The Semantics of Incorporation: From Argument Structure to Discourse Transparency

Distinguishing between discourse referents and thematic arguments, the analysis of incorporation proposed by Donka Farkas and Henriette de Swart accounts for the relationship between morphological and semantic number, the contrasts between incorporated singulars and incorporated plurals, and various `shades' of discourse transparency. The framework of Discourse Representation Theory used is a theory well-suited for connecting sentence level and discourse level semantics. The analysis presented in the Semantics of Incorporation has important consequences for a cross-linguistic theory of anaphora. Linguists and logicians interested in discourse structure, cross-linguistic semantics, and the relationship between morpho-syntax and meaning will find this an engaging and innovative work.