Problems for a uniform analysis of ancora in Italian
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Daniele Panizza
Daniele Panizza is an Assistant Professor of Linguistics at the University of Messina, Department of Cognitive Sciences, Psychology, Education, and Cultural Studies. He has conducted theoretical and experimental work on several topics including the interpretation of numerals, scalar implicatures, scalar particles, Negative Polarity Items, and attitude verbs.
and
Yasutada Sudo
Yasutada Sudo is a Professor of Linguistics at the Department of Linguistics of University College London. He has worked on a number of topics on the semantics and pragmatics such as presupposition, implicature, plurality, question semantics, pronominal anaphora, focus semantics.
Abstract
The Italian additive particle ancora has uses that can be paraphrased by again and still in English. Michela Ippolito’s uniform analysis of still and again in English could be the foundation for a uniform analysis of the two uses of ancora, but we argue that it faces serious challenges. Her core idea is that still and again have the same presupposition about a past eventuality and differ only in the assertion such that still asserts that the same eventuality is still happening at the reference time while again asserts that another eventuality is. The idea has appealing features, but this analysis of again fails to entail the ‘discontinuity inference’ that the past eventuality came to an end before the reference time, and furthermore, this analysis of still is not general enough to account for examples where the presupposition and assertion are about different eventualities. Through the critical discussion, we will elucidate the specific issues that need to be solved in order to achieve a uniform analysis of the different uses of ancora.
About the authors
Daniele Panizza is an Assistant Professor of Linguistics at the University of Messina, Department of Cognitive Sciences, Psychology, Education, and Cultural Studies. He has conducted theoretical and experimental work on several topics including the interpretation of numerals, scalar implicatures, scalar particles, Negative Polarity Items, and attitude verbs.
Yasutada Sudo is a Professor of Linguistics at the Department of Linguistics of University College London. He has worked on a number of topics on the semantics and pragmatics such as presupposition, implicature, plurality, question semantics, pronominal anaphora, focus semantics.
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank the anonymous reviewer for constructive and useful feedback. All remaining errors are our own.
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Thematic issue in pragmatics and philosophy (TIPP)
- Research Articles
- The cultural evolution of speech act norms
- On the unification of which-interrogatives and alternative-interrogatives
- A functional theory of proper names: Insights from quasi-proper names
- The foundational role of sound quality for understanding demonstratives
- Problems for a uniform analysis of ancora in Italian
- Speech act theory of quotation: Quotation indirect quotation and Japanese quasi-quotation
- Topicality, accessibility, and causality in anaphora resolution: An eye-tracking study of null and overt pronouns in Italian
- Clause-level coordination and discourse continuity in Tohono O’odham
- Obituary
- Istvan Kecskes, Distinguished Professor of the State University of New York, affectionate friend and mentor
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Thematic issue in pragmatics and philosophy (TIPP)
- Research Articles
- The cultural evolution of speech act norms
- On the unification of which-interrogatives and alternative-interrogatives
- A functional theory of proper names: Insights from quasi-proper names
- The foundational role of sound quality for understanding demonstratives
- Problems for a uniform analysis of ancora in Italian
- Speech act theory of quotation: Quotation indirect quotation and Japanese quasi-quotation
- Topicality, accessibility, and causality in anaphora resolution: An eye-tracking study of null and overt pronouns in Italian
- Clause-level coordination and discourse continuity in Tohono O’odham
- Obituary
- Istvan Kecskes, Distinguished Professor of the State University of New York, affectionate friend and mentor
