Trivial and Real Exceptions in Generics

YoungEun Yoon 한국언어학회 2008 언어 Vol.33 No.2

Concerning the issue of exceptions in generics, Cohen (2004) argues that exceptions are allowed in generics only if "homogeneity" is not violated. The homogeneity constraint restricts that the exceptions should not form a salient "chunk" of the domain of the generic. A salient chunk could be formed, depending on the way in which the domain is mentally represented. "Tree" and "geometric" representations are proposed as the two ways of mapping of cognitive mental representations. Yoon (2006) argues, however, that choices between these two mental representations claimed to be involved in the interpretation process of generics are quite arbitrary, and that counterexamples also exist for the "homogeneity" requirement. Yoon also suggests that generics involve cognitive conceptualizations based on the language users' encyclopedic knowledge, world knowledge from experiences, common sense, beliefs, stereotypes, prejudices, etc. Given this, this paper revisits the widely-agreed-upon phenomenon of exceptions in generics, and proposes that generics could be divided into two kinds depending on whether they contain trivial or real exceptions, elaborating on Yoon's analysis. It is further proposed that one kind of generics is characterizing statements based on the salient properties of "whole" sets while the other kind is characterizing statements based on the salient properties of "representative" sets. It will be shown that this approach better accounts for the acceptable and unacceptable generic statements.

Donkey Pronouns and the Sum Theory

Yoon, YoungEun 이화여자대학교 영미학연구소 2005 영어학 연구 Vol.- No.10

In this paper, I will revisit the issue of the interpretation of donkey sentences, which has been studied by quite a few linguists such as Heim (1982), Rooth (1987), Kadmon (1990), Neale (1990a, b), Chierchia (1992), Barker (1993, 1996), Kanazawa (1994), Yoon (1994, 1996), and Krifka (1996) among others, and most recently by Kanazawa (2001) and Geurts (2002). Kanazawa (2001) proposes that the so-called sum theory, Proposed by Lappin (1989), Lappin and Francez (1994), Yoon (1994, 1996), and Krifka (1996), is not well-motivated and makes wrong predictions, based on various data. However, I'll try to argue against his claims and defend the sum theory, basically by going through his data one by one and providing counterexamples to them. He also argues that the facts are still in favor of his 1994 treatment of donkey sentences with singular pronouns However, monotonicity is at best a minor determining factor for the interpretation of donkey sentences, since the monotonicity properties of most of the head determiners, except for a few determiners such as no, some, and at least, do not predict the interpretation of donkey sentences at all.

Non-conventionalized Generics and Exceptions

YoungEun Yoon 한국영어학회 2023 영어학 Vol.23 No.-

As is well known, research on generics is represented by three approaches: majority-based (Cohen 1996, 1999, 2004), normalcy-based (Nickel 2006; 2009; 2010a, b; 2013; 2016; 2018), and cognition-based (Leslie 2007a, b; 2008; 2013; 2017) approaches. Two recent approaches proposed by van Rooij and Schulz (2020) and Tessler and Goodman (2019) are more elaborated theories on generics, although neither of these approaches nor the three representative theories can fully account for various generics data, as argued by Yoon (2021). On the other hand, Nguyen (2020) proposes another theory of generics, the so-called ‘radical’ theory, which argues that the generic operator has no semantic content, and that the various quantificational interpretations of bare plural generics are determined contextually. In this context, the main purpose of this paper is to provide a critical review of some recently published analyses, including Nguyen’s theory, and to analyze non-conventionalized generics. While conventionalized or conceptualized generics have received much attention from researchers, non-conventionalized generics have not been studied as extensively. It will be argued that Nguyen’s theory simply transfers the burden onto pragmatics, and that non-conventionalized as well as conventionalized generics tend to be interpreted based on people’s perceptions of their exceptions, in line with Yoon (2021). This position will be supported by experimental results.

Determining Factors for the Interpretation of Donkey Sentences

YoungEun Yoon 이화여자대학교 영미학연구소 2004 영어학 연구 Vol.- No.9

This paper examines the issue of the determining factors for the interpretation of donkey sentences Ever since Heim (1982) brought up this issue of the interpretation of donkey sentences for over the last three decades a number of studies have been put forth including Rooth (1987), Kadmon (1990) Neale (1990a b) Chierchia (1992) Barker (1993 1996) Kanazawa (1994 2001) Yoon (1994 1996) Krifka (1996) and Geurts (2002) The purpose of this paper is to reexamine the recent proposals by Geurts (2002) which proposes a concept "casts of characters" and world knowledge as determining factors of the interpretation of donkey sentences including the monotonicity properties He also discusses the nebulousness of the meaning of donkey sentences However I'll point out the problems of his analysis and continue to propose the properties of the predicate in the nuclear scope of a donkey sentence, along with the contextual factors as two main sources for the interpretation of donkey sentences It will also be discussed that the meaning of a donkey sentence seems to be clearly obtained if only the intention of the generalization statement of the donkey sentence can be clarified (Ewha Womans University)

Connecting irony and humor with witticism and lightheartedness

YoungEun Yoon 경희대학교 언어정보연구소 2014 언어연구 Vol.31 No.1

Irony and humor have long been studied as two closely related phenomena by numerous researchers. Some, including Hänninen (1989) and Dews et al. (1995), have argued that humor derives from irony, while others, including Hay (2001), have regarded irony as a variety of humor. Recently, Hirsch (2008; 2011a, b) proposes a comparative model that differentiates irony from humor in the literary texts by means of some cues for irony and humor. Reyes et al. (2012) also propose a set of features that represent humor and irony. In this context, the purpose of this paper is to reexamine the relationship between irony and humor, and to provide an answer to the long-lasting question of why these two phenomena appear to be closely related. In order to answer this question, the works of an anonymous feminist artist group, the Guerrilla Girls, from 1985 to 2013, which are effectively utilizing both irony and humor, will be analyzed. It will be observed that uncommon wordings and phrasings in a witty and clever way involved in the irony examples induce humor, and that the situation where any seriousness or intensity is relieved works as a precondition for generating humor from the irony examples. Based on these observations, it will be proposed that the 'witticism' involved in most irony examples derives humor, and that the so-called 'lightheartedness' also plays a role in generating humor. It will further be proposed that GG's works clearly show that 'witticism' and ' lightheartedness' are two essential components of most effective ironic utterances. (Ewha Womans University)

The Perfect Meaning of Korean Revisited

YoungEun Yoon 한국언어과학회 2015 언어과학 Vol.22 No.4

It is well accepted that the meaning of English simple past is represented by the suffix ess in Korean. This suffix is also proposed to represent the meaning of English present perfect. By some others, however, the perfect meaning is argued to come from sources other than ess. In this context, the main purpose of this paper is to reinvestigate the meaning of ess and to reconsider the sources of the perfect meaning of Korean. It will be reconfirmed that the perfect meaning is not derived from the ambiguity of ess, but from some other elements in the sentence. It will be proposed that unlike other languages such as English and French, Korean has a simple past tense only, and no perfect aspect. In Korean, the past tense marker ess acquires the ‘current relevance’ from the context as an implicature or from an adverbial as part of explicit meaning. Furthermore, the marked form essess is used in order to eliminate the current relevance of the situation

Generics and Conceptualizations

YoungEun Yoon 서울대학교 언어교육원 2019 語學硏究 Vol.55 No.3

Generics have been studied vigorously over the past few decades, mostly by formal linguists and philosophers. As is well known, there are two representative formal approaches toward generics: majority-based and normalcy-based approaches. Both approaches have been met with criticism but continue to undergo revisions. In contrast, Leslie (2007a,2007b; 2008; 2012; 2017) proposes a cognition-based approach arguing against the majority- and normalcy-based approaches. She proposes that generics express our most primitive and fundamental generalizations and are non-quantificational. Thus, the main purpose of this paper is to propose genericity as a semantic, pragmatic, and even cognitive phenomenon, arguing that generics should be accounted for through cognitive conceptualizations. It will also be proposed that the generic operator is a quasi-universal quantifier, in contrast to both the formal and cognitive approaches. This position will be supported by experimental results.

Generic and Existential Readings of Bare Plurals, and Contextual Factors

Yoon, YoungEun 서울대학교 어학연구소 2005 語學硏究 Vol.41 No.2

Sum Individuals and Proportion Problem

Yoon, YoungEun 서울대학교 어학연구소 1996 語學硏究 Vol.32 No.2

This paper proposes that the so-called proportion problem, which was observed in Kadmon (1987, 1990) as a problem to the analyses of Kamp (1981), and Heim(1982), can be overcome by adopting the notion of 'sum individuals.' It will be suggested that given a donkey sentence with an asymmetric reading, a set of sum individuals of the 'dependent' variable is computed and this is introduced to the antecedent level as a variable of sum individuals. In this way, we can make the dependent variable accessible from the consequent level and avoid the proportion problem. In addition, it will be shown that the process of computing the sum individuals in necessary in order to explain the existence of weak and strong readings of quantified sentences.

Verbal Irony , Contradiction , and Speaker`s Belief

YoungEun Yoon 한국언어학회 2001 언어 Vol.26 No.4