October 24

Decomposition and Compositionality

Dag Westerstahl

University of Goteborg

I discuss the circumstances under which a type <1> quantifier (e.g. from an NP) can be decomposed into a type <1,1> quantifier (determiner) and a set (noun), by fixing the first argument of the former to the latter. There are some mildly interesting logical facts, and applications to questions of compositionality, as well as, more specifically, to the semantics of possessives and reciprocals.