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Journal of Semantics 2000 17(3):243-262; doi:10.1093/jos/17.3.243
© 2000 by Oxford University Press
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The Asymmetry of Optimality Theoretic Syntax and Semantics

HENK ZEEVAT

ILLC/Computational Linguistics, University of Amsterdam Spuistraat 134, 1012 VB Amsterdam, The Netherlands

This paper argues for a combination of semantics and syntax in an optimality theoretic framework that avoids the rat/rad problem and provides simultaneously a certain amount of bidirectionality, in the spirit of Blutner, for an approach to ineffability. It can be succinctly described as taking the program of optimality theoretic syntax as basic, also as a theory of interpretation, and extending it with a bidirectional pragmatic component that is closely related to existing ideas about natural language interpretation. The paper argues for the priority of the direction from content to form, develops the pragmatic component, and argues for the bidirectionality of the pragmatic component on the basis of Grice's principle of cooperation. It applies the resulting theory to a small set of relevant examples. The asymmetry in the title is consistent with, but goes beyond, the asymmetry between syntax and semantics used in Smolensky (1996).


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