Homogeneity (linguistics)
In formal semantics, homogeneity is the phenomenon in which certain plural expressions 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 we would expect (1b) to merely mean that some books went unread if "the books" expresses universal quantification.[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.[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.
Homogeneous predicates are important to semantic theory because they show truth value gaps. If Robin read only half of the books, neither (1a) nor (1b) is true. 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]
See also
- Free choice inference
- Cumulativity (linguistics)
- Law of excluded middle
- Predication (philosophy)
- Trivalent logic
References
- ^ a b c 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.
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