March 1st: Bar-Lev & Fox 2020
We read Free choice, simplification, and Innocent Inclusion by Bar-Lev & Fox. Below you can find the original abstract from the paper.
PAPER: Bar-Lev, M. E., & Fox, D. (2020). Free choice, simplification, and innocent inclusion. Natural Language Semantics, 1-49. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11050-020-09162-y
WHEN: Monday 1 March 2021, 15:00 - 16:30 (Amsterdam time)
ZOOM LINK: https://uva-live.zoom.us/j/84684467805
PDF: https://formal-semantics.github.io/download/Bar-Lev-Fox2020.pdf
DISCUSSION NOTES: https://formal-semantics.github.io/download/notes_bar-lev.pdf
ABSTRACT:
We propose a modification of the exhaustivity operator from Fox 2007 that on top of negating all the Innocently Excludable alternatives affirms all the ‘Innocently Includable’ ones. The main result of supplementing the notion of Innocent Exclusion with that of Innocent Inclusion is that it allows the exhaustivity operator to identify cells in the partition induced by the set of alternatives (assign a truth value to every alternative) whenever possible. We argue for this property of ‘cell identification’ based on the simplification of disjunctive antecedents and the effects on free choice that arise as the result of the introduction of universal quantifiers. We further argue for our proposal based on the interaction of only with free choice disjunction.