Semantics Research Group Meeting, July 17, 2015

Time:

3:30pm, July 17, 2015

Place:

Keio University, Mita Campus,
South Annex, 7th floor

Talk 1

Speaker:

Martin Hackl (MIT)

Title:

Only: Acquisition and Processing

Abstract:

Available here.

Talk 2

Speaker:

Yasutada Sudo (University College London)

Title:

Countable nouns and the role of classifiers in Japanese

Abstract:

I argue against the semantic view on obligatory classifiers in Japanese, according to which the semantics of nouns is (partly) responsible for the obligatory use of classifiers with numerals (Chierchia 1998a,b, Rothstein 2007, Borer 2005, Krifka 2008). I raise data suggesting that Japanese has count nouns that are semantically compatible with counting constructions, just as in non-classifier languages like English. I conjecture that classifiers are obligatory with numerals in Japanese because of the properties of numerals in this language, not because of the properties of nouns (cf. Krifka 1995, Bale & Coon 2014).