In formal semantics, homogeneity is the phenomenon in which plural expressions can imply "all" when asserted but "none" when negated. For example, the English sentence in (1a) is typically interpreted to mean that Robin read all the books, while (1b) is interpreted to mean that she read none of them. This is a puzzle since (1b) would merely mean that some books went unread if "the books" expressed universal quantification, as it appears to do in (1a).[1][2]
- (1) Homogeneity with definite plurals:
- a. Robin read the books.
- b. Robin didn't read the books.
Homogeneous readings are also possible with other expressions including conjunctions and bare plurals. For instance, (2a) means that Robin read both books while (2b) means that she read neither; example (3a) means that in general Robin likes books while (3b) means that in general she does not.[1]
- (2) Homogeneity with conjunctions:
- a. Robin read Syntactic Structures and Twilight.
- b. Robin didn't read Syntactic Structures and Twilight.
- (3) Homogeneity with bare plurals:
- a. Robin likes books.
- b. Robin doesn't like books.
Homogeneity is important to semantic theory in part because it represents a case of apparent truth value gaps arise. For example, neither of the sentences in (1) are assertible if Robin read exactly half of the relevant books. As a result, some linguists have attempted to provide unified analyses with other gappy phenomena such as presupposition, scalar implicature, free choice inferences, and vagueness.[1] Homogeneity effects have been argued to appear with semantic types other than individuals. For instance, negated conditionals and modals have been argued to show similar effects, potentially suggesting that they refer to pluralities of possible worlds.[1][3]
Homogeneity effects have been studied in a variety of languages including English, Hungarian, Russian, and Japanese.[4]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ a b c d Križ, Manuel (2019). "Homogeneity effects in natural language semantics". Language and Linguistics Compass. 13 (11). doi:10.1111/lnc3.12350.
- ^ Bar-Lev, Moshe (2021). "An Implicature account of Homogeneity and Non-maximality". Linguistics and Philosophy. 44: 1045–1097. doi:10.1007/s10988-020-09308-5.
- ^ Agha, Omar; Jeretič (2022). "Weak necessity modals as homogeneous pluralities of worlds". Proceedings of SALT. 32. doi:10.3765/salt.v1i0.5352.
- ^ Szabolcsi, Anna; Haddican, Bill (2004). "Conjunction meets negation: A study in cross-linguistic variation". Journal of Semantics. 21 (3): 219–249. doi:10.1093/jos/21.3.219.
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