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    Carmelics

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    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
    Statements
    321,452
    Perspectives
    108,905
    Topics
    42
    Home/Original/inverse
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    Inverse View

    It is not the case that The representations 'Easy-to-please(John)' and 'Eager-to-please(John)' efface the semantic asymmetry between sentences (20) and (21).

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    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
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    • 1.Predicate-argument representations are tools for inference tracking, not exhaustive semantic analyses, so notational economy is a virtue, not a defect.
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    • 2.Chomsky's distinction between D-structure and S-structure shows that surface predicate representations can mask deep asymmetries without thereby effacing them, since further levels of representation restore the distinction.
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    • 3.The semantic asymmetry between (20) and (21) is recoverable from the lexical semantics of 'easy' and 'eager' themselves, so the one-place predicate notation does not destroy the information but merely defers it.
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    Reason for 2 of 2
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    • 1.Davidson's event-semantics tradition holds that logical form is revealed by inference patterns, not by notational isomorphism with underlying argument structure.
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    • 2.If 'Easy-to-please(John)' and 'Eager-to-please(John)' license systematically different inferences—e.g., only the latter entails John has a desire—then the semantic asymmetry is preserved at the inferential level even if hidden at the representational surface.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.If (20) is true, John is easily pleased, meaning it is easy for someone to please John, where 'it' is pleonastic.
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    • 2.If (21) is true, John is eager that he please someone or other.
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    • 3.These two readings differ in argument structure (John as object of pleasing vs. John as subject of pleasing).
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