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    The collective-distributive ambiguity in sentences like '... — Carmelics
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    Home/Philosophy of Language
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    The collective-distributive ambiguity in sentences like 'John and Jane moved a piano' is not due to an ambiguity in the conjunction 'and'

    Philosophy of Language
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    2 reasons against

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    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
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    • 1.If the ambiguity were due to 'and' sometimes acting as a sentential operator and sometimes as a term-forming operator, conjunction reduction of sentences with different readings would be infelicitous
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    • 2.The conjunction-reduced sentence 'John and Jane moved a piano and met for lunch' is felicitous with 'moved a piano' read distributively and 'met' read collectively
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    • 3.Felicity of the conjunction-reduced form indicates the ambiguity does not reside in the conjunction
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.A single lexical item can exhibit systematic polysemy such that its semantic contribution shifts contextually without rendering conjunction-reduced forms infelicitous.
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    • 2.If 'and' is polysemous between a collective-forming and a distributive-forming operator, speakers can pragmatically resolve each conjunct independently, preserving felicity in mixed readings.
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    • 3.The felicity argument in P2-P3 therefore underdetermines the locus of ambiguity, since polysemy in 'and' is compatible with the observed felicity data.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
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    • 1.Link's (1983) mereological framework treats 'and' as uniformly denoting sum-formation over a domain that includes both individuals and pluralities, making the collective-distributive distinction a matter of predicate type rather than conjunction type.
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    • 2.If the distributive reading arises from a covert distributivity operator (D-operator) adjoined to the VP, as argued by Roberts (1987) and Lasersohn (1995), then the ambiguity is VP-level, not conjunction-level, and the supporting argument merely relocates rather than eliminates a structural ambiguity.
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    • 3.Showing the ambiguity does not reside in 'and' is thus consistent with, and even predicted by, syntactic theories that posit covert operators, leaving the claim compatible with structural ambiguity accounts the original argument was meant to preclude.
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    Topics

    Philosophy of Language

    Related

    A single lexical item can exhibit systematic polysemy such that its semantic con...Felicity of the conjunction-reduced form indicates the ambiguity does not reside...If 'and' is polysemous between a collective-forming and a distributive-forming o...If the ambiguity were due to 'and' sometimes acting as a sentential operator and...
    +5 moreShow less
    If the distributive reading arises from a covert distributivity operator (D-oper...Link's (1983) mereological framework treats 'and' as uniformly denoting sum-form...Showing the ambiguity does not reside in 'and' is thus consistent with, and even...The conjunction-reduced sentence 'John and Jane moved a piano and met for lunch'...The felicity argument in P2-P3 therefore underdetermines the locus of ambiguity,...

    Similar

    The conjunction-reduced sentence 'John and Jane moved a piano and met ...77%If the ambiguity were due to 'and' sometimes acting as a sentential op...77%Alternatively, 'and' may signal multiple possible discourse relations,...74%Lexical ambiguity involves accidental homophony between two separate a...73%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: ambiguity
    View source passageHide passage
    Clearly, the ‘him’ in (43) can be interpreted as Phil or Stanley. But, crucially, how you interpret ‘him’ will depend on how you connect the two sentences. On the one hand, the interpretation of ‘him’ as referring to Phil goes hand in hand with a causal relation – its was the tickling that caused the poking (known as a result relation. Interpreting ‘him’ as referring to Stanley suggests goes hand in hand with a parallel relation. Of course the inference is defeasible – one can always break the c
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (1 for, 2 against)
    Edits
    1 edit