Staff View
Resolving wh-/quantifier ambiguities

Descriptive

TitleInfo
Title
Resolving wh-/quantifier ambiguities
SubTitle
integrating theoretical and experimental perspectives
Name (type = personal)
NamePart (type = family)
Achimova
NamePart (type = given)
Asya
NamePart (type = date)
1985-
DisplayForm
Asya Achimova
Role
RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
author
Name (type = personal)
NamePart (type = family)
Musolino
NamePart (type = given)
Julien
DisplayForm
Julien Musolino
Affiliation
Advisory Committee
Role
RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
chair
Name (type = personal)
NamePart (type = family)
Deprez
NamePart (type = given)
Viviane
DisplayForm
Viviane Deprez
Affiliation
Advisory Committee
Role
RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
co-chair
Name (type = personal)
NamePart (type = family)
Syrett
NamePart (type = given)
Kristen
DisplayForm
Kristen Syrett
Affiliation
Advisory Committee
Role
RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
internal member
Name (type = personal)
NamePart (type = family)
Trueswell
NamePart (type = given)
John
DisplayForm
John Trueswell
Affiliation
Advisory Committee
Role
RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
outside member
Name (type = corporate)
NamePart
Rutgers University
Role
RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
degree grantor
Name (type = corporate)
NamePart
Graduate School - New Brunswick
Role
RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
school
TypeOfResource
Text
Genre (authority = marcgt)
theses
OriginInfo
DateCreated (qualifier = exact)
2014
DateOther (qualifier = exact); (type = degree)
2014-05
Place
PlaceTerm (type = code)
xx
Language
LanguageTerm (authority = ISO639-2b); (type = code)
eng
Abstract (type = abstract)
Universal quantifiers, such as every and each, and wh-words interact in complex ways, creating ambiguity. Questions, such as Which toy did every boy pick? may be understood as asking about a single toy, that everybody picked - a single answer, or for pairings of boys and toys of their choice - a pair-list answer. The factors affecting the availability of pair-list answers have played a prominent role in motivating various linguistic theories of questions in syntax and semantics. However, most of the data on the availability of pair-list answers comes from intuitive acceptability judgments, and several kinds of examples are a subject of disagreement in the literature. This dissertation presents experimental results revealing that that the interaction of wh-words and quantifiers is more complex, than originally thought. The analysis developed in the thesis confirms that the acceptability of pair-list answers is affected by the syntactic positions (subject vs. object) and the lexical type of the quantifier phrases. However, contrary to theoretical predictions, the plurality of a wh-phrase does not have a strong effect on the judgments. Furthermore, although pair-list answers to questions with certain object quantifiers are predicted to be unavailable, adults, both naïve speakers and professional linguists, find them acceptable in some cases. Children also access pair-list readings of questions with object-quantifiers. They sometimes understand questions, such as Who picked every toy? as asking about pairing of toys and children such as John picked the car, and Jane picked the truck. Given that in other domains, at the age of four and five, children’s grammatical representations are abstract and elaborate, I maintain that non-adult like patterns of responses in the area of wh-/quantifier interactions are the result of a developing lexicon and discourse parsing, rather than immature grammar, as previously suggested in the developmental literature. I propose that the information structure status of the quantifier phrase (topic vs. focus), rather than its structural position (subject vs. object), affects the availability of pair-list answers. Such answers are available if a quantifier phrase can be understood as a topic. I recast the subject-object asymmetry in wh-/quantifier interactions in terms of information structure. The proposed analysis also accounts for the observed variability among speakers and incorporates the semantic factors affecting the possible readings of questions with quantifiers.
Subject (authority = RUETD)
Topic
Psychology
RelatedItem (type = host)
TitleInfo
Title
Rutgers University Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier (type = RULIB)
ETD
Identifier
ETD_5435
PhysicalDescription
Form (authority = gmd)
electronic resource
InternetMediaType
application/pdf
InternetMediaType
text/xml
Extent
xiii, 189 p. : ill.
Note (type = degree)
Ph.D.
Note (type = bibliography)
Includes bibliographical references
Note (type = statement of responsibility)
by Asya Achimova
Subject (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
English language--Quantifiers
Subject (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
English language--Psychological aspects
RelatedItem (type = host)
TitleInfo
Title
Graduate School - New Brunswick Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier (type = local)
rucore19991600001
Location
PhysicalLocation (authority = marcorg); (displayLabel = Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey)
NjNbRU
Identifier (type = doi)
doi:10.7282/T3M043PD
Genre (authority = ExL-Esploro)
ETD doctoral
Back to the top

Rights

RightsDeclaration (ID = rulibRdec0006)
The author owns the copyright to this work.
RightsHolder (type = personal)
Name
FamilyName
Achimova
GivenName
Asya
Role
Copyright Holder
RightsEvent
Type
Permission or license
DateTime (encoding = w3cdtf); (qualifier = exact); (point = start)
2014-04-10 16:23:41
AssociatedEntity
Name
Asya Achimova
Role
Copyright holder
Affiliation
Rutgers University. Graduate School - New Brunswick
AssociatedObject
Type
License
Name
Author Agreement License
Detail
I hereby grant to the Rutgers University Libraries and to my school the non-exclusive right to archive, reproduce and distribute my thesis or dissertation, in whole or in part, and/or my abstract, in whole or in part, in and from an electronic format, subject to the release date subsequently stipulated in this submittal form and approved by my school. I represent and stipulate that the thesis or dissertation and its abstract are my original work, that they do not infringe or violate any rights of others, and that I make these grants as the sole owner of the rights to my thesis or dissertation and its abstract. I represent that I have obtained written permissions, when necessary, from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis or dissertation and will supply copies of such upon request by my school. I acknowledge that RU ETD and my school will not distribute my thesis or dissertation or its abstract if, in their reasonable judgment, they believe all such rights have not been secured. I acknowledge that I retain ownership rights to the copyright of my work. I also retain the right to use all or part of this thesis or dissertation in future works, such as articles or books.
Copyright
Status
Copyright protected
Availability
Status
Open
Reason
Permission or license
Back to the top

Technical

RULTechMD (ID = TECHNICAL1)
ContentModel
ETD
OperatingSystem (VERSION = 5.1)
windows xp
Back to the top
Version 8.5.5
Rutgers University Libraries - Copyright ©2024