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Dispelling the cloud of unknowing: More on the syntactic nature of neg raisingIn Ken Turner & Laurence R. Horn (eds.), Pragmatics, truth and underspecification: towards an atlas of meaning, Brill. 2018.
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14Smuggling in syntax (edited book)Oxford University Press. 2020.One of the fundamental properties of human language is movement, where a constituent moves from one position in a sentence to another position. Syntactic theory has long been concerned with properties of movement, including locality restrictions. This work investigates how different movement operations interact with one another, focussing on the special case of smuggling. The contributions in this volume each describe different areas where smuggling derivations play a role, including passives, c…Read more
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11Negating gradable adjectivesNatural Language Semantics 31 (2): 121-137. 2023.In this short paper, I analyze the syntax and semantics of the prefix _un_- with gradable adjectives like _unhappy_ and compare it to the syntax and semantics of _not_. Within the framework of Collins and Postal ( 2014 ), I propose that _un_- and _not_ have the same semantics but negate different constituents, accounting for the differences in interpretation.
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IntroductionIn Adriana Belletti & Chris Collins (eds.), Smuggling in syntax, Oxford University Press. 2020.
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A Smuggling Approach to the Dative AlternationIn Adriana Belletti & Chris Collins (eds.), Smuggling in syntax, Oxford University Press. 2020.
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4Groaning for the Kingdom of God: Spirituality, Social Justice, and the Witness of the BlumhardtsJournal of Spiritual Formation and Soul Care 6 (1): 56-75. 2013.
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8Outer negation of universal quantifier phrasesLinguistics and Philosophy 43 (3): 233-246. 2020.This paper discusses two ways of negating DP quantifier phrases. In one way, NEG modifies the quantifier D directly with the structure [[NEG D] NP]. In the other way, NEG modifies the whole DP with the structure [NEG DP]. I give evidence based on negative polarity items that negated universal quantifier phrases like not every student involve outer negation.
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25Not evenNatural Language Semantics 24 (4): 291-303. 2016.:This paper proposes an analysis of the semantics of even that is consistent with the assumptions about the syntax and semantics of negation in Collins and Postal. First, I review the distribution of negation, showing how negation may modify quantificational expressions where it gives rise to scope freezing effects. Second, I discuss the fact that even-phrases can be modified by negation, as in Not even John is there. On the basis of this fact, I argue that even is a quantifier. Lastly, I show t…Read more
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14A scope freezing effect with negated quantifier phrasesNatural Language Semantics 25 (4): 315-327. 2017.I document a scope freezing effect found with negated quantifier phrases ). In a sentence with a negated quantifier phrase of the form [NEG DP1], no quantifier phrase DP2 can take scope between NEG and DP1. I show how this scope freezing effect can be explained in terms of the analysis of negated quantifier phrases given in Collins and Postal and Collins.
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James Madison UniversityUndergraduate
Harrisonburg, Virginia, United States of America