A compositional semantics for locatives

Abstract

Spatial expressions are usually interpreted as relations between two individuals (see e.g. Bierwisch 1996). I am going to argue that a smoother picture of the semantics of locatives arises if we assume that locative prepositional phrases refer to places. This move necessitates the introduction of variables for places into the formal language. I am going to show in detail that an analogous linguistic system underlies the reference to places and the reference to times. Locative modifiers may play the role of frame setters restricting the reference place. They may set the place of the utterance or the place of an event, state or individual (in analogy to the so-called event time and speech time). Furthermore, expressions like everywhere and nowhere act as locative quantifiers. In my view, the overall architecture of locative semantics mirrors the properties of other quantificational domains and this view fits nicely into the program of ontological symmetry that Schlenker Schlenker 2005 has recently argued for.