Schlenker2004b.PersonFeature.he x✝ = M.male x✝ c₀.time c₀.world
- Schlenker2004b.PersonFeature.Presup M c₀ Schlenker2004b.PersonFeature.she x✝ = M.female x✝ c₀.time c₀.world
Instances For
The presupposition of a tense feature at the utterance context c₀.
Equations
- Schlenker2004b.TenseFeature.Presup c₀ Schlenker2004b.TenseFeature.pres x✝ = (x✝ = c₀.time)
- Schlenker2004b.TenseFeature.Presup c₀ Schlenker2004b.TenseFeature.past x✝ = (x✝ < c₀.time)
Instances For
The presupposition of a mood feature at the utterance context c₀; the subjunctive
carries none.
Equations
- Schlenker2004b.MoodFeature.Presup c₀ Schlenker2004b.MoodFeature.ind x✝ = (x✝ = c₀.world)
- Schlenker2004b.MoodFeature.Presup c₀ Schlenker2004b.MoodFeature.subj x✝ = True
Instances For
The value of a term: a variable's value, the coordinate of the context variable's value, or the value of the term a feature is attached to.
Equations
- Schlenker2004b.Term.value s val coordOf (Schlenker2004b.Term.var k) = val k
- Schlenker2004b.Term.value s val coordOf (Schlenker2004b.Term.coord i) = coordOf (s.ctx i)
- Schlenker2004b.Term.value s val coordOf (Schlenker2004b.Term.feat f t) = Schlenker2004b.Term.value s val coordOf t
Instances For
A term is weird when a feature on it has its presupposition violated by the value of the term it is attached to.
Equations
- Schlenker2004b.Term.Weird s val coordOf presup (Schlenker2004b.Term.var k) = False
- Schlenker2004b.Term.Weird s val coordOf presup (Schlenker2004b.Term.coord i) = False
- Schlenker2004b.Term.Weird s val coordOf presup (Schlenker2004b.Term.feat f t) = (Schlenker2004b.Term.Weird s val coordOf presup t ∨ ¬presup f (Schlenker2004b.Term.value s val coordOf t))
Instances For
The value of a time term; a future denotes its own variable.
Equations
Instances For
A future is weird unless its variable is after the term it is built on.
Equations
- Schlenker2004b.TimeTerm.Weird c₀ s (Schlenker2004b.TimeTerm.base t) = Schlenker2004b.Term.Weird s s.time Reference.Context.time (Schlenker2004b.TenseFeature.Presup c₀) t
- Schlenker2004b.TimeTerm.Weird c₀ s (Schlenker2004b.TimeTerm.fut k t) = (Schlenker2004b.TimeTerm.Weird c₀ s t ∨ ¬Schlenker2004b.TimeTerm.value s t < s.time k)
Instances For
Weirdness of the three arguments of a predicate or attitude verb.
Equations
- One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.
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The formulas: atomic predications, negation, conjunction, and the attitude construction
i V-t-w that_{c_k} φ, whose complementizer binds the context variable k.
- atom (P : ℕ) (i : Term PersonFeature) (t : TimeTerm) (w : Term MoodFeature) : Formula
- neg (φ : Formula) : Formula
- conj (φ ψ : Formula) : Formula
- att (V : ℕ) (i : Term PersonFeature) (t : TimeTerm) (w : Term MoodFeature) (k : ℕ) (φ : Formula) : Formula
Instances For
The individual, time and world arguments of a predicate or attitude verb.
Equations
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The contexts compatible with the attitude V at the arguments, if there is one.
Equations
- One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.
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Presupposition failure of a formula: an argument is weird, or some context compatible with the attitude makes the complement weird.
Equations
- One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.
- Schlenker2004b.Formula.Weird M c₀ x✝ (Schlenker2004b.Formula.atom P_1 i t w) = Schlenker2004b.ArgsWeird M c₀ x✝ i t w
- Schlenker2004b.Formula.Weird M c₀ x✝ φ.neg = Schlenker2004b.Formula.Weird M c₀ x✝ φ
- Schlenker2004b.Formula.Weird M c₀ x✝ (φ.conj ψ) = (Schlenker2004b.Formula.Weird M c₀ x✝ φ ∨ Schlenker2004b.Formula.Weird M c₀ x✝ ψ)
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Truth of a formula: an attitude report holds when there is such an attitude and its complement holds at every compatible context.
Equations
- One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.
- Schlenker2004b.Formula.Holds M x✝ φ.neg = ¬Schlenker2004b.Formula.Holds M x✝ φ
- Schlenker2004b.Formula.Holds M x✝ (φ.conj ψ) = (Schlenker2004b.Formula.Holds M x✝ φ ∧ Schlenker2004b.Formula.Holds M x✝ ψ)
- Schlenker2004b.Formula.Holds M x✝ (Schlenker2004b.Formula.att V i t w k φ) = ∃ A ∈ Schlenker2004b.attAt M x✝ V i t w, ∀ c ∈ A, Schlenker2004b.Formula.Holds M (x✝.updateCtx k c) φ
Instances For
De se readings and agreement (§1) #
(13b), (23b): the report whose embedded arguments are all read de se, the coordinates of the bound context variable, pronounced with the features of the diacritic.
Equations
- One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.
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(13b): a de se report holds iff there is such an attitude and at every compatible context its agent satisfies the predicate at its time in its world.
The embedded features of a de se report, being uninterpreted, add no presupposition: the report is weird only through its matrix arguments.
(17b), (18): interpreting the past feature on the de se time coordinate presupposes, at every context compatible with the attitude, that its time precedes the utterance time.
(19): when the attitude holder takes the time of her thought to be after the utterance time, an interpreted embedded past is weird, although the sentence is fine.
(16): interpreting a masculine feature on the de se subject presupposes that the agent of every compatible context is male, which the report of a hope to become a woman refutes.
(21): interpreting the indicative on the de se world coordinate presupposes that the world of every compatible context is the actual world, that is, that the agent is omniscient.
The generalized upper limit constraint (§2) #
(38), (40): the coordinate κ c of the local context c is an upper limit for the
description d in its scope, which may not lie entirely beyond it. For times, beyond is
strictly after; for worlds, distinct.
Equations
- Schlenker2004b.ULC beyond κ d c = ¬∀ x ∈ d c, beyond (κ c) x
Instances For
(38): a time description satisfies the constraint iff it reaches the local time.
(40): a world description satisfies the constraint iff it contains the local world.
On a description denoting a single time the constraint is the upper limit constraint on
reference times of Semantics/Tense/Embedding.
(39): a present tense under a past attitude denotes the utterance time (i'), the description contains it at the actual context of the thought (ii'), and the constraint holds at every compatible context (iii'); when the agent is not mistaken about the time, so that the actual context is compatible with the thought, the description is about both the time of the thought and the utterance time.
(41): the modal counterpart. An indicative under a subjunctive attitude denotes the actual world (i'), the description contains it at the actual context of the thought (ii'), and the constraint holds at every compatible context (iii'); when the actual context is compatible with the thought, the description is about both the world of the thought and the actual world.