A linguistic account of singular terms
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18012/arf.v8iesp.60029Palavras-chave:
singular terms, definiteness, uniqueness, reference, VendlerResumo
Vendler (1967b) discusses how we may linguistically recognize a singular term. Even though singular terms are relevant to Philosophy and not necessarily to Linguistics, it may be enriching to know what we can do to disambiguate such a term. Philosophically, singular terms are seen as singular definite descriptions which may be used to refer to a unique entity in the world. Vendler tried to provide a syntactic account of singular terms, and was not taken into account by philosophers. Linguistically speaking, a singular term will be a singular definite determiner phrase which may or may not correlate to something. We will show that a strictly syntactic account, as the one Vendler proposed, is deficient, and that it does not provide necessary and sufficient conditions to recognize a singular term. We will take into account Vendler’s spirit. We will use the advances in linguistics to explain how we may form a singular term, and provide syntactic-semantic conditions to recognize a singular term.
Downloads
Referências
ABBOTT, B. Reference. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.
BORER, H. Structuring sense: in name only. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
BORIK, O.; ESPINAL T. On definite kinds. Recherches Linguistiques de Vincennes, v. 41, n. 1. p. 123-146, 2012.
BURGE, T. Truth and mass terms. Journal of Philosophy, v. 69, p. 263-282, 1972.
CHRISTOPHERSEN, P. The articles: a study of their theory and use in English. Copenhagen: Munksgaard. 1939.
CINQUE, G. Typological studies: word order and relative clauses. New York; London: Routledge, 2013.
DEVITT, M. The case for referential descriptions. In: REIMER, M.; BEZUIDENHOUT, A. (Eds.) Descriptions and beyond. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. p. 234-260.
ENÇ, M. The semantics of specificity. Linguistic Inquiry, v. 22, n. 1, p. 01-25, 1991.
FREGE, G. On sense and reference. In: BLACK, M.; GEACH, P. (Eds.) Translations from the philosophical writings of Gottlob Frege, Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1960. p. 56-68.
FREGE G. On Concept and Object. In: BLACK, M.; GEACH, P. (Eds.) Translations from the philosophical writings of Gottlob Frege, Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1960. p. 42-56.
HALE, B. Singular Terms. In: MCGUINNESS B.; OLIVERI, G. (Eds.) The philosophy of Michael Dummett. Dordrecht: Springer, 1994. p. 268-272.
HARBOUR, D. Mass, non-singularity and augmentation. MIT Working Papers in Linguistics, v. 49, p. 239-266, 2008.
HARRIS, Z. Co-occurrence and transformation in linguistic structure. Language, v. 33, n. 3, p. 283-340, 1957.
HEIM, I. The semantics of definite and indefinite noun phrases. PhD Dissertation (Doctor of Philosophy), University of Massachusetts, 1982.
HINTIKKA, J. Are there nonexistent objects? Why not? But where are they? In: HINTIKKA, J. The logic of epistemology and the epistemology of logic: selected essays. Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1989. p. 37-44.
KAYNE, R. The antisymmetry of syntax. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1974.
KRIFKA, M.; PELLETIER, F. J.; CARLSON, G.; TER MEULEN, A.; LINK, G.; CHIERCHIA, G. Genericity: an introduction. In: CARLSON, G.; PELLETIER, F. J. (Eds.) The generic book. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995. p. 01-124.
MARANTZ, A. No escape from syntax: don’t try morphological analysis in the privacy of your own lexicon. In: DIMITRIADIS, A.; SIEGEL, L.; SUREK-CLARK, C.; WILLIAMS, A. (Eds) PWPL 4.2, Proceedings of the 21st Annual Penn Linguistics Colloquium. Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics, 1997. p. 201-225.
MILSARK, G. Existential sentences in english. Cambridge, MA: MIT doctoral dissertation. 1974.
POLAKOF, A. Lo concreto y lo abstracto en nominalizaciones de adjetivales. Revista Signos. Estudios de Lingüística, v. 52, n. 100, p. 410-431, 2019.
POLAKOF, A. La semántica de los nombres abstractos. In: BÉRTOLA, C.; OGGIANI, C.; POLAKOF, A. (Eds.) Estudios de lengua y gramática. Montevideo: In press.
RUSSELL, B. On Denoting. Mind, v. 14, p. 479-493, 1905.
RUSSELL, B. Descriptions. In: MARTINICH, A. P. (Ed.) The philosophy of language. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996. p. 208-214.
STIRTON, W. R. Singular term, subject and predicate. The Philosophical Quarterly, v. 50, n. 199, p. 191-207, 2000.
STRAWSON, P. On referring. Mind, v. 59, n. 235. p. 320-344, 1950.
VENDLER, Z. Linguistics in philosophy. Ithaca; London: Cornell University Press, 1967a.
VENDLER, Z. Singular terms. In: VENDLER, Z. Linguistics in philosophy. Ithaca; London: Cornell University Press, 1967. p. 147-171. (1967b)
VERGNAUD, J.R. French relative clauses. Ph.D. Dissertation, MIT, 1974.
VERGNAUD, J. R.; ZUBIZARRETA, M. L. The definite determiner and the inalienable constructions in French and in English. Linguistic Inquiry, v. 23, n. 4, p. 595-652, 1992.
WETZEL, L. Dummett's criteria for singular terms. Mind, v. 99, n. 394, p. 239-254, 1990.
Arquivos adicionais
Publicado
Como Citar
Edição
Seção
Licença
![Creative Commons License](http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/4.0/88x31.png)
Este trabalho está licenciado sob uma licença Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Política de Direito Autoral para os itens publicados pela Revista:
1.Esta revista é regida por uma Licença da Creative Commons aplicada a revistas eletrônicas. Esta licença pode ser lida no link a seguir: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
2.Consonante a essa politica, a revista declara que os autores são os detentores do copyright de seus artigos sem restrição, e podem depositar o pós-print de seus artigos em qualquer repositório ou site.
Política de Direito de Uso dos Metadados para informações contidas nos itens do repositório
1. Qualquer pessoa e/ou empresa pode acessar os metadados dos itens publicados gratuitamente e a qulquer tempo.
2.Os metadados podem ser usados sem licença prévia em qualquer meio, mesmo comercialmente, desde que seja oferecido um link para o OAI Identifier ou para o artigo que ele desceve, sob os termos da licença CC BY aplicada à revista.
Os autores que têm seus trabalhos publicados concordam que com todas as declarações e normas da Revista e assumem inteira responsabilidade pelas informações prestadas e ideias veiculadas em seus artigos, em conformidade com a Política de Boas Práticas da Revista.