CSSL18 The linguistics of desire

Venue

• Class taught at The 2nd Crete Summer School of Linguistics
• University of Crete, Gallos, Rethymnon, Greece
• July 16-27, 2018

Instructors

• Kai von Fintel
• Sabine Iatridou

Course description

In this intermediate/advanced class, we will discuss classic and current work on the semantics and, to a lesser extent, syntax of desire constructions. We will mostly focus on wanting, wishing, hoping, intending. There are plenty of parallels and connections, for example to deontic modality, teleological modality, imperatives, optatives. Among other things, the class will help students become comfortable with work in intensional semantics.

Pre-class survey

If you’re going to take the desire class, please fill out a short survey, to help us plan the class.

Prerequisites

Just kidding, there are no prerequisites other than being interested in the class. However, since the audience will be quite diverse, we encourage you to read an article by Kai on “prerequisites”.

Q&A

If you have any questions about the material covered in this class, please ask them in a shared Google doc. We will try to answer questions in the document or via other channels.

Eight topics

1. Introduction to possible worlds semantics.
2. The main semantic questions about desires. Belief-relativity, monotonicity, conflicting desires.
3. The syntax of desire.
4. Complement/mood selection.
5. Conditional desires.
6. Anankastic conditionals.
7. X-marking.
8. X-marked desires.

1. Possible worlds semantics (Slides)

• von Fintel, Kai & Irene Heim. 2011. Intensional Semantics. Especially chapters 1–5.

2. Semantics of desire (Slides)

• Heim, Irene. 1992. Presupposition projection and the semantics of attitude verbs. Journal of Semantics 9(3). 183–221. doi:10.1093/jos/9.3.183.
• von Fintel, Kai. 1999. NPI licensing, Strawson entailment, and context dependency. Journal of Semantics 16(2). 97–148. doi:10.1093/jos/16.2.97.
• Villalta, Elisabeth. 2008. Mood and gradability: An investigation of the subjunctive mood in Spanish. Linguistics and Philosophy 31(4). 467–522. doi:10.1007/s10988-008-9046-x.
• Crnič, Luka. 2011. Getting even. Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology PhD thesis. Especially Appendix A “(Non-)monotonicity of desire”, pp. 162-186.
• von Fintel, Kai. 2012. The best we can (expect to) get? Challenges to the classic semantics for deontic modals. ms.
• Rubinstein, Aynat. 2017. Straddling the line between attitude verbs and necessity modals. In Ana Arregui, María Luisa Rivero & Andrés Salanova (eds.), Modality across syntactic categories, 109–131. Oxford University Press.
• Grano, Thomas. 2017. Beyond belief: Desire reports and the typology of attitude predicates. Draft chapter of a book on attitude reports.
• Phillips-Brown, Milo. 2017. I want to, but …. Sinn und Bedeutung 21.

3. Syntax of desire (Slides)

• Pesetsky, David. 1991. Zero syntax: Vol. 2: Infinitives. ms.
• Grano, Thomas. 2017. Restructuring at the syntax-semantics interface. In Lukasz Jedrzejowski & Ulrike Demske (eds.), Infinitives at the syntax-semantics interface: A diachronic perspective, 31–54. (Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs [TiLSM] 306). De Gruyter. doi:10.1515/9783110520583-002.
• Wurmbrand, Susi. 2004. Two types of restructuring: Lexical vs. functional. Lingua 114(8). 991–1014. doi:10.1016/s0024-3841(03)00102-5.
• Larson, Richard, Marcel den Dikken & Peter Ludlow. 2017. Intensional transitive verbs and abstract clausal complementation.

3a. Temporal issues

• Abusch, Dorit. 2004. On the temporal composition of infinitives. In Jacqueline Guéron & Jacqueline Lecarme (eds.), The syntax of time, 27–53. MIT Press.
• Banerjee, Neil. 2017. Embedded subject licensing properties of hope. ms, MIT.

4. Complement/Mood selection (Slides)

• Portner, Paul & Aynat Rubinstein. 2012. Mood and contextual commitment. Semantics and Linguistic Theory 22. 461–487. doi:10.3765/salt.v22i0.2642.
• Silk, Alex. 2018. Commitment and states of mind with mood and modality. Natural Language Semantics 26(2). 125–166. doi:10.1007/s11050-018-9144-4.
• Anand, Pranav & Valentine Hacquard. 2013. Epistemics and attitudes. Semantics and Pragmatics 6(8). 1–59. doi:10.3765/sp.6.8.
• Kratzer, Angelika. 2016. Evidential moods in attitude and speech reports. Slides from a talk given at the University of Pennsylvania (May 5, 2016), the 1st Syncart Workshop (Siena, July 13, 2016), and the University of Connecticut (September 9, 2016).
• Moulton, Keir. 2015. CPs: Copies and compositionality. Linguistic Inquiry 46(2). 305–342.
• Bogal-Albritten, Elizabeth. 2017. Basic pieces, complex meanings: Building attitudes in Navajo and beyond.
• Quer, Josep. 2001. Interpreting mood. Probus 13(1). 81–111. doi:10.1515/prbs.13.1.81.
• Quer, Josep. 2017. Subjunctives. In Martin Everaert & Henk C. van Riemsdijk (eds.), The wiley blackwell companion to syntax, second edition. doi:10.1002/9781118358733.wbsyncom113.

5. Conditional desires (Slides)

• Kaufmann, Magdalena & Stefan Kaufmann. 2015. Conditionals and modality. In Shalom Lappin & Chris Fox (eds.). The handbook of contemporary semantic theory. Second Edition. Wiley. doi:10.1002/9781118882139.ch8.

6. Anankastic conditionals (Slides)

• Condoravdi, Cleo & Sven Lauer. 2016. Anankastic conditionals are just conditionals. Semantics and Pragmatics 9(8). 1–69. doi:10.3765/sp.9.8.
• Phillips-Brown, Milo. 2018. Anankastic conditionals are still a mystery: Reply to Condoravdi and Lauer. ms.

7. X-marking (Slides)

• von Fintel, Kai. 1998. The presupposition of subjunctive conditionals. In Uli Sauerland & Orin Percus (eds.), The interpretive tract, 29–44. (MIT Working Papers in Linguistics 25). Cambridge, MA: MITWPL.
• Iatridou, Sabine. 2000. The grammatical ingredients of counterfactuality. Linguistic Inquiry 31(2). 231–270. doi:10.1162/002438900554352.
• von Fintel, Kai & Sabine Iatridou. 2008. How to say ought in Foreign: The composition of weak necessity modals. In Jacqueline Guéron & Jacqueline Lecarme (eds.), Time and modality, 115–141. (Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 75). Springer. doi:10.1007/978-1-4020-8354-9.

8. X-marked desires (Slides)

• von Fintel, Kai & Sabine Iatridou. 2017. X-marked desires: What wanting and wishing cross-linguistically can tell us about the ingredients of counterfactuality. Slides from a talk at Philosophical Linguistics and Linguistical Philosophy Workshop, Tarrytown, NY.