Abstract
This paper examines the stage-level/individual-level hypothesis (Kratzer 1989; Diesing 1988) from the point of view of modern Scottish Gaelic. This language exhibits two syntactically distinct predicational structures, and in particular, two distinct subject positions distinguishable on the basis of word order. While the distinction between the two positions can be shown to support the stage/individual-level hypothesis in one sense, the picture is muddied by the fact that many habitual or ‘characteristic’ sentences seem to be formed according to the stage-level subject construction type.
The solution proposed relies on two novel elements. First, it distinguishes the classical Davisonian event variable from the Kratzerian one hypothesized to be the hallmark of the stage-level sentence type. And secondly, it makes a strict logical separation between two types of generics: generics proper, which involve quantifying over an individual variable; and habituals, which only involve quantification over an event variable. These are represented by two distinct logical types which may nevertheless give rise to similar truth conditions in context.
I show that the analysis can be made to account for tense interpretation, the scope of genericity, and the facts of syntactic complementation in Scottish Gaelic. To the extent that the solution is successful, it is evidence for a quite direct mapping between syntactic and semantic representations and for the important intuitions behind the initial Kratzer/Diesing stage vs. individual-level hypothesis.
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This paper would never have been written if it hadn't been for the interest and help of a number of native Scottish Gaelic speakers. I gratefully thank Rachel Martin, Christine Primrose, Chrissie McInnes, Eosaph MacIlliosa, Seonaidh McDonald (Seonaidh Beag), and the late Donnie Campbell. Special thanks go to Rody Gorman for detailed and painstaking judgments on often quite subtle data. I am especially grateful to Caoimhím O Donnaile, who was so generous with his time and advice and who regularly conveyed last-minute questions to and from native speakers over email. Thanks must also go more generally to the Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, the Gaelic-speaking college on the Isle of Skye, for their help and support.
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Ramchand, G.C. Two subject positions in Scottish Gaelic: The syntax-semantics interface. Natural Language Semantics 4, 165–191 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00355412
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00355412