A variable-free dynamic semantics

TL;DR

This paper introduces a variable-free approach to dynamic semantics, enabling compositional analysis of anaphora and donkey sentences without assignment functions, and predicts new linguistic phenomena like donkey weak crossover effects.

Contribution

It presents a novel variable-free dynamic semantics framework that separates combinatorics from linguistic phenomena, improving compositionality and empirical predictions.

Findings

Achieves a compositional treatment of dynamic anaphora without assignment functions

Separates variable-free semantics from linguistic phenomena

Predicts new effects such as donkey weak crossover

Abstract

I propose a variable-free treatment of dynamic semantics. By "dynamic semantics" I mean analyses of donkey sentences ("Every farmer who owns a donkey beats it") and other binding and anaphora phenomena in natural language where meanings of constituents are updates to information states, for instance as proposed by Groenendijk and Stokhof. By "variable-free" I mean denotational semantics in which functional combinators replace variable indices and assignment functions, for instance as advocated by Jacobson. The new theory presented here achieves a compositional treatment of dynamic anaphora that does not involve assignment functions, and separates the combinatorics of variable-free semantics from the particular linguistic phenomena it treats. Integrating variable-free semantics and dynamic semantics gives rise to interactions that make new empirical predictions, for example "donkey weak crossover" effects.