25 May
2011
25 May
'11
6:06 p.m.
The next talk in the CDC seminar series will be given by:
Michael Brody, UCL/Hungarian Academy of Sciences
Date: Wednesday, June 1, 2011, 5 PM
Location: CEU Cognitive Development Center, Hattyú u. 14, 3rd floor
The default human
Abstract: The pronoun *they* in a sentence like (1) is ambiguous:
(1) At the watchmakers shop, they buzz every morning.
*They * can refer to concrete people or objects, as when I am thinking for
example of Peter and John or I might be having a couple of watches in mind.
Another, more interesting, reading is where *they* picks no specific
referents. On this interpretation (1) means something like (2a)
(2) a. At the watchmakers shop, some people buzz every morning
(possibly, but not necessarily by making
watches buzz)
b.NOT: At the watchmakers shop, watches buzz every morning
In spite of the fact that the contextually natural interpretation would
require an inanimate referent (watches), and nothing in the structure
overtly signals the necessity of a human referent, as indicated by (2b) a
nonhuman subject is impossible on this non-specific reading. I will show
that this phenomenon is very general and stable both cross-linguistically
and across various constructions. I'll provide a partial explanation and
raise the possibility of a potential connection with core cognitive systems.
CEU Cognitive Science events calendar: http://cognitivescience.ceu.hu/events
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