EXHAUSTIFICATION

1. (Semantics) A process where one proposition is asserted, and stronger alternatives to that proposition are negated. It's something that's often used in work on questions, scalar implicatures, and focus particles, to name a few areas. | Curt Anderson, 2020
2. (Semantics) The "grammatical approach to implicatures" provides a way to square Cooperative Speaker with the facts (cf. Krifka 1995, Fox 2007, Chierchia et al. 2012). The idea is that we have to tinker with the grammar after all. The core of the proposal is the postulation of a covert lexical item, EXH_C, which composes with a sentence φ, its prejacent, to affirm φ and negate a selection of φ's alternatives. | Tue Trinh, 2019

EXHAUSTIVITY OPERATOR
(Semantics) According to grammatical accounts of Scalar Implicatures (SIs), SIs are triggered by an exhaustification operator, exh, which asserts both its prejacent and the negation of each of its excludable alternatives (Gennaro Chierchia et al. 2011, a.o.).
 For a structure φ of propositional type and context c:

1. ⟦exh(φ)⟧ = ⟦φ⟧ ∧ ⋀ ¬ ⟦ψ⟧ : ψ ∈ Excl(φ) ∧ ⟦ψ⟧ ∈ R.
2. Excl(φ) is a subset of the set of formal alternatives of φ, such that, for each ψ ∈ Excl(φ), ⟦ψ⟧ isn't logically entailed by ⟦φ⟧ (or equivalently, such that ⟦φ⟧ is logically consistent with ¬⟦ψ⟧).
3. R = a contextually assigned 'relevance' predicate which minimally satisfies the following two conditions:
   1. the prejacent, φ, is relevant, i.e. ⟦φ⟧ ∈ R, and
   2. any proposition that is contextually equivalent to the prejacent is also in R
       (i.e., if ⟦φ⟧ ∩ c ≡ ⟦ψ⟧ ∩ c, then ⟦ψ⟧ ∈ R).

EXISTENTIAL CONSTRUCTION
(Syntax) Or, existential clause construction. The term "existential clause construction" has been used in two senses:

1. For construction-functions (e.g. Clark 1978).
2. For construction-strategies (e.g. McNally 2016, Creissels 2019).

1. English
   There is a bird on the roof.
   A bird is on the roof.
2. Finnish
   Kato-lla
   roof-ADESS

   on
   is

   lintu.
   bird

   'There is a bird on the roof.'

   (Cf. Lintu on katolla. 'The bird is on the roof.')
3. Logudorese Sardinian (Bentley et al. 2015)
   In
   in

   custu
   this

   istradone
   road

   nch'
   there

   at
   have.3SG

   una
   a

   creža.
   church

   'In this road there is a church.'

   (Lit. 'It there has a church in this road.')
4. Tagalog
   May
   EXV

   mga
   PL

   tao
   person

   sa
   LOC

   labas.
   outside

   'There are people outside.' (Sabbagh 2009)
5. Wambaya (Mirndi, Australia)
   Garnguji
   many.NOM

   julaji-rdarra
   bird-GROUP.NOM

   gayangga
   high

   darranggu-ni.
   tree-LOC

   'There are lots of bird up in the trees.' (Nordlinger 1998)
6. German
   1. Temporary Location of Existent
      Auf
      on

      dem
      the

      Tisch
      table

      stehen
      stand

      Blumen.
      flowers

      'There are flowers on the table.'

      (Cf. ?*Auf dem Tisch gibt es Blumen.)
   2. Permanent Presence of Existent
      In
      in

      Thailand
      Thailand

      gibt
      gives

      es
      it

      Tiger.
      tigers

      'There are tigers in Thailand.'

      (Cf. ?*In Thailand sind Tiger.)

EXISTENTIAL MARKER
(Grammar) A word, found in a distinct clause type, which marks a referent's existence.
 The word hay in (1) is an existential marker:

1. Spanish:
   Hay
   EXIST

   muchos
   many

   libros
   books

   en
   in

   la
   the

   biblioteca.
   library

   'There are many books in the library.' (Schachter 1985)

EXOCENTRIC COMPOUND
(Morphology) Exocentric compounds are forms or words which do not have a head. This means that there is not one morphological segment that contributes the core meaning, and instead the meaning is comprised of all components together. | INLP Linguistic Glossary, 2021
See Also ENDOCENTRIC COMPOUND.

EXOCENTRIC CONSTRUCTION
(Syntax) An exocentric construction is a construction that does not contain any head element that is capable of being a syntactically adequate substitution for the whole construction.
 Examples, in English:

1. Prepositional phrase:
   Neither the component preposition nor the noun phrase may substitute for the whole prepositional phrase.
2. Clause:
   No single element of the clause may substitute for the whole.

EXPANDING FOCUS
(Information Structure) When the focused referent extends the set of referents mentioned in a previous (incomplete) statement for which the proposition is true. If the previous statement had an exhaustive aspect of meaning, the extension corrects this exhaustivity (see exclusive and corrective focus).
 Example:

1. A: Did you buy beans?
   B: Yes, but I also bought rice.

EXPECTATION-BASED MINIMALIST GRAMMAR
(Syntax) Abbreviated e-MG. e-MGs are simplified versions of the (Conflated) Minimalist Grammars, (C)MGs, formalized by Stabler (Stabler 2011, 2013, 1997) and Phase-based Minimalist Grammars, PMGs (Chesi 2005, 2007; Stabler 2011). The crucial simplification consists of driving structure building only using lexically encoded categorial top-down expectations. The commitment on a top-down procedure (in e-MGs and PMGs, as opposed to (C)MGs, Chomsky 1995, Stabler 2011) allows us to define a core derivation that is the same in both parsing and generation (Momma and Phillips 2018). | Cristiano Chesi, 2021

EXPLETIVE

1. (Grammar) From Latin expletivus 'serving to fill out or take up space' (Beaven 2017, Halsi 1891). A word or phrase inserted into a sentence that is not needed to express the basic meaning of the sentence (Svenonius). It is regarded as semantically null or a placeholder (Moro 1997). Expletives are not insignificant or meaningless in all senses; they may be used to give emphasis or tone, to contribute to the meter in verse, or to indicate tense (Lederer 1995, Lounsbury 1907).
    Examples:
   1. The teacher was not, in fact, present.
   2. Indeed, the teacher was absent.
    In conversation the expressions like and you know, when they are not meaningful, are expletives (Scott 1965). | Wikipedia, 2022
2. (Syntax) A grammatical element having no semantic content and occurring in theta-bar positions. Examples:
   1. There is a man in the room.
   2. It seems that John is ill.
    (Chomsky 1981, 1986, 1993) | Utrecht Lexicon of Linguistics, 2001

EXPONE
(Syntax) Definition not found. Examples:

1. In the lack of overt case, then, this determiner is simply null, but the nominal is nevertheless assigned absolutive or oblique case that is not overtly exponed. | Ksenia Alexeyevna Ershova, 2019
2. A key assumption of Distributed Morphology is that the syntax manipulates feature bundles that lack morphophonology; these feature bundles are exponed post-syntactically by matching the syntactic feature bundles to Vocabulary Items (VI's; pieces of morphophonology). | Ruth Kramer and Lindley Winchester, 2018
3. In the case of phonologically-conditioned suppletive allomorphy, two or more distinct, phonologically-unrelated surface forms expone the same semantic material, as dictated by phonological constraints (for surveys, see e.g., Paster 2006, Nevins 2011). | Stephanie S Shih, 2017
4. In the case of the count and mass noun [in Neapolitan] we have some of the strongest evidence for root initial consonants being alternated, strong and weak, to expone an aspect of the morpho-syntax. | Michela Russo and Shanti Ulfsbjorninn, 2016
5. What Löwenadler shows is that the form pry:dt, with a cluster, would violate a phonotactic constraint against such clusters, that the form pryt, with vowel shortening (and vowel quality changes) as well as assimilation is also disliked, that pry:t violates a constraint on assimilation of the stem, and that pry:d, with no evidence of suffixation, fails to expone the neuter gender. | Andrew Nevins, 2014
6. This analysis results in the right values ending up on the features of v, but it does not necessarily explain how the phi features and the goal feature are exponed separately. | Mark Baker and Ruth Kramer, 2013
7. A syllabic nasal is possible at word initial position [in Dagaare syllable structure] although phonetically, especially when produced with a lento tempo, it is common for it to "expone" as VC. | Samuel Gyasi Obeng, 1999

EXPONENCE

1. (Grammar) Any relation between a linguistic unit, structure, etc. and its realization in speech, and any relation of realization by which this is mediated. E.g. an exponent of stress, as a phonological unit, might be the lengthening of a syllable. | Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics, 2014
2. (Grammar) For many linguists, "exponence" has the same meaning as realization, actualization, manifestation, and some less frequent alternatives. The verb related to it is expound, synonymous with realize, actualize, etc. That which expounds is an exponent.
    Once upon a time, the use of "expound" was regarded as a distinguishing feature of the linguistics of John R. Firth and his followers in the London School, and realize (or actualize etc.) was used more generally outside British linguistics. The term "exponence" and its relatives and synonyms have to do with the correspondence between the categories of some analytic level and those of another. Most often, they are used of relations between more abstract and more concrete categories, especially within a framework which conducts its analyses of language metaphorically moving from meaning "down" to pronunciation or orthography (cf. Firth 1957).
    Examples of exponence-relations might include:
   1. Phonemes expounded as speech sounds.
   2. Any unit expounded by its allo-units.
   3. (Sets of) abstract grammatical features expounded by real morphological markers.
    In such a framework, exponents might be viewed as devices by means of which properties of "higher" categories might be recognized. | Richard Coates, 2000

EXPRESSIVE
(Grammar; Semantics) A class that encompasses many different expressions whose main function is to display some kind of evaluative attitude or emotion, mostly of the speaker. Examples for expressives are expressive attributive adjectives (1), epithets (2).

1. I have to mow the damn lawn.
2. That bastard Kaplan was promoted.

EXPRESSIVE CONTENT
(Semantics) Semantic contribution that conveys non truth-conditional information about the speaker's attitude/emotive status. | ?

EXTENDED PROJECTION PRINCIPLE

1. (Syntax) All clauses must have subjects, and lexical information is expressed at all levels. [Spec,TP] must be filled. | The TrevTutor, 2017
2. (Syntax) The extended projection principle (EPP) is a linguistic hypothesis about subjects. It was proposed by Noam Chomsky as an addendum to the projection principle. The basic idea of the EPP is that clauses must contain a noun phrase or determiner phrase in the subject position (i.e. in the specifier of a tense phrase or inflectional phrase or in the specifier of a verb phrase in languages in which subjects don't raise to TP/IP, e.g. Welsh).
    Most verbs require meaningful subjects—for example, kick in Tom kicked the ball takes the subject Tom. However, other verbs do not require (and in fact, do not permit) meaningful subjects—for example, one can say it rains but not the sky rains. The EPP states that regardless of whether the main predicate assigns a meaningful theta role to a subject, a subject must be present syntactically. As a result, verbs that do not assign external theta roles will appear with subjects that are either dummy pronouns (e.g. expletive it, there), or ones which have been moved into subject position from a lower position (e.g., subject of an embedded clause after the verbs, like seem, appear, etc). | Wikipedia, 2021
3. (Syntax) A principle which extends the Projection Principle with the requirement that clauses have subjects.
     The EPP requires that sentence (1) have an expletive subject (to which no theta-role is assigned):
   1. It is raining.
    (Chomsky 1981, 1986) | Utrecht Lexicon of Linguistics, 2001

EXTENSION
(Philosophical Semantics; Philosophy of Language) The set of things a concept or expression extends to, or applies to, if it is the sort of concept or expression that a single object by itself can satisfy. Concepts and expressions of this sort are monadic or 'one-place' concepts and expressions.
 So the extension of the word dog is the set of all (past, present and future) dogs in the world: the set includes Fido, Rover, Lassie, Rex, and so on. The extension of the phrase Wikipedia reader includes each person who has ever read Wikipedia, including you.
 The extension of a whole statement, as opposed to a word or phrase, is defined (since Gottlob Frege's "On Sense and Reference") as its truth value. So the extension of Lassie is famous is the logical value 'true', since Lassie is famous.
 Some concepts and expressions are such that they don't apply to objects individually, but rather serve to relate objects to objects. For example, the words before and after do not apply to objects individually—it makes no sense to say Jim is before or Jim is after—but to one thing in relation to another, as in The wedding is before the reception and The reception is after the wedding. Such relational or polyadic ('many-place') concepts and expressions have, for their extension, the set of all sequences of objects that satisfy the concept or expression in question. So the extension of before is the set of all (ordered) pairs of objects such that the first one is before the second one. | Wikipedia, 2023

EXTERNAL ARGUMENT

1. (Syntax) Argument of a predicate X, which is not contained in the maximal projection of X. In general, this is the subject of a predicate.
    In (1), John is the external argument of the verb buy, and is not part of its maximal projection VP.
   1. John [_VP buys books]
    An argument of a predicate X which is contained in its maximal projection is called the internal argument. In (1) the NP books is the internal argument of the verb buy. (Chomsky 1981, 1986; Williams 1980) | Utrecht Lexicon of Linguistics, 2001
2. (Syntax) Predicates, or verb phrases, take arguments. Broadly, arguments can be divided into two types: internal or external. Internal arguments are those that are contained within the maximal projection of the verb phrase, and there can be more than one of them (Levin and Rappaport 1986, Spencer 1991, Williams 1981). "External arguments" are those that are not contained within the maximal projection of the verb phrase and are typically the subject of the sentence (Chomsky 1981, 1986; Williams 1980).
    Examples:

   Sentence	Internal argument(s)	External argument
   Karen [VP went to the store]	[DP the store]	[DP Karen]
   Karen [VP drove herself to the store]	[DP herself], [DP the store]	[DP Karen]

    | Wikipedia, 2023

EXTERNAL POSSESSION

1. (Syntax) In a number of languages, a possessor of a subject or an object can be expressed as a separate constituent and behave like an argument of the verb. The following are examples from some languages exhibiting the external possession construction:
   1. Spanish
      a.
       

      El
      The

      enfermero
      nurse

      le
      him-DAT

      lavó
      washed

      la
      the

      cara
      face

      al
      to-the

      paciente
      patient

        'The nurse washed the patient's face for him.' (Kempchinsky 1992)
      b.
       

      El
      the

      hombre
      man

      le
      him-DAT

      cortó
      cut

      las
      the

      ramas
      branches

      al
      to-the

      árbol
      tree

        'The man cut the branches of the tree.'
   2. Hebrew
      a.
       

      Gil
      Gil

      higdil
      enlarged

      le-Rina
      to-Rina

      et
      ACC

      ha-tmuna
      the-picture

        'Gil enlarged Rina's picture.' (Landau 1999)
      b.
       

      ha-yalda
      the-girl

      kilkela
      spoiled

      l-Dan
      to-Dan

      'et
      ACC

      ha-radio
      the-radio

        'The girl broke Dan's radio.' (Borer and Grodzinsky 1986)
   3. German
      a.
       

      Jan
      Jan

      hat
      has

      der
       

      Maria
      Maria-DAT

      die
      the

      Haare
      hair-ACC

      geschnitten
      cut

        'Jan cut Mary's hair yesterday.'
      b.
       

      Tim
      Tim

      hat
      has

      der
      the

      Nachbarin
      neighbor.DAT.FEM

      das
      the

      Auto
      car-ACC

      gewaschen.
      washed

        'Tim washed the neighbor's car.' (Lee-Schoenfeld 2003)
2. (Syntax) External possession constructions are quite common cross-linguistically, and they have received significant attention in the the theoretical literature because they exhibit a(n at least apparent) mismatch between syntax and semantics: a noun phrase behaves semantically as a possessor of another noun, but syntactically as an argument of the verb.
    There are three families of approaches to the phenomenon (cf. Deal 2017):
   1. The possessor is base-generated as an argument of the verb. The possessor reading arises via binding of an operator within the DP (e.g. Borer and Grodzinsky 1986). This analysis is akin to a control configuration.
   2. The possessor is base-generated inside the DP, where it receives its thematic role. It then moves to a position within the vP. This analysis is akin to a raising configuration.
       This position could be a thematic position (e.g., Lee-Schoenfeld 2006) or a position that is only associated with case/licensing (e.g., Landau 1999, Deal 2013).
   3. The possessor is introduced by a low applicative, and it is the semantics of the low applicative that give rise to the possession reading (e.g. Pylkkänen 2008, Nie 2019).
    | Maria Kouneli, 2023

EXTRACTION
(Syntax) A syntactic process which moves a constituent from within a unit to a position outside that unit. | David Crystal, 2011

EXTRAVERSION
(Syntax) In Yucatec Maya:

1. a.
    

   hun-túul
   one-CL.AN

   máak
   person

   túun
   PROG:SBJ.3

   yáakan
   groan

   mèen
   because

   hach
   very

   yah
   ache

   baʼx
   what

   k
   IMPF

   yùuchul
   SBJ.3:happen:INCMPL

   tiʼ
   him

     'a person groans because it hurts him what is happening to him' (MPK_016)
   b.
    

   tu
   PRV:SBJ.3

   yáakan-t-ah
   groan-TRR-CMPL

   u
   POSS.3

   yahiloʼ
   ache:REL:D2

     'he bemoaned his pain' (ACC_0463)
2. a.
    

   tin
   PRV:SBJ.1.SG

   bul-ah
   gamble-CMPL

   tuláakal
   all

   in
   POSS.1.SG

   tàakʼin
   money

     'I gambled away all my money' (RMC_0231)
   b.
    

   koʼneʼx
   lets.go

   bùul
   gamble\INTRV

     'let's play cards' (RMC_0234)

Page Last Modified January 6, 2024

 

B a c k   T o   I n d e x