Introducing recent theories of the semantics of plurals, argues that plural discourse involves entities corresponding to sets of individuals, but nothing corresponding to higher order sets. Buttresses the argument with explanations of data and methodology, and discussions of verb-phrase denotations, distributivity, reciprocity, floated quantifiers, sorting the domain, collective nouns, and other topics. Accessible to readers with an introductory level background in model-theoretic semantics. Most of the material is based on a 1991 doctoral dissertation for the University of Massachusetts-Amherst; some has been published separately. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.
Pluralities begins with a concise introduction to recent theories of the semantics of plurals. The author argues, contrary to many of those theories, that plural discourse involves entities corresponding to sets of individuals but nothing corresponding to higher order sets. In the course of the book, the reader will become acquainted with the linguistics data that lies at the heart of this debate including extensive discussion of reciprocals and of collectives (such as the committee). In addition, a unique account of distributivity is proposed in which collective/distributive ambiguities are analyzed in pragmatic terms. The account capitalizes on the idea that the universe may be partitioned differently at different points in a discourse.
Pluralities should be accessible to those with an introductory level background in model-theoretic semantics.
