Browsing by Author "Bochnak, Ryan"

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    Optional Past Tense in Wolof
    (2019-10-28) Bochnak, Ryan; Martinović, Martina
    In this paper, we discuss the interpretation of the past temporal marker oon in Wolof (Niger-Congo; Senegal), in light of recent claims in the literature regarding its status as a so-called “discontinuous past.” We show that the cessation inference associated with oon is a conversational implicature. Thus, oon can receive an analysis as a plain semantic past tense.
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    Temporal Remoteness And Vagueness In Past Time Reference In Luganda
    (2018-05-23) Bochnak, Ryan; Klecha, Peter
    In this paper, we point out that past time operators (PTOs) in Luganda, a language that makes three past time remoteness distinctions, are vague and context-dependent, and provide an analysis whereby PTOs contain context-sensitive measure functions akin to gradable adjectives. We call the relevant PTOs RECENT, INTERMEDIATE, and DISTANT, respectively. Luganda PTOs give rise to borderline cases, where it is difficult to decide whether a past reference time (RT) counts as ‘recent’, ‘intermediate’ or ‘distant’. What counts as ‘recent’, ‘intermediate’ or ‘distant’ is context dependent; e.g., there are contexts where REC is acceptable with an RT of a few weeks ago, and contexts where DIST is acceptable for an RT of a few minutes ago. We assume that like tenses in English, PTOs in matrix clauses in Luganda restrict the relation between utterance time (UT) and RT. However, while English past tense presupposes that RT precedes UT (e.g. Kratzer 1998), Luganda PTOs additionally encode as part of their meaning a vague, context-dependent measure function that compares the length of a time interval to a contextual standard.
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    Two-Place Exceed Comparatives in Luganda
    (2018-05-23) Bochnak, Ryan
    Research on comparative constructions recognizes the need for both a 3-place (“phrasal”) comparative operator, alongside a 2-place (“clausal”) operator (e.g., Heim 1985; Bhatt & Takahashi 2011). Recent cross-linguistic work on comparatives has argued that exceed comparative constructions are phrasal comparatives, making use of a 3-place operator (e.g., Beck et al. 2009; Howell 2013 for Yorùbá). While certain exceed constructions in Luganda can indeed be analyzed in this way, I argue here for the idea that others involve a 2-place operator that compares two degrees directly. I treat nominalized adjectives as measure functions in the sense of Bartsch & Vennemann 1972 and Kennedy 1997: they map an individual to its maximal degree on a scale. This allows us to model possessed adjective nominalizations similar to Barker’s (1995) analysis of relational nouns, although whereas for Barker a possessive DP denotes a predicate of individuals, in this case the resulting DP denotes a degree.