This paper demonstrates that the progressive interpretation in Ga is an effect of the interaction between the imperfective aspect and a definite description of events. Crucially, the data from Ga point to the consequences of the view that definite descriptions of events encode the familiarity of the discourse referent and its uniqueness in bearing the property in question. Namely, they yield direct evidentiality and the necessary ongoingness of the event at the topic time. Thus, the paper identifies previously unattested variation (...) in the semantics of the progressive in a cross-linguistic perspective and shows that not only lexical but also grammatical aspect exhibits striking parallelisms with the nominal domain. (shrink)

There is a longstanding discussion whether wide-scope indefinites denote choice functions that are existentially bound or remain free. Data from Ga, an under-researched language spoken in Ghana, show that there are wide-scope indefinites denoting existentially bound skolemized choice functions whose parameter is bound by a higher quantificational NP, free skolemized choice functions with the speaker or a higher quantificational NP as a parameter, and narrow scope quantificational indefinites. Thus the data show that both existentially bound and free skolemized choice functions (...) are attested in natural language shedding new light on the semantics of indefinites. (shrink)

It is our pleasure to present the Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 28– the first-ever SuB to be held by the growing group of semanticists at Ruhr University Bochum (RUB), Germany. SuB28 took place at RUB’s Convention Center from September 5-9, 2023. The conference was jointly organized by the RUB Institute for Linguistics, the Linguistic Data Science Lab, the Institute for German Language and Literature, and the Departments of Philosophy I and II. The conference featured a three-day main session (Sept. (...) 6-8) and a one-day special session on ‘The Semantics and Pragmatics of Co-Speech Communication’ (Sept. 5, organized by Tatjana Scheffler). The main session comprised 45 contributed talks and two poster sessions (plus lightning talks, with 14 posters each) as well as three invited talks (by Dorothy Ahn, Hazel Pearson, and Graham Priest). The special session hosted seven contributed talks plus one invited talk (by Cor-nelia Ebert). As is common for SuB, the Proceedings include contributions from the invited, contributed, and poster sessions alongside contributions to the workshop. (shrink)