On non-dynamic eventive verbs in Spanish

Anuario Del Seminario De Filologia Vasca Julio De Urquijo, 2013

Nordlyd , 2012

This paper examines the structural and semantics properties of non-eventive nominalizations in Spanish. By applying the decomposition of verbs developed by Ramchand (2008), we identify several configurational constraints in the formation and interpretation of nominalizations. We propose that the notion of 'result' actually covers different structures, and that a distinction between objects and states is needed. Then, we observe that predicates that have ProcP and ResP can yield both eventive nominalizations and stative nominalizations, whereas those predicates that have ProcP and an internal argument in its complement position can give rise both to eventive nominalizations and to object nominalizations. An important generalization arises also from the position of internal arguments. Those internal arguments that occupy a specifier position can never be taken as the meaning of a given nominalization. Therefore, we arrive at the conclusion that a nominalization can take an eventive projection and whatever is in its complement position (either an internal argument or a new subeventive projection) but cannot lexicalize specifiers, which have to be independently spelt out.

2006

Borealis – An International Journal of Hispanic Linguistics

The different distinctions related to lexical aspect –state, activity, accomplishments and achievements– play an important role in the grammar of Spanish, but many of the details about how these distinctions can be implemented are unclear: which features distinguish between the classes, how the classes relate to each other, what is the nature of telicity or dynamicity and how one can account for the alternations that a verb is subject to involving its aspect are some of the most important problems from this perspective. The goal of this article is to provide a sufficient empirical base to address these questions and present the current alternatives to answer them.

One of the longstanding problems in linguistic analysis is to determine the nature of Aktionsart and the kind of representations that account for the different aspectual classes of predicates. Recent developments in this issue (Maienborn 2005; Borer 2005; Ramchand 2008; MacDonald 2008; Rothmayr 2009) have raised two interrelated questions: how many classes there are and how they can all be integrated in an analysis that explains their properties with a minimum of primitives. In this article we explore one class that seemingly has mixed properties of events and states, Davidsonian states, and we propose an analysis where they are integrated with the independently motivated classic Vendler-Dowty classification without requiring to posit new primitives or giving up the distinctive properties that differentiate between the classes. In doing so, we will argue for a separation of eventivity and dynamicity, the former caused by the presence of a designated syntactic head and the latter being the result of the interpretation of specific structures where the head that introduces the event takes as complement specific constituents that in combination with the event produce a change denotation, and with it, dynamicity.

One of the longstanding problems in linguistic analysis is to determine the nature of Aktionsart and the kind of representations that account for the different aspectual classes of predicates. Recent developments in this issue (Maienborn 2005; Borer 2005; Ramchand 2008; MacDonald 2008; Rothmayr 2009) have raised two interrelated questions: how many classes there are and how they can all be integrated in an analysis that explains their properties with a minimum of primitives. In this article we explore one class that seemingly has mixed properties of events and states, Davidsonian states, and we propose an analysis where they are integrated with the independently motivated classic Vendler-Dowty classification without requiring to posit new primitives or giving up the distinctive properties that differentiate between the classes. In doing so, we will argue for a separation of eventivity and dynamicity, the former caused by the presence of a designated syntactic head and the latter being the result of the interpretation of specific structures where the head that introduces the event takes as complement specific constituents that in combination with the event produce a change denotation, and with it, dynamicity.

Synthese, 2010

This paper concerns how a hidden-indexical account of referential opacity can be implemented in a generally "neo-Davidsonian", event-based approach to naturallanguage semantics. (Forbes 2006 , Ch. 8) develops part of an answer, but only for the relatively tractable case of opacity in the complement position of intensional transitive (' objectual attitude') verbs. This leaves the harder problem of opacity in the complements of clausal ('propositional attitude') verbs still to be addressed. The hidden indexical account of opacity presented here takes its inspiration from Quine's 'Giorgione' case (Quine 1961:22): (1) a. Giorgione was so-called because of his size. b. Giorgione is Barbarelli. c. ∴ Barbarelli is so-called because of his size. The inference is supposed to work by an application of Leibniz's Law, or more formally, Identity Elimination (=E), but there is no threat to =E in (1)'s failure to preserve truth. In any application of a rule of inference there is always an implicit no other changes condition, built into the rule-schema by use of the same notation View publication stats View publication stats

This paper examines the structural and semantics properties of non-eventive nominalizations in Spanish. By applying the decomposition of verbs developed by Ramchand (2008), we identify several configurational constraints in the formation and interpretation of nominalizations. We propose that the notion of ‘result’ actually covers different structures, and that a distinction between objects and states is needed. Then, we observe that predicates that have ProcP and ResP can yield both eventive nominalizations and stative nominalizations, whereas those predicates that have ProcP and an internal argument in its complement position can give rise both to eventive nominalizations and to object nominalizations. An important generalization arises also from the position of internal arguments. Those internal arguments that occupy a specifier position can never be taken as the meaning of a given nominalization. Therefore, we arrive at the conclusion that a nominalization can take an eventive projection and whatever is in its complement position (either an internal argument or a new subeventive projection) but cannot lexicalize specifiers, which have to be independently spelt out.

Roczniki Humanistyczne

Our analyses of reflexive impersonals with dative logical subjects and of dispositional middles proper in Polish result in the hypothesis that the inventory of event categories represented in linguistic theory should be broadened to include event sub-kinds, alongside event kinds and event tokens. The morpho-syntax and syntax of clauses containing the two types of structures mentioned above seem to suggest that one more ontological category is needed to account for the distribution of manner modifiers vs. spatio-temporal modifiers, logical subjects (or agentive participants) in the non-canonical case forms, as well as to explain the distribution of agent-oriented adverbs in the relevant sentences in Polish. Reflexive impersonal clauses with dative logical subjects and the ones containing dispositional middles proper differ significantly from the clauses addressing event kinds and event tokens. Consequently, they require a different treatment in linguistic theory.

Lingua, 2008

The rationale for bringing together work on tense, aspect and event structure is discussed. Papers by Gehrke, Ramchand, Zagona, Basilico, Van Hout, Guéron and Demirdache and Uribe-Etxebarria are described, and the connections and disparities between them considered. # Over the past 15 years, generative linguists have devoted intensive study to the syntax and semantics of event structure, making considerable progress in the syntactic of fundamental notions such as state, activity, achievement, accomplishment and semelfactive, and significantly elucidating the relationship between these analyses and verbal semantics, including event decomposition and theta-role assignment. A fairly coherent picture of vP-internal syntax and semantics has emerged in the work of such investigators as Ramchand, van Hout, Borer, Basilico, and the present authors, among many others.