Scalarity at the syntax-semantics interface (SYSSI)

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Daniel Hole
• Subject Area: General and Comparative Linguistics, Experimental Linguistics, Typology, Non-European Languages
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 550572611

The planned project aims to shed more light on the syntax and semantics of scalarity, a notion that figures prominently in a wide range of linguistic works on very diverse languages. We take this pervasiveness in linguistic theory to be paralleled by one in human cognition, where scalarity appears to be of utmost importance. Scalarity has been conventionalized in various ways, giving rise to a diversity of scalar sub-phenomena in natural language. We will focus on a rather large, though clearly delineated subset of these, and the way different modules interact in bringing them about, most importantly syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. The work we will conduct is broadly defined by, but not limited to, scalar particles like 'even' and 'only' across languages and their appearance in context. Three work packages address (i) the phenomenon of minimal sufficiency readings for exclusive scalar particles in bi- and monoclausal environments; (ii) the contribution of scalar particles to compositionally complex modal expressions in Chinese; as well as (iii) a systematic description of the syntax and semantics of scalar particles in Chinese and ist implications for a crosslinguistic syntax of scalarity. The crosslinguistic perspective we take mainly includes, but also exceeds, contrasts and similarities between Chinese, English and German (with occasional excursions to Vietnamese), allowing us to cover an unprecedented breadth of - often novel - data simultaneously and develop cross-linguistically valid, though parsimonious, analyses. To the best of our knowledge, scalarity has never been scrutinized at such a general, all-encompassing level.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Austria, China, Israel, USA
• Cooperation Partners: Professor Dr. Daniel Büring; Professorin Yael Greenberg, Ph.D.; Professor Aron Hirsch, Ph.D.; Professorin Dr. Magdalena Kaufmann; Professor Mingming Liu, Ph.D.