The aim of this paper is to describe and explain the role that linguistic interaction plays in category construction and communication, by looking at naturally occurring data of spoken language. First, it will be argued that there is a way of building categories that is inherently interactional… read more
The aim of this paper is to analyze how speakers refer to non-exhaustive sets in spoken discourse, by means of open lists. We will propose an analysis of non-exhaustivity in terms of indexicality and we will therefore consider open lists as having an inherently pragmatic component. Based on… read more
This paper investigates the properties of a set of poorly described Italian constructions characterized, at the same time, by (i) a dubitative component, challenging a presupposition generated by the preceding context and (ii) a corrective function. These constructions revolve around four… read more
This paper investigates the variety of morphosyntactic strategies that languages use to encode the relation of alternative between states of affairs. A semantic definition of disjunction will be given, based on the notion of alternative meaning proposed by Dik 1968. After defining the functional… read more
The aim of this paper is to show the areal distribution of the semantic and morphosyntactic features characterizing conjunctive, disjunctive and adversative constructions in the languages of Europe. The analysis will be carried out on two levels. On the one hand, I will examine the cross-linguistic… read more