This paper proposes a unified dependent type analysis of three puzzling phenomena: inversely linked interpretations, weak definite readings in possessives and Haddock-type readings. We argue that the three problematic readings have the same underlying surface structure, and that the surface structure postulated can be interpreted properly and compositionally using dependent types. The dependent type account proposed is the first, to the best of our knowledge, to formally connect the three phenomena. A further advantage of our proposal over previous analyses is (...) that it offers a principled solution to the puzzle of why both inversely linked interpretations and weak definite readings are blocked with certain prepositions. (shrink)

In my paper I focus on the linguistic phenomenon of multiple quantification. My aim is to defend the grammatical ambiguity hypothesis, the view that a multiple quantified sentence of a language L is semantically ambiguous if a grammar for L (understood as the cognitive mechanism that maps sentences onto meanings) encodes a class of interpretations - specifies the space of possible interpretations of that sentence. I argue both against the position of a unitary semantics: ambiguous sentences encode a single sense, (...) a pragmatic (context dependent) derivation is essential in arriving at the other interpretations; and against that of radical pragmatics: ambiguous sentences encode no senses at all, a pragmatic derivation is essential in arriving at any interpretation (at all). In my attempt at providing a plausible account of semantic ambiguity, I use a combination of approaches and methods: theories of grammar (such as Government and Binding Theory), tools of mathematical logic, linguistic studies and the results of psycholinguistic experiments. (shrink)