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1694Le implicature scalariAphex 11 1-35. 2015.Negli ultimi quindici anni la letteratura filosofico-linguistica ha registrato un rinnovato interesse per i meccanismi di implicatura, specialmente del tipo scalare. In buona parte, l’interesse stato suscitato dall’emergere di una prospettiva grammaticale, secondo la quale i fenomeni di implicatura scalare sarebbero conseguenza di un meccanismo interpretativo incassato nella logica delle lingue naturali, e quindi riferibile al componente semantico dell’architettura cognitiva umana. L’obiettivo d…Read more
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635In this book an introduction to the grammatical view of the scalar implicature phenomenon is presented. A detailed overview is offered concerning the embeddability of the exhaustivity operator, and the contextual dependance of the alternatives generation process. The theoretical implications of the grammatical view with respect to the abductive character of the scalar implicature are also discussed. A pragmatic account of the assertive content is proposed in correlation with a blindness-based ac…Read more
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522Contextual blindness in implicature computationNatural Language Semantics 25 (2): 109-124. 2017.In this paper, I defend a grammatical account of scalar implicatures. In particular, I submit new evidence in favor of the contextual blindness principle, assumed in recent versions of the grammatical account. I argue that mismatching scalar implicatures can be generated even when the restrictor of the universal quantifier in a universal alternative is contextually known to be empty. The crucial evidence consists of a hitherto unnoticed oddness asymmetry between formally analogous existential se…Read more
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491On logicality and natural logicNatural Language Semantics 29 (3): 501-506. 2021.In this paper we focus on the logicality of language, i.e. the idea that the language system contains a deductive device to exclude analytic constructions. Puzzling evidence for the logicality of language comes from acceptable contradictions and tautologies. The standard response in the literature involves assuming that the language system only accesses analyticities that are due to skeletons as opposed to standard logical forms. In this paper we submit evidence in support of alternative account…Read more
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384Analyticity and modulation. Broadening the rescale perspective on language logicalityInternational Review of Pragmatics 1 (13): 1-13. 2021.Acceptable analyticities, i.e. contradictions or tautologies, constitute problematic evidence for the idea that language includes a deductive system. In recent discussion, two accounts have been presented in the literature to explain the available evidence. According to one of the accounts, grammatical analyticities are accessible to the system but a pragmatic strengthening repair mechanism can apply and prevent the structures from being actually interpreted as contradictions or tautologies. The…Read more
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321Divertissement quasigramsciano su logica e linguaggioRivista Italiana di Filosofia del Linguaggio 15 (1): 148-153. 2021.This note focuses on the interaction between logic and grammar and discusses whether logical rules are irrelevant for syntactic formation. Classical evidence for the independence of syntax from logic comes from the acceptability of analytic propositions. Based on this piece of evidence, various authors in traditional discussions pronounced that language is illogical. This note focuses instead on two ways to oppose such pronouncements. In Gramscian linguistics, one can maintain that language is n…Read more
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306Una nota sulla pragmatica musicalede Musica 1 (24): 173-178. 2020.In questa nota si fornisce un esempio preliminare di analisi pragmatica delle strutture musicali. Nell’analisi, la stipulazione di una pragmatica musicale segue strettamente recenti proposte presentate in ambito semantico, in cui si illustrano le potenziali virtù rappresentazionali delle strutture musicali. In particolare, in questa nota si suggerisce la presenza di strategie di ricostruzione dei significati musicali le quali intervengono a prevenire la realizzazione di contenuti semantici contr…Read more
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247Rhetorically-based scalar-additivityProceedings of Salt 32. 2022.Even-like particles have widely been analyzed as inducing scalar and additive presuppositions (cf. Horn 1969; Karttunen & Peters 1979; Rooth 1992; Gast & van der Auwera 2011). However, the additivity of even has been controversial since at least Horn 1992 and increasingly called into question (see Greenberg & Umbach 2021 for references); Greenberg specifically argues that scalar even-like particles can vary in additivity. This claim is surprising in light of the typological study in Gast & van d…Read more
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118Relevance without existenceGlossa 9 (1): 1-13. 2024.The present paper presents experimental evidence confirming that contextually mismatching scalar implicatures can be generated even when quantifiers range over empty domains. In the literature, this possibility has been interpreted as providing further evidence for a grammatical approach to scalar implicatures. The main result presented here is that scalar sentences with empty domains are judged as more infelicitous when associated with a mismatching implicature than variants with the same empty…Read more
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57Pragmatics, Semantics and the Case of Scalar Implicatures (edited book)Palgrave. 2014.This book contains an advanced debate on the nature of scalar implicatures, one of the most popular topics in philosophical linguistics over the past 20 years. Leading authorities in the study of the semantics–pragmatics interface have contributed chapters from a range of perspectives; they address the crucial components of scalar implicatures, including the exhaustivity operator, alternatives and contextual optionality. The book offers an up-to-date presentation of the phenomenon of scalar impl…Read more
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39Some Remarks on the Scalar Implicatures DebateIn Pragmatics, Semantics and the Case of Scalar Implicatures, Palgrave. pp. 1-12. 2014.In this paper I describe how the authors involved in the scalar implicatures debate develop only partially co-extensional theories of scalar implicatures starting from a common range of core facts. I consider three components of the scalar implicature mechanism: the exhaustivity operator, the alternatives generation and the avoid-contradiction procedures.
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33Linguistic and Psycholinguistic Approaches on Implicatures and Presuppositions (edited book)Palgrave-Macmillan. 2017.This book discusses developments in the study of implicatures and presuppositions, drawing on recent linguistic and psycholinguistic literature. It provides original discussions of specific formal aspects of the theoretical reconstruction of these phenomena. The authors offer innovative experimental analyses in which crucial processing questions are addressed, and new experimental methodologies are introduced. The result is an advanced debate featuring broad empirical coverage of the issues, as …Read more
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301 Game theory and Gricean pragmaticsIn Erich Rast & Luiz Carlos Baptista (eds.), Meaning and Context, Peter Lang. pp. 2--269. 2010.
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9Senso e controsenso. Uno studio filosofico su grammatica e logica delle lingue naturaliCarocci editore. 2024.Il volume introduce una nuova prospettiva sul rapporto tra senso e controsenso nelle lingue naturali. Le concezioni tradizionali attribuivano alla grammatica il compito di definire l’ambito della sensatezza linguistica – di ciò che ha senso dire in una data lingua – e presumevano che nel far ciò essa ammettesse come possibili (e quindi sensate) strutture che non trasmettono informazioni significative sul mondo. È il caso delle contraddizioni classiche, che non a caso i parlanti giudicano ammissi…Read more
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6Scalar Implicatures, Communication, and Language EvolutionIn Piotr Stalmaszczyk (ed.), Philosophy of Language and Linguistics: Volume I: The Formal Turn; Volume II: The Philosophical Turn, De Gruyter. pp. 199-214. 2010.
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Università degli Studi di SienaRegular Faculty
Siena, Italy
Areas of Interest
Formal Semantics |
Pragmatics |
Logic in Philosophy |