ErgSemantics_RelationalNouns

ESD Test Suite Examples

Payne et al (2013, 804) point out that phrases like Mary's former mansion present an interesting puzzle for semantic compositionality in that there are two interpretations of former: the phrase can either refer to something of Mary's that used to be a mansion or (more commonly) to a mansion that used to be Mary's. In the latter interpretation, former has to be predicated of the relation holding between Mary and mansion, which in the ERG isn't introduced by Mary.

Payne, J. & Pullum, G. K. & Scholz, B. C. & Berlage, E.(2013). Anaphoric one and its implications. Language 89(4), 794-829. Linguistic Society of America. Retrieved May 12, 2014, from Project MUSE database.