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one can interpret it as a statistical statement about the sexual rhythms of two different couples. |
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Nevertheless, let us try to see (6) as the proper answer to each of the following questions: |
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(7) How many times a week do Charles and John make love with their own wives? (Topic: sexual rhythm of two couples.) |
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(8) I do not really understand the relationship between those three. What's going onI mean, sexually? (Topic: relation between a woman and two men.) |
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At this point (6) can be easily disambiguated.
12 |
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The topic as a textual operator is not, however, merely a matter of the reader's initiative. A satisfactory semantic representation should consider the relation with the textual topic as one of its compositional features. This appears very clear in the compositional analysis of a 'syncategorematic' such as/so/. |
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Returning to (6) and to the questions (7) and (8) that disambiguate it, we should consider (as stored within the encyclopedia) a compositional analysis of /so/ according to which a first semantic marker sounding more or less like «in the same way as» should be supported by the selection «referring to the topic». In this way the sememe presupposes the co-text and the text is nothing else but a normal expansion of the sememe. |
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Consider now an expression like /on the other hand/ in the following texts: |
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(9) Mary loves apples. John, on the other hand, hates them. |
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(10) Mary loves apples. On the other hand, she hates bananas. |
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(11) Mary loves apples. John, on the other hand, is fond of bananas. |
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(12) Mary is playing her cello. John, on the other hand, is eating bananas. |
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According to the expressions under examination, one could think that /on the other hand/ marks an alternative to the subject and her action in (9), the action and the object in (10), the subject and the object in (11) and everything in (12). |
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The problem becomes clear when (9)-(12) are seen as the proper answer to four different questions: |
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(13) Do Mary and John love apples? (Topic: people who love apples.) |
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(14) What kind of fruit does Mary love? (Topic: fruit Mary loves.) |
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(15) What kind of fruit does John love? (Topic: fruit John loves.) |
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(16) What the hell are those kids doing? They were supposed to have their music lesson! (Topic: John and Mary's music lesson.) |
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