Research Groups: Representation of Space and Time & Language Production and Comprehension

Pragmatics of Space Annette Leßmöllmann Language in its use is extremely context-dependent. Adjectives, in particular, have their meanings determined via dependency on the semantics of the nouns they modify. This thesis deals with the context-dependency of spatial adjectives, especially adjectives that denote the shape of objects. In the following I present riddles this analysis has to solve.

In GrKK since 2/97 as Ph.D. student

Consider the following contrast:

(1) Der Ball ist rund. (The ball is round.)

(2) ???Der runde Ball (The round ball)

The first sentence may have two interpretations: First, it is an expression similar to war is war. I.e. it means something like Look at the facts and don't get on my nerves with telling me that balls have corners (or that war is peaceful).

Second, it may mean: Here we have a ball-token that, in contrast to the normal ball-type, is exactly round.

Both interpretations are induced via pragmatic inferences, which I will argue for and spell out in my thesis.

But the main riddle is:

How can it be explained that these interpretations are impossible in a phrase like (2) where the adjective appears in pre-nominal (attributive) position? We plan to investigate this problem in light of psychological findings, which deal with the different interpretations of attributive and predicative constructions.