{"id":1831,"date":"2020-12-09T13:00:49","date_gmt":"2020-12-09T13:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/lgsa\/?p=1831"},"modified":"2022-05-24T13:43:44","modified_gmt":"2022-05-24T13:43:44","slug":"augustina-owusu-passed-her-dissertation-defense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/lgsa\/augustina-owusu-passed-her-dissertation-defense\/","title":{"rendered":"Augustina Owusu Passed Her Dissertation Defense"},"content":{"rendered":"

Congratulations to Augustina Owusu<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, who passed her dissertation defense on Friday, Nov. 20th!!<\/p>\n

Title<\/span><\/strong>:\u00a0 “Cross-Categorial Definiteness\/Familiarity”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chair<\/span><\/strong>: Simon Charlow<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Committee<\/span><\/strong>: Viviane Deprez<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, Veneeta Dayal<\/a> <\/span><\/strong>(Yale)<\/span>, Malte Zimmermann<\/a><\/strong><\/span> (External, Potsdam University)<\/span><\/p>\n

Abstract<\/span><\/strong>:<\/p>\n

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This dissertation examines the semantics of the definite determiner\u00a0n\u00f3\u00a0in Akan. The Akan definite determiner occurs in\u00a0the DPs as usual and occurs outside the nominal domain in simple declarative clauses, among other clausal contexts. I\u00a0argue that across categories,\u00a0n\u00f3\u00a0encodes a familiarity presupposition \u2014 it presupposes that a discourse referent with\u00a0the descriptive content of its complement exists in the discourse. I propose that\u00a0n\u00f3\u00a0is a cross-categorial definite\u00a0determiner. Specifically, I argue that it takes both NP and TP (and other propositional nodes, including NegP)\u00a0complements. This dissertation contributes to the emerging literature on cross-categorial definite determiners (Lefebvre\u00a01998; Larson 2003; Wespel 2008; Renans 2016,2019; Korsah 2017).<\/p>\n

In the nominal domain, I propose a reanalysis of the definite determiner. Specifically, I propose that\u00a0n\u00f3\u00a0encodes two\u00a0presuppositions: a familiarity and a non-uniqueness presupposition. The familiarity presupposition captures the\u00a0determiner’s use in Hawkin’s (1978) anaphoric and immediate situation contexts.<\/p>\n

I adopt the notion of weak familiarity by Roberts (2003) to characterize the kind of familiarity encoded by\u00a0n\u00f3. The non-uniqueness presupposition proposed by Robinson (2005) and Dayal & Jiang (2020)\u00a0for demonstratives captures the\u00a0definite determiner’s inability to be licensed by inherently unique nouns such as\u00a0sun,\u00a0president of Ghana, and\u00a0superlatives in out-of-the-blue contexts. Further, in anticipation of the non-nominal use of the determiner, I posit that the\u00a0meaning of\u00a0n\u00f3\u00a0does include iota. I contend that\u00a0iota-shift is available (Partee & Rooth, 1983; Partee, 1986; Chierchia,\u00a01998).<\/p>\n

Also, in the nominal domain, the dissertation presents novel empirical evidence supporting the specific indefinite\u00a0analysis of the Akan indefinite marker\u00a0b\u00ed. I show that contrary to Arkoh (2011),\u00a0b\u00ed\u00a0does not take obligatory wide scope in\u00a0all contexts. The determiner is ambiguous between opaque and transparent readings in intensional contexts and has\u00a0“narrow scope” readings in conditional sentences. I propose that\u00a0b\u00ed\u00a0is a skolemized (parameterized) choice function\u00a0with individual and world variables. The world variable gets bound on the opaque reading and remains free on the\u00a0transparent reading. The semantics of the definite determiner proposed captures the fact that the definite and indefinite\u00a0determiners can co-occur.<\/p>\n

In the non-nominal domain, I provide evidence that\u00a0n\u00f3\u00a0clauses in Akan are propositions. I propose that\u00a0n\u00f3-clauses are\u00a0definite propositions, where definiteness corresponds to a familiarity presupposition. A proposition is familiar so long as\u00a0it has an antecedent in the context. The non-nominal analysis extends to DP-headed relative clauses, a domain that\u00a0straddles the nominal and clausal domains. Because DP-headed relative clauses are DPs, they license the nominal\u00a0determiner. Simultaneously, since relative clauses are clauses, they also license the clausal determiner.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

Congratulations, Dr. Owusu!!!!
\nWe wish you all the best as you continue on your journey.<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

\"Augustina<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Congratulations to Augustina Owusu, who passed her dissertation defense on Friday, Nov. 20th!! Title:\u00a0 “Cross-Categorial Definiteness\/Familiarity” Chair: Simon Charlow Committee: Viviane Deprez, Veneeta Dayal (Yale), Malte Zimmermann (External, Potsdam University) … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAugustina Owusu Passed Her Dissertation Defense - Linguistics Graduate Students Association<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/lgsa\/augustina-owusu-passed-her-dissertation-defense\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Augustina Owusu Passed Her Dissertation Defense - Linguistics Graduate Students Association\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Congratulations to Augustina Owusu, who passed her dissertation defense on Friday, Nov. 20th!! 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