Laure Gardelle

Julie Neveux

Elise Mignot

This edited book seeks to bridge a gap in the existing literature on nouns, by exploring the exact relationship between their formal and semantic characteristics. The introductory chapter offers a thorough state of the art on the morphosyntactic and semantic angles in definitions of nouns, provides evidence of misalignments between morphosyntactic and semantic features, and argues that a multi-criterial angle is in fact inherent in the definition of the class of nouns. The following chapters bring together a representative cross-section of international-level research on the morphosyntax/semantics interface for nouns, covering a wide variety of languages from French-based creoles, German and Japanese to English, French, Italian, Russian and Uzbek. The focus of the volume is to take a special focus on the currently underestimated dynamic interplay between morphosyntax and semantics, at both language and discourse levels. It will be of interest primarily to academics (specialists of nouns, as well as anyone interested in the interplay between morphology, syntax and semantics) and graduate students in areas such as syntax, semantics, morphology, theoretical linguistics and discourse analysis.

Nouns and the Morphosyntax / Semantics Interface

This monograph proposes a comparative approach to all the ways of denoting ‘more than one’ entity, from collective and aggregate nouns (with the first-ever typology), to count plurals, partly substantivised adjectives and conjoined NPs. This semantic feature approach to plurality, which cuts across number, the count/non-count distinction, and lexical/NP levels, reveals a very consistent Scale of Unit Integration, which establishes clear-cut boundaries for collective nouns, and accommodates cases such as three elephant, cattle or a chain of islands. The study also offers a refined understanding of aggregate nouns (a category nearly as large as that of collective nouns) and quantification in pseudo-partitives, develops Guillaume’s notion of ‘internal plurality’, and proposes the innovative concept of ‘hyperonyms of plural classes’ (e.g. furniture). The Animacy Hierarchy is also found to be influential, beyond hybrid agreement. The book aims to be accessible to scholars of any theoretical background interested in these topics.

English collective nouns and other ways of denoting pluralities of entities

Semantic Plurality

Sandrine Sorlin

This volume presents new research on the pragmatics of personal pronouns. Whereas personal pronouns used to have a reputation of poor substitutes for full NP’s, recent research shows that personal pronouns are a fundamental, if not universal, category, whose pragmatics is central to their understanding. For instance, personal pronouns may indicate attentional continuity or social deixis, and take on genre-specific pragmatic effects. The authors of the present collection investigate such effects and analyse competing forms in context (e.g. she / her in subject position), as well as their pragmatic functions in an extensive range of genres such as advertising, TV series, charity appeals, mother/child interaction or computer-mediated communication. Moreover, one section is devoted to the pragmatics of antecedentless pronouns and so-called ‘impersonal’ personal forms. The volume will be of interest to both scholars and students interested in the pragmatics of functional words.

Laure Gardelle

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