Annihilating atoms with entity partitives

p 2022

Annihilating atoms with entity partitives

WĄGIEL, Marcin

Basic information

Original name

Annihilating atoms with entity partitives

Authors

WĄGIEL, Marcin (616 Poland, guarantor, belonging to the institution)

Edition

Department of Linguistics, 10/05/2022, University College London, 2022

Other information

Language

English

Type of outcome

Vyžádané přednášky

Field of Study

60203 Linguistics

Country of publisher

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Confidentiality degree

není předmětem státního či obchodního tajemství

RIV identification code

RIV/00216224:14210/22:00129314

Organization unit

Faculty of Arts

Keywords in English

partitives; part-whole structures; mereology; mereotopology; subatomic quantification; atomicity

Abstract

V originále

In standard theories of pluralities and countability, the mass/count distinction is often formulated in terms of atomicity (e.g., Link 1983, Landman 1991, 2000, Chierchia 1998, 2010, Champollion 2017). Despite significant differences in particular theories, the contrast between count and mass nouns usually boils down to the (non-)existence of minimal building blocks in their denotations or, alternativley, to a distinct nature of those building blocks. The approach developed in this talk rejects the view that what counts as `one' is best represented as an atomic entity. Instead, building on a mereotopological approach to nominal semantics (Grimm 2012, see also Casati & Varzi 1999) I propose that countability is a feature of individuals that constitute non-overlapping and integrated wholes (as opposed to, e.g., scattered entities and arbitrary sums). The evidence comes from entity partitives involving numerical quantification over material parts of referents of concrete count singular NPs, e.g., *three parts of the teddy bear*. First, I will present the problem such constructions pose for atomicity-based approaches to the mass/count distinction. Next, I will discuss two attempts to account for that problem, i.e., the theories of Chierchia (2010) and Landman (2016), and point what I believe to be their shortcomings. Then, I will argue for two claims, specifically (i) having a notion of atomicity is not enough for a full analysis of entity partitives and (ii) atomicity is actually not needed for that purpose since it can be replaced by mereotopological notions which are required independently. Finally, I will discuss independent cognitive evidence which seems to support my approach.

Links

GA20-16107S, research and development project

Name: Struktury část-celek napříč jazyky

Investor: Czech Science Foundation

Citovat

WĄGIEL, Marcin. Annihilating atoms with entity partitives. In Department of Linguistics, 10/05/2022, University College London. 2022.

@misc{2244458,
   author = {Wągiel, Marcin},
   booktitle = {Department of Linguistics, 10/05/2022, University College London},
   keywords = {partitives; part-whole structures; mereology; mereotopology; subatomic quantification; atomicity},
   language = {eng},
   title = {Annihilating atoms with entity partitives},
   year = {2022}
}

TY  - SLIDE
ID  - 2244458
AU  - Wągiel, Marcin
PY  - 2022
TI  - Annihilating atoms with entity partitives
KW  - partitives
KW  - part-whole structures
KW  - mereology
KW  - mereotopology
KW  - subatomic quantification
KW  - atomicity
N2  - In standard theories of pluralities and countability, the mass/count distinction is often formulated in terms of atomicity (e.g., Link 1983, Landman 1991, 2000, Chierchia 1998, 2010, Champollion 2017). Despite significant differences in particular theories, the contrast between count and mass nouns usually boils down to the (non-)existence of minimal building blocks in their denotations or, alternativley, to a distinct nature of those building blocks. The approach developed in this talk rejects the view that what counts as `one' is best represented as an atomic entity. Instead, building on a mereotopological approach to nominal semantics (Grimm 2012, see also Casati & Varzi 1999) I propose that countability is a feature of individuals that constitute non-overlapping and integrated wholes (as opposed to, e.g., scattered entities and arbitrary sums). The evidence comes from entity partitives involving numerical quantification over material parts of referents of concrete count singular NPs, e.g., *three parts of the teddy bear*. First, I will present the problem such constructions pose for atomicity-based approaches to the mass/count distinction. Next, I will discuss two attempts to account for that problem, i.e., the theories of Chierchia (2010) and Landman (2016), and point what I believe to be their shortcomings. Then, I will argue for two claims, specifically (i) having a notion of atomicity is not enough for a full analysis of entity partitives and (ii) atomicity is actually not needed for that purpose since it can be replaced by mereotopological notions which are required independently. Finally, I will discuss independent cognitive evidence which seems to support my approach.
ER  -

WĄGIEL, Marcin. Annihilating atoms with entity partitives. In \textit{Department of Linguistics, 10/05/2022, University College London}. 2022.

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