European University Institute Library

Felicitous underspecification, contextually sensitive expressions lacking unique semantic values in context, Jeffrey C. King

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

index present

non fiction

Felicitous underspecification

electronic resource

dictionariesbibliography

1257403436

Jeffrey C. King

Oxford scholarship online.

contextually sensitive expressions lacking unique semantic values in context

Felicitous uses of contextually sensitive expressions generally have unique semantic values in context. For example, a felicitous use of the singular pronoun 'she' generally has a single female as its unique semantic value in context. In this book, Jeffrey C. King argues that contextually sensitive expressions have felicitous uses where they lack unique semantic values in context. He calls such uses instances of felicitous underspecification. In such cases, he says that the underspecified expression is associated with a range of candidate semantic values in context. King provides a rule for updating the Stalnakerian common ground when sentences containing felicitous underspecified expressions are uttered and accepted in a conversation. He also gives an account of the mechanism that associates the range of candidate semantic values in context with an underspecified expression.--, Provided by publisher

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