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This paper analyzes the mechanisms of syntactic and semantic change involved in the development of the degree modifieralgo“a bit, a little” in Spanish from an indefinite pronoun with inanimate reference meaning “something”. Specifically, it focuses on the distribution of the pronoun in the Medieval and Classical periods of Spanish and its interpretation in partitive and pseudo-partitive constructions. I argue for combination of structural and pragmatic factors in the creation of the degree modifier and relate this change to other diachronic developments of indefinites across languages. I also discuss implications for models of the distribution of degree modifiers crosslinguistically.

This study aims to examine the common features and differences in how the Chinese-character classifier ‘ ben 本’ is used in Chinese, Korean, and Japanese, and will explore the factors that have affected the categorization processes and patterns of the classifier ‘ ben 本.’ Consideration of the differences in the patterns of usage and categorization of the same Chinese classifier in different languages enables us to look into the perception of the world and the socio cultural differences inherent in each language, the differences in the perception of Chinese characters, and the relationship between classifiers.

We very warmly dedicate this volume to the memory of Edit Doron, Anita Mittwoch and Susan Rothstein for their inspiring and outstanding contribution to research on tense, aspect and verb meanings.

The concept of semantic rhythm as the vehicle of making abstraction of an artistic text enables the detection of intentionality and artistic aims inherent for the text. It is the conflict of automatism and intentionality that becomes its basis and enables the widening of rhythmic properties over the macroscopic dimension of a whole work. The rhythmic effects are displayed through the centralization of the semantic space of a text with accentuation (the field structure), through the formation of closed cycles as the textual units and with the rise of distant connections between the remote textual segments. Rhythm is conceived as a non-linear multidimensional phenomenon where the components manifested in text permanently coexist and interact with the latent ones. Semantic rhythm is a particular abstraction, together with the textual semantic net, that is peculiar for its personal location (especially authorization) and positional localization. The relation “part — whole” becomes more important than that of “genus — species” (predicate — subject) determining thus the constructive role of details. This enables describing the semantic rhythm with the names that are reconceived as the partitive designations of some entirety, the rhetoric figure of hendiadys being here taken as an example. The rows of details become the forces of making up textual cycles where the feedback (recursion) between textual components arises as the revelation of its purposefulness. The seclusion of such cycles contributes to the formation of particular textual space and time. It is the subtext that is to be traced behind the interconnection of such cyclic textual elements that they refer to involving thus latent information in the interpretation of a text. The interpretative mission of the rhythmic cycles of details determines their importance for theatre as the instrument of the disclosure of dramatis personae’s intentions that the text of a dramatic play contains. It is in the concept of semantic rhythm as an intentional object that the approaches and experiences of musicology, theatrical study and philology display their mutuality as separate branches of researches of a complex problem.

In this paper, we analyze sentences with a des-complement, that is, a complement introduced by a so-called “partitive article” in the plural, and focus on the impact of this complement on the (a)telicity of the eventuality. Although des-complements generally occur in atelic sentences, we discuss some telic situations in which they are possible. To explain the acceptability of such sentences, we examine various semantic properties of these complements which could play a role in the telic interpretation, such as the presence/absence of an implicit quantity expression in the complement, their type of reference (quantized vs. cumulative; individuated) and specificity. We propose that the des-complements found in telic situations involve a quantity that is known and that this “knowledge” can be formalized in terms of epistemic specificity, as defined in Von Heusinger (2002a, 2002b and subsequent developments).

The purpose of this paper is to provide an internal and an external structures of English Partitive Constructions (EPC). From the superficial level,...

The object of this research is partitive lexicon of the modern Russian language which is united by a complex of language characteristics confirming its field organization system. The subject of consideration is the semantic processes in the lexical-semantic field of partitive lexicon which is revealed by the analysis of the semas of modifications of values in the communicative act. The purpose of the article is to describe intraparcellative and interparcellative transfers of values in the lexical-semantic field of partitive lexicon. Methodology of the component and contextual analysis and also elements of a stylistic method are used. All these methods were applied according to the synchronous description of material. The finding of this research established that intra field variation of lexical-semantic options (25 types of transfers of values) represents its own system multi-scale, multidirectional and the multi-frequency of transfers of the values regulated by language requirements of this microstructure. The comparative tables showing a dynamic proportion of the directions the interparcellative processes and also range of rate of figurative uses included in the work. Analysing the variative relationship the author came to conclusion that almost all constituents of field have potential possibility to conduct intra field transfers of names. The most regular, frequent and divaricate process of variations are observed among high-frequency partitives of the second level of abstractness — elements of a zone of the near periphery. The practical value of results of the research is possible in respect of forecasting of the corresponding semantic innovations.

This article takes a usage-based perspective on the partitive genitive construction in Dutch (iets moois, ‘something beautiful’), which has previously drawn scholarly attention from a theoretical perspective, due to the challenges it presents to Dutch nominal morphosyntax. We will argue that a good understanding of the construction at issue cannot circumvent the enormous variation in the expression of the genitive marker. Within the wide variation space, regular patterns can be discerned, which we uncovered by using mixed-effects logistic regression. This approach allows us to assess the precise contribution of internal factors (e.g. length of the adjective, or the type of quantifier) and external factors (e.g. regional variety, or register), as well as their interactions. This article has three objectives then: first, it wants to contribute to the description of Dutch syntax, second it aspires to advance methodological standards in grammatical investigation, and third, it makes a theoretical plea for a usage-based perspective, with full recognition of variation.

This paper argues that nouns and names, as such, do not refer. Apparently-referring nouns and names have been converted lexically to determiners. Thus nouns and names participate in reference by virtue of dependency on a determiner, either in the syntax, as part of a determiner phrase, or lexically, by conversion. Determiners may be partitive (referring to a subset) or non-partitive (generic), and defi nite or non-defi nite; and various combinations of these subcategories may be expressed either by presence of an independent determiner or by conversion of a noun to a determiner. So, in English, for example, the cows is defi nite and partitive; but converted cows may be either non-defi nite (partitive or not) or defi nite non-partitive (generic). Apparently-referring nouns and names in English are paralleled in some other languages by expressions with a distinct determiner. In French, for instance, conversion is sparing and nouns typically appear with an accompanying determiner: So non-defi nite partitive cows corresponds to des vaches in French, and defi nite non-partitive cows to (one sense of) les vaches. Greek is intermediate in recourse to conversion. Presence of a determiner and conversion are considered to be alternative strategies (syntactic vs. lexical) for permitting nouns to participate in reference. In the absence of these, nouns are predicative, and languages again vary in how predicativity is expressed – though arguably again involving a determiner. Non-singular predicative nouns are often converted to a non-referential determiner. Singulars may or may not be accompanied by a singular non-referential determiner: compare Greek Ine δikiγoros (‘S/he is lawyer’) with English She is a lawyer. What follows concerns a topic intimately connected with early work of Torben Thrane, notably what was published as Thrane (1980). That particular volume originated in work done largely when Torben was a student of John Lyons, who had also been my PhD supervisor. I therefore thought it might be appropriate to pursue here some consequences of remarks of our former supervisor on the semantics of nouns. These emanate from that same period. 1

This paper deals with a group of agentive verbs in Eastern dialects of Basque that show mixed unergative and unaccusative properties. Although they pattern with unergatives in certain aspects, they combine with an absolutive subject and the auxiliary ‘be’, contrary to what one would expect for Basque unergative verbs. Additionally, they behave like unaccusatives in a number of other tests, such as in their inability to take cognate objects and in allowing partitive subjects. The analysis put forward in this paper accounts for the hybrid nature of these verbs. In particular, we claim that their subject is introduced in the specifier of vP, and that it is co-indexed with a thematic but non-pronounced argument of Voice. As a consequence, the subject shows both external and internal properties. This paper thus challenges the mutually exclusive external/internal division of the subject in intransitive verbs and argues that intransitive verbs can be classified into more groups than just two, as also argued elsewhere. Additionally, it argues that the different types of intransitive verbs are grammatically encoded and shaped by different versions of Voice and v. Thus, this analysis assumes the typology of Voice proposed by Schäfer (2008) and developed by Alexiadou, Anagnostopoulou and Schäfer (2015), and extends it to the functional head v. In the case of Anna Pineda, this work has been supported by a postdoctoral research fellowship from the Beatriu de Pinós program of Catalonia’s Department of Economy and Knowledge (2014 BP_A 00165), a Juan de la Cierva-Incorporación fellowship from Spain’s Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (IJCI-2016-30474), and research-project funding from the same ministry (FFI2014-56968-C4-1-P). In the case of Ane Berro, the author acknowledges the research funding received from the Basque Government (IT1169-19), the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (PGC2018-096380-B-I00) and Agence National de la Recherche (ANR-17-CE27-0011-01).

Lithuanian and Finnish both have alternations in object marking involving the notion of partitivity. In Finnish, the case of the direct object of transitive verbs alternates between the accusative and the partitive. Partitive is the default case for the object of a transitive verb and a special feature is required for the assignment of the accusative. In Lithua­nian, the case of the direct object of transitive verbs alternates between the accusative and the partitive genitive. Some functions of the Finnish parti­tive and the Lithuanian partitive genitive in object marking are identical, but some are markedly different. This paper offers an overview of the fac­tors that have been discussed in the literature as affecting the use of parti­tive cases, and also a comparison of their relevance and relative ranking in Finnish and Lithuanian. Keywords: partitivity, object marking, partitive, genitive, accusative, Finnish, Lithuanian

At the heart of this special issue are partitive elements (i. e., partitive articles, partitive pronouns, and partitive case markers) which can express different “shades” of partitivity, namely true partitivity, pseudopartitivity, or indefiniteness, that is, the absence of a part-whole relation in the meaning, in contrast to (pseudo)partitivity. Since these partitive elements express (at least) two such notions, as they can be truly partitive but often are not, the questions around partitivity are complex, interrelated and challenging. This special issue, with a strong and wide crosslinguistic (typological) coverage, deals with two overarching topics: first, the geographical distribution of partitive elements and the identification of potential instances of language contact, and, second, sometimes in combination with the first topic, the formal description and explanation of different partitive constructions.

Pragmatic inferences often subtly depend on the presence or absence of linguistic features. For example, the presence of a partitive construction (of the) increases the strength of a so-called scalar inference: listeners perceive the inference that Chris did not eat all of the cookies to be stronger after hearing "Chris ate some of the cookies" than after hearing the same utterance without a partitive, "Chris ate some cookies." In this work, we explore to what extent neural network sentence encoders can learn to predict the strength of scalar inferences. We first show that an LSTM-based sentence encoder trained on an English dataset of human inference strength ratings is able to predict ratings with high accuracy (r=0.78). We then probe the model's behavior using manually constructed minimal sentence pairs and corpus data. We find that the model inferred previously established associations between linguistic features and inference strength, suggesting that the model learns to use linguistic features to predict pragmatic inferences., Comment: ACL 2020; 16 pages, 8 figures

Korean is a generalized classifier language where classifiers are required for numerals to combine with nominals. This paper presents a number construction where the classifier is absent and the numeral appears prenominally. This construction, which I call the classifier-less number construction (Cl-less NC), results in a definite or a partitive reading where the referent must be familiar: ‘the two women’ or ‘two of the women’. In order to account for this, I argue that Korean postnominal number constructions are ambiguous between a plain number construction and a partitive construction. After motivating and proposing an analysis for the partitive structure, I argue that Cl-less NC is derived from the partitive construction, explaining its distributional restriction and the interpretation. Keywords: number construction, classifiers, partitives, Korean., ZAS Papers in Linguistics, Bd. 60 (2018): Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 22, 1

Nominative-partitive alternation in subject marking in Estonian occurs mainly in existentials and related constructions. The paper measures the overall frequency of use of partitive subjects (PS) in Estonian dialects to explore whether differences are found, which can be explained by language contacts. Second, it provides an overview of constructions where PSs occur in Estonian dialects. The data is obtained from the Corpus of Estonian Dialects (12 subdialects, 1517 instances of PS usage). The results show that in usage frequency of PSs, Estonian dialects are relatively uniform and there are no striking differences between the dialects. The use of PSs was less frequent in Northern-Seto (a South-Estonian subdialect, in the Russian contact area), where the use of PSs is more tightly associated with negative clauses than it is in other dialects. Negation is also generally the most powerful factor conditioning the use of PSs (explains 52% of the usages of PSs).Kokkuvõte. Liina Lindström: Partitiivsubjekt eesti murretes. Nominatiivipartitiivi vaheldumine subjekti markeerimisel toimub eesti keeles peamiselt eksitentsiaallausetes ja sellega sarnastes konstruktsioonides. Artiklis mõõdetakse partitiivsubjekti esinemissagedust eesti murretes, et leida, kas murrete vahel on olulisi erinevusi partiivsubjekti kasutamisel, ja kas neid erinevusi saab selgitada keelekontaktide mõjuga. Lisaks vaadeldakse konstruktsioone, kus partitiivsubjekt üldse võib esineda. Andmed on pärit eesti murrete korpusest (12 eri murrakut, kokku 1517 partitiivsubjekti kasutusjuhtu). Artiklist selgub, et partitiivsubjekti kasutuse põhjal on eesti murded küllalt sarnased. Pisut vähem kasutati partitiivsubjekti Põhja-Seto tekstides, kus see oli tugevamalt seotud eitusega kui mujal. Eitus oli ka üldiselt kõige olulisem partitiivsubjekti kasutamist mõjutav tegur (52% partitiivsubjektiga lausetest olid eitavad).Võtmesõnad: murdesüntaks; partitiivsubjekt; eristav subjekti markeerimine; eesti murded

The paper discusses the conditions for case marking on partitive constructions in direct object position in Turkish and some related languages. We focus on Turkish and then turn to some details of corresponding constructions in some other Turkic languages and in Standard Mongolian. Turkish exhibits Differential Object Marking, which primarily depends on the semantic-pragmatic factor of specificity. Partitive constructions with the ablative for the superset in Turkish come in different forms, depending on how the subset expression is realized: (a) by a lexical noun as head, (b) by the classifier 'tane '‘item’, functioning as a “dummy noun”, and (c) by a numeral, quantifier or adjective. Case marking of the direct object is optional for (a), and obligatory for (most instances of) (c). This type of obligatory case marking is dependent on the obligatory marking of the adjective, quantifier or numeral with a default 3rd person singular agreement suffix, which then requires case marking. Construction (b) does not allow for case marking, when the classifier is bare; when the classifier is followed by the default 3rd person singular agreement marking, that marking requires obligatory case morphology, just like in construction (c). We hypothesize that structural case marking can either express the semantic-pragmatic condition of specificity in terms of referential anchoring or it must obey a formal condition, namely the requirement of the agreement suffix to be followed by overt case. The languages we have studied show an interesting micro-variation. They differ (among other properties) with respect to classifiers – in particular, with respect to whether they have [+human] classifiers or not. In addition, one language among the languages under investigation, namely Kirghiz, substitutes the agreement marker in its function as a filler of the partitive’s nominal head by a different marker: a morpheme expressing a set. Here, the agreement marker is used to express specificity, given that its presence is not required for formal reasons. In direct object partitive constructions with subset expressions that are expressed as full noun phrase/lexical noun heads (option (a) above), overt accusative case indicates specificity in most of the investigated languages. In options (b) and (c), the investigated languages provide different patterns when marking the referential status of the partitive heads, thus indicating the variation among these languages with respect to the nominal category feature of the partitive heads involved. This article is part of the Special Collection:Partitives

The aim of this paper is to provide a unified analysis of partitive constructions like one/some of the boxes which, unlike previous accounts, succeeds in accounting for (i) both their internal structure and the constraints on the embedded NP, and (ii) the relation between their internal structure and any such constraints. First, it is argued that four types of partitive can be distinguished, on the basis of two parameters: (1) the kind of entity denoted by the matrix NP (±set) and (2) the relation between the heads of the matrix and embedded NP (±co-denotational). Using authentic data, the paper subsequently shows that any constraints on the embedded NP apply to only two of these subtypes; it is further argued that these constraints follow directly from the specific properties of these partitives. This, in turn, is taken as evidence that partitives of this kind can be regarded simply as a subtype of the larger group of NPs with the structure N+PP. Finally, it is argued that Functional Discourse Grammar with its different levels and layers of analysis, allows us to capture all the relevant pragmatic, semantic and morphosyntactic properties of the different types of partitives in a systematic and insightful manner.

This paper proposes a typology of partitive aspectual operators based on whether an operator: (i) requires (non-)proper event parts in the extension of the VP that it combines with and (ii) imposes a ‘maximal stage requirement’, which is satisfied when a VP-event culminates or ceases to develop further in the actual world. I provide evidence for such a typology by looking at the Russian imperfective, the Hindi perfective and the English progressive. I argue that each of these languages has a partitive, aspectual operator that fills a distinct cell in the proposed typology. The typology is important because it allows us to dispense with Smith’s (The parameter of aspect. Kluwer, Dordrecht, 1991) notion of ‘neutral aspect’ used to classify aspectual forms as having properties of both the perfective and the imperfective. In particular, the typology reveals that an operator is perfective if it requires a maximal stage of an event in the extension of the VP that it combines with; an operator is imperfective if it requires a stage of an event in the extension of the VP that it combines with, but this stage need not be maximal.

El objetivo de este artículo es mostrar que las diversas acepciones del sustantivo mayoría en las que está presente la noción de ‘partitividad’ llevan asociadas una serie de marcas formales que permiten su discriminación. Por poner el foco en los aspectos morfosintácticos, el análisis aplicado nos lleva a advertir diferencias semánticas que han pasado desapercibidas a los lexicógrafos. Los datos expuestos, que mitigan en parte la falta de atención dedicada a este sustantivo en la tradición gramatical, también pueden resultar provechosos en la enseñanza del español y en el desarrollo de estudios de corte cuantitativo.

In early analyses of nominal ellipsis in generative syntax, ellipsis was analyzed as null anaphora, where missing material is interpreted under identity with an antecedent in much the same way as a lexical pronoun. Ellipsis was analyzed either as the result of a deletion transformation, in which ellipsis results from deletion of a lexical pro‐form, one, or as a base‐generated empty category subject to rules of interpretation. Within the Principles and Parameters framework, nominal ellipsis was subsequently analyzed as involving proper government of pro, an empty pronominal category, which has to be licensed and identified. This approach led to in‐depth, cross‐linguistic analyses of the properties of the determiner and quantifier systems to determine the feature specifications of different functional heads, and the role those features play in licensing and identification. This research also explored connections between ellipsis in DP and substantive adjective and partitive constructions, in particular partitives which involve clitic en (French) and ne (Italian). In current research the same questions are still debated, but in more recent theoretical frameworks: the Minimalist Program, Distributed Morphology and Cartography. The questions concern PF‐deletion or late insertion, the role of functional projections such as Classifier Phrase and nP, and the role of focus.

After presenting some basic genetic, historical and typological information about Malayalam, this chapter outlines the quantification patterns it expresses. It illustrates various semantic types of quantifiers, such as generalized existential, generalized universal, proportional, definite and partitive which are defined in the Quantifier Questionnaire in Chap. “The Quantifier Questionnaire”. It partitions the expression of the semantic types into morpho-syntactic classes: Adverbial type quantifiers and Nominal (or Determiner) type quantifiers. For the various semantic and morpho-syntactic types of quantifiers it also distinguishes syntactically simple and syntactically complex quantifiers, as well as issues of distributivity and scope interaction, classifiers and measure expressions, and existential constructions. The chapter describes structural properties of determiners and quantified noun phrases in Malayalam, both in terms of internal structure (morphological or syntactic) and distribution.

After presenting some basic genetic, historical and typological information about Hindi, this chapter outlines the quantification patterns it expresses. It illustrates various semantic types of quantifiers, such as generalized existential, generalized universal, proportional, definite and partitive which are defined in the Quantifier Questionnaire in chapter “The Quantifier Questionnaire”. It partitions the expression of the semantic types into morpho-syntactic classes: Adverbial type quantifiers and Nominal (or Determiner) type quantifiers. For the various semantic and morpho-syntactic types of quantifiers it also distinguishes syntactically simple and syntactically complex quantifiers, as well as issues of distributivity and scope interaction, classifiers and measure expressions, and existential constructions. The chapter describes structural properties of determiners and quantified noun phrases in Hindi, both in terms of internal structure (morphological or syntactic) and distribution.

After presenting some basic genetic, historical and typological information about Cantonese, this chapter outlines the quantification patterns it expresses. It illustrates various semantic types of quantifiers, such as generalized existential, generalized universal, proportional, definite and partitive which are defined in the Quantifier Questionnaire in chapter “ The Quantifier Questionnaire”. It partitions the expression of the semantic types into morpho-syntactic classes: Adverbial type quantifiers and Nominal (or Determiner) type quantifiers. For the various semantic and morpho-syntactic types of quantifiers it also distinguishes syntactically simple and syntactically complex quantifiers, as well as issues of distributivity and scope interaction, classifiers and measure expressions, and existential constructions. The chapter describes structural properties of determiners and quantified noun phrases in Cantonese, both in terms of internal structure (morphological or syntactic) and distribution.

After presenting some basic genetic, historical and typological information about Naxi, this chapter outlines the quantification patterns it expresses. It illustrates various semantic types of quantifiers, such as generalized existential, generalized universal, proportional, definite and partitive which are defined in the Quantifier Questionnaire in chapter “The Quantifier Questionnaire”. It partitions the expression of the semantic types into morpho-syntactic classes: Adverbial type quantifiers and Nominal (or Determiner) type quantifiers. For the various semantic and morpho-syntactic types of quantifiers it also distinguishes syntactically simple and syntactically complex quantifiers, as well as issues of distributivity and scope interaction, classifiers and measure expressions, and existential constructions. The chapter describes structural properties of determiners and quantified noun phrases in Naxi, both in terms of internal structure (morphological or syntactic) and distribution.

After presenting some basic genetic, historical and typological information about Quichua, this chapter outlines the quantification patterns it expresses. It illustrates various semantic types of quantifiers, such as generalized existential, generalized universal, proportional, definite and partitive which are defined in “ The Quantifier Questionnaire”. It partitions the expression of the semantic types into morpho-syntactic classes: Adverbial type quantifiers and Determiner type quantifiers. For the various semantic and morpho-syntactic types of quantifiers it also distinguishes syntactically simple and syntactically complex quantifiers, as well as issues of distributivity and scope interaction, classifiers and measure expressions, and existential constructions. The chapter describes structural properties of determiners and quantified noun phrases in Quichua, both in terms of internal structure (morphological or syntactic) and distribution.

After presenting some basic genetic, historical and typological information about American Sign Language, this chapter outlines the quantification patterns it expresses. It illustrates various semantic types of quantifiers, such as generalized existential, generalized universal, proportional, definite and partitive which are defined in the Quantifier Questionnaire in chapter “ The Quantifier Questionnaire”. It partitions the expression of the semantic types into morpho-syntactic classes: Adverbial type quantifiers and Nominal (or Determiner) type quantifiers. For the various semantic and morpho-syntactic types of quantifiers it also distinguishes syntactically simple and syntactically complex quantifiers, as well as issues of distributivity and scope interaction, classifiers and measure expressions, and existential constructions. The chapter describes structural properties of determiners and quantified noun phrases in American Sign Language, both in terms of internal structure (morphological or syntactic) and distribution.

We expand upon a previous proposal by Bloom and Wynn (1997) that young children learn about the meaning of number words by tracking their occurrence in particular syntactic environments, in combination with the discourse context in which they are used. An analysis of the Childes database (MacWhinney, 2000) reveals that the environments studied by Bloom and Wynn (specifically, the partitive frame x of the y) do not on their own distinguish between number terms and those terms that are more generally quantity denoting. A set of novel word-learning experiments reveals that children (and adults) are aware of the semantic constraints of two of the syntactic environments targeted by Bloom and Wynn (the partitive frame and modification by very) but either rely upon or benefit from contextual information supporting learning where a number word can but need not be used in a sentence. We propose that children most likely combine their knowledge of counting principles (Gelman & Gallistel, 1978) with the discourse co...

In this paper, we aim to pursue a unified principle by making a close examination of language-specific parameters; especially with regard to English of, Chinese de, Japanese -no, Korean -uy and the classifier phrases within a DP. Following Kayne (2005), we assume that the English of can be reanalyzed as being VP-external. The convention of regarding prepositions or postpositions as Case-assigners, assuming a PP constituency of P DP, will be re-examined, and the derivation will be explained via merge and movement. The pleonastic of and its function as a complementizer will be discussed. Based on the English partitive of, Korean -uy, Japanese -no, and Chinese de are discussed in pursuit of a unified structural derivation through merge and movement.

Partitive algorithms, like cluster algorithms, are frequently used methods in data mining. Most of them are static in the sense that they detect pattern in stable data structures, i.e. the data structure remains unchanged over time. However, many real-life situations are characterized by changing data environments that require an adaptation of the respective algorithms. The retail industry, for example, is frequently faced with changes in its customers' buying behavior. Segments of customers that are buying certain goods may vary within one year or even within one single day. Detecting these changes could provide business opportunities for the respective retailer. For such changing data structures, dynamic clustering algorithms have been developed that adapt to changing environments. This paper discusses a class of rough partitive algorithms and introduces their possible dynamic extensions. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

This paper examines the syntax and semantics of noun phrases with numeral quantifiers in Korean. Pointing out the syntactic properties of these noun phrases, I propose their syntactic structure and provide some syntactic motivation for the proposed structure. Also I examine the semantic properties of these noun phrases while pointing out their semantic ambiguities, i.e. cardinal vs. partitive reading of the numeral quantifier. Raising some problems of Y-S Jung (1997)`s analysis, I propose the analysis on the basis of Diesing (1992). Depending on the position of the noun phrases at the LF, they can have different interpretations. Noun phrases and CIPs adjoined to the MP (mood phrase) are mapped to the restrictive clause (R)and the operator (Q), respectively, in the tripartite logical representation. Consequently this gives rise to the presupposition of the existence of the entity denoted by the noun and the partitive reading of the numeral classifier. On the other hand, if the noun phrase with the CIP remains VP internally at the LF, the numeral classifier functions as a cardinality predicate, along with no presupposition of the entity denoted by the noun.

This paper examines the syntax of partitive constructions with superlatives in French and the realization of gender in constructions with an animate noun, and focuses on contexts that allow gender mismatches (la plus intelligente de mes gentils professeurs ‘the most intelligent of my kind professors’). We show that such mismatches are allowed in French superlative partitives that contain a default masculine noun. To account for the mismatches, we propose that the nouns involved have an unvalued gender feature that can be assigned a sex specification in the course of the derivation. For superlative partitives we propose that this specification takes place in a Gender Phrase in the outer DP. Furthermore, we show that quantified partitives (e.g. three of the books) behave differently from superlative partitives, a fact we try to explain in terms of ­structural differences. We distinguish between partitives with an of-complement and ­non-canonical partitives with an ‘among’-PP or a preposed ‘of’-phrase. We also claim that our data can provide further insight into the role of locality in semantic agreement: we compare superlative partitives to quantified partitives in terms of agreement, and suggest that the two types of partitives should be placed in different positions on an Agreement Hierarchy.

This paper discusses telicity and perfectivity in Estonian. Neither of these categories corresponds exactly to the Estonian object case alternation, which is argued to reflect predicate or clause aspectual properties and not the NP-related properties of objects. The aim of this account is to accommodate the systematic compatibility of verb classes with certain clausal aspectual object case marking patterns. The paper proposes a way of understanding the interaction between verbal and clausal aspect in terms of boundedness and formalizes it in the framework of Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG). The features of verbs and case markers determine the clausal aspect from different constituents at the syntactic level of constituent structure. The information is unified at another syntactic level, functional structure.

A number of authors in favor of a unitary account of singular descriptions have alleged that the unitary account can be extrapolated to account for plural definite descriptions. In this paper I take a closer look at this suggestion. I argue that while the unitary account is clearly onto something right, it is in the end empirically inadequate. At the end of the paper I offer a new partitive account of plural definite descriptions that avoids the problems with both the unitary account and standard Russellian analyses.

I examine the complex semantics of the two object cases in Finnish, the accusative and the partitive, and describe three core domains of distinction marked by the case contrast: quantitative boundedness, aspectual boundedness and actuality. The multifunctionality of the case selection is then analysed from various theoretical perspectives: the theory of the linguistic sign, Functional Grammar and some cognitive, evolutionary and cross-linguistic approaches. It seems that the functions of the case selection are at the same time clearly distinct and unified, and I propose a description of this phenomenon based on the instructional conception of the semantics of linguistic signs: the case contents are invariant, abstract and underspecified instructions which are designed to cooperate with the linguistic context.

The objective of this study is to provide an operational definition of principles with which well-formed ontologies should comply. We define 15 such principles, related to classification (e.g., no hierarchical cycles are allowed; concepts have a reasonable number of children), incompatible relationships (e.g., two concepts cannot stand both in a taxonomic and partitive relation), dependence among concepts, and the co-dependence of equivalent sets of relations. Implicit relations--embedded in concept names or inferred from a combination of explicit relations--are used in this process in addition to the relations explicitly represented. As a case study, we investigate the degree to which the Foundational Model of Anatomy (FMA)--a large ontology of anatomy--complies with these 15 principles. The FMA succeeds in complying with all the principles: totally with one and mostly with the others. Reasons for non-compliance are analyzed and suggestions are made for implementing effective enforcement mechanisms in ontology development environments. The limitations of this study are also discussed.

Summary This analysis deals with ordinal adverbials, a category of items that has never been exhaustively investigated. They will be tackled from three main points of view. First, we will try to determine and highlight the properties that would permit us to connect these elements with the so-called “domain markers”. Then, in order to throw light on the particular way they structure discourse, we will also study their formal and semantic features to see whether they are actually — as is often said — used to indicate a particular position in a series. It is both possible to explain through the features of the adjectives from which they are formed, and more particularly through their partitive nature : (1) the constraints which they impose on the items they introduce, at syntactic, semantic and enunciative levels ; and (2) the particular discoursal configurations they are involved in. Finally, we will deal with the function and usefulness of these items, in both the discoursal and the cognitive fields.

This paper discusses a case of syntax/semantics interaction of a characteristically optimality-theoretic kind. Finnish partitive constructions exhibit a case alternation that is partly semantically, partly syntactically driven. The crucial semantic condition that plays a role in case selection is quantitative determinacy, which replaces the definiteness condition familiar from the Partitive Constraint. The crucial syntactic condition is the Case-OCP, which prohibits the assignment of the same case to both the head and its sister. The syntactic and semantic constraints conflict, which leads to various kinds of outcomes, including free variation and ambiguity, as well as preferences in expression and preferences in interpretation. We develop an optimality-theoretic analysis of these facts based on partially ordered optimality-theoretic grammars. In such grammars, conflicts among semantic and syntactic constraints are resolved in terms of ranking. Partial ordering is crucial in deriving preferences in expression as well as interpretation, including blocking effects.

This paper is concerned with the role of context on the processing of inflected nouns in Finnish. Identification of partitive plurals with the homonymic suffix -jA was studied by presenting the target nouns in a sentence context and by recording durations of readers' eye fixations and self-paced reading times for these targets. A recent visual lexical decision study indicated that the same inflected words with -jA were sensitive to surface frequency manipulations, but not to base frequency manipulations. The authors interpreted these results to suggest that these inflectional forms are stored and processed by means of their whole-word representations. In contrast, the present context study shows both a surface frequency effect and a lagged base frequency effect. We argue that syntactic cues prior to the target word prime the inflectional reading of the -jA suffix, and as a consequence the base is reinstated as an effective unit in processing these nouns with a homonymic suffix.

A crucial component of a medical concept representation system is the classifier. It requires features that are not sufficiently supported by current logic based formalisms like description logics and conceptual graphs. Those features are, for instance, the representation of partitive and spatial relations and their impact on sUbsumption. This paper introduces graph oriented classification operators for a concept representation language with normal forms. Emphasis is on the separation of generic and partitive relations and on the mutual interdependence of sUbsumption and part-whole. For that purpose operators are given for formal subsumption, formal part-whole, subsumptive part-whole and part-sensitive subsumption. These operators are based on the formal structure of concept descriptions and on explicitly introduced generic and partitive relationships between their constituents.

Argument-marking, morphological partitives have been the topic of language specific studies, while no cross-linguistic or typological analyses have been conducted. Since individual partitives of different languages have been studied, there exists a basis for a more cross-linguistic approach. The purpose of this book is to fill the gap and to bring together research on partitives in different languages.

In this article a semantic reanalysis of the Partitive Constraint is given that is based on a distinction between determiners that quantify over entities and determiners that quantify over sets of entities. This leads to a straightforward analysis of problems that arose within earlier analyses of the Partitive Constraint. The reformulated Partitive Constraint simply states that NPs that are allowed in partitives must be entity-denoting if the upstairs determiner quantifies over entities, and set-denoting if the upstairs determiner quantifies over sets. NPs that denote restricted sets of entities satisfy the Partitive Constraint. That explains the presence of a modifying phrase in certain cases where the embedded NP is headed by a weak determiner. All in all, I will argue that the Partitive Constraint can and must be maintained as a semantic condition, and cannot be reduced to some kind of pragmatic principle.

In this paper, we argue for a view of case marking that does not treat case as the passive realisation of other morpho-syntactic properties of a construction but as independently bringing information to a clause. This different view of case entails that precise functions of case-marked expressions may be determined by the interaction of the case marking, the meaning of the host noun, the semantics of any predicate of which it is an argument and other contextually given factors. With respect to Estonian, it is argued that there is only one ‘structural’ case, the genitive, and this case marks non-subject, or oblique, dependency on some head. The partitive case, we argue, is semantically partitive in all its uses, except that the partitive meaning can be obscured or even eliminated depending on contextual factors. The nominative is merely the absence of case, associated with no specific positions or semantic effects.

Quantitative archaeological spatial analysis today is radically different from that introduced more than 20 years ago. Today spatial analysis is couched in more general formational terms that include earlier functional pursuits. Today spatial analysts (1) focus on individual formationally sensitive artifact or element attributes, rather than on types; (2) use distributional rather than partitive methods and techniques; (3) consider a suite of such attributes to construct the formational history of archaeological deposits; and, least commonly, (4) undertake comparative spatial analysis. An elaboration of the latter tactic is proposed here, that of characterizing spatial structure in terms of structural elements (or “grid cells”) and relationships among those elements. This proposal is illustrated through the analysis of five well-known ethnoarchaeological sites with different formational histories. The illustration focuses on the formational process of site maintenance and relies on the relative frequencies of small and large artifacts to monitor the operation of that process. Structural descriptors describe the configuration of grid cells with different artifact size profiles in formationally meaningful terms. Importantly, these descriptors enable the rigorous comparison of spatial structure among and between ethnoarchaeological and archaeological deposits.

The part-whole relation has significant effect on classification in the medical domain, since diagnoses, medical procedures and findings commonly relate to anatomical objects and their parts. The paper analyses conventional medical terminology and classification systems with respect to part-whole relations, it investigates how languages of the KL-ONE-family approach the complexity of part-whole relation and subsumption, and it outlines recent developments in medical concept representation. Conventional systems used for medical documentation, indexing of clinical data or bibliographical retrieval are weak for several reasons. Partitive and generic relations are often incompletely represented and both relations are often mixed. This is due to the common combination of a concept system with a coding schema, which often constrains the hierarchical organization of concepts. Terminological languages in the tradition of KL-ONE approach the part-whole relation by different ways: Partly, they use the transitivity of subsumption for representing the transitivity of part-whole. On the other hand, there are arguments for keeping the part-whole relation outside the classifier and for modelling the effect of part-whole on subsumption in the axiomatic component of a terminological reasoning system. GRAIL and BERNWARD are approaches which focus on formal concept representation in the medical domain. GRAIL considers part-whole relations by the classifier and allows for the specification of roles to be refinable along partitive criteria. BERNWARD is based on conceptual graphs and follows a different approach. The transitivity of part-whole is represented by explicit ordering of concepts through a partonomy and by transitive chaining of part-of roles in composite concept descriptions. Both approaches allow for partitive nesting in concept representation and consider the effect of partitive attributes on subsumption by the classifier, but lack a deeper theory of the part-whole relation.

International audience; This paper deals with the genitive case in Russian as present within the NP and the VP. We argue that although semantic factors sometimes condition genitive marking, the Russian genitive is not sensitive to the thematic properties of the head and is therefore closer to the structural cases, assigned on purely configurational grounds. From a semantic point of view, the genitive is often related to quantification, indefiniteness, partitivity and decreased referentiality. The common denominator for all types of genitive studied in this paper appears to be the fact that the nominal in the genitive denotes a property rather than an entity and can be analyzed as an N rather than an NP or a DP.