Events and Predication

Events and Predication

Author: Montserrat Sanz

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2000-01-01

Total Pages: 234

ISBN-13: 902723714X

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Studies on the syntactic consequences of event type in languages have shown that "Aktionsart" plays a role in Universal Grammar. This book contributes to the exploration of the syntax/semantics interface by presenting a thorough comparison of event and predicate types in English and Spanish. The mapping between event and syntactic predicate types, including detransitives, is given a minimalist account based on the functional categories that embed event features and on a careful analysis of the features checked by objects. As the book delves into the theoretical issue of how parameters are characterized, it presents the most comprehensive account to date of event type phenomena in Spanish, an innovative analysis of the clitic "SE" and a re-definition of unaccusativity. The theory is then applied to the ongoing issues in the sentence processing literature. A proposal is made for an update of the current data in light of these latest linguistic discoveries.


Book Synopsis Events and Predication by : Montserrat Sanz

Download or read book Events and Predication written by Montserrat Sanz and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 2000-01-01 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Studies on the syntactic consequences of event type in languages have shown that "Aktionsart" plays a role in Universal Grammar. This book contributes to the exploration of the syntax/semantics interface by presenting a thorough comparison of event and predicate types in English and Spanish. The mapping between event and syntactic predicate types, including detransitives, is given a minimalist account based on the functional categories that embed event features and on a careful analysis of the features checked by objects. As the book delves into the theoretical issue of how parameters are characterized, it presents the most comprehensive account to date of event type phenomena in Spanish, an innovative analysis of the clitic "SE" and a re-definition of unaccusativity. The theory is then applied to the ongoing issues in the sentence processing literature. A proposal is made for an update of the current data in light of these latest linguistic discoveries.

Studies in the Composition and Decomposition of Event Predicates

Studies in the Composition and Decomposition of Event Predicates

Author: Boban Arsenijević

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2013-02-26

Total Pages: 257

ISBN-13: 9400759835

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This detailed, perceptive addition to the linguistics literature analyzes the semantic components of event predicates, exploring their fine-grained elements as well as their agency in linguistic processing. The papers go beyond pure semantics to consider their varying influences of event predicates on argument structure, aspect, scalarity, and event structure. The volume shows how advances in the linguistic theory of event predicates, which have spawned Davidsonian and neo-Davidsonian notions of event arguments, in addition to ‘event structure’ frameworks and mereological models for the eventuality domain, have sidelined research on specific sets of entailments that support a typology of event predicates. Addressing this imbalance in the literature, the work also presents evidence indicating a more complex role for scalar structures than currently assumed. It will enrich the work of semanticists, psycholinguists, and syntacticians with a decompositional approach to verb phrase structure.


Book Synopsis Studies in the Composition and Decomposition of Event Predicates by : Boban Arsenijević

Download or read book Studies in the Composition and Decomposition of Event Predicates written by Boban Arsenijević and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-02-26 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This detailed, perceptive addition to the linguistics literature analyzes the semantic components of event predicates, exploring their fine-grained elements as well as their agency in linguistic processing. The papers go beyond pure semantics to consider their varying influences of event predicates on argument structure, aspect, scalarity, and event structure. The volume shows how advances in the linguistic theory of event predicates, which have spawned Davidsonian and neo-Davidsonian notions of event arguments, in addition to ‘event structure’ frameworks and mereological models for the eventuality domain, have sidelined research on specific sets of entailments that support a typology of event predicates. Addressing this imbalance in the literature, the work also presents evidence indicating a more complex role for scalar structures than currently assumed. It will enrich the work of semanticists, psycholinguists, and syntacticians with a decompositional approach to verb phrase structure.

Events and Predication

Events and Predication

Author: Montserrat Sanz

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2000-10-20

Total Pages: 235

ISBN-13: 902728444X

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Studies on the syntactic consequences of event type in languages have shown that Aktionsart plays a role in Universal Grammar. This book contributes to the exploration of the syntax/semantics interface by presenting a thorough comparison of event and predicate types in English and Spanish. The mapping between event and syntactic predicate types, including detransitives, is given a minimalist account based on the functional categories that embed event features and on a careful analysis of the features checked by objects. As the book delves into the theoretical issue of how parameters are characterized, it presents the most comprehensive account to date of event type phenomena in Spanish, an innovative analysis of the clitic SE and a re-definition of unaccusativity. The theory is then applied to the ongoing issues in the sentence processing literature. A proposal is made for an update of the current data in light of these latest linguistic discoveries.


Book Synopsis Events and Predication by : Montserrat Sanz

Download or read book Events and Predication written by Montserrat Sanz and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 2000-10-20 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Studies on the syntactic consequences of event type in languages have shown that Aktionsart plays a role in Universal Grammar. This book contributes to the exploration of the syntax/semantics interface by presenting a thorough comparison of event and predicate types in English and Spanish. The mapping between event and syntactic predicate types, including detransitives, is given a minimalist account based on the functional categories that embed event features and on a careful analysis of the features checked by objects. As the book delves into the theoretical issue of how parameters are characterized, it presents the most comprehensive account to date of event type phenomena in Spanish, an innovative analysis of the clitic SE and a re-definition of unaccusativity. The theory is then applied to the ongoing issues in the sentence processing literature. A proposal is made for an update of the current data in light of these latest linguistic discoveries.

Truth and Predication

Truth and Predication

Author: Donald Davidson

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2009-07

Total Pages: 200

ISBN-13: 9780674030220

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This brief book takes readers to the very heart of what it is that philosophy can do well. Completed shortly before Donald Davidson's death at 85, Truth and Predication brings full circle a journey moving from the insights of Plato and Aristotle to the problems of contemporary philosophy. In particular, Davidson, countering many of his contemporaries, argues that the concept of truth is not ambiguous, and that we need an effective theory of truth in order to live well. Davidson begins by harking back to an early interest in the classics, and an even earlier engagement with the workings of grammar; in the pleasures of diagramming sentences in grade school, he locates his first glimpse into the mechanics of how we conduct the most important activities in our life--such as declaring love, asking directions, issuing orders, and telling stories. Davidson connects these essential questions with the most basic and yet hard to understand mysteries of language use--how we connect noun to verb. This is a problem that Plato and Aristotle wrestled with, and Davidson draws on their thinking to show how an understanding of linguistic behavior is critical to the formulating of a workable concept of truth. Anchored in classical philosophy, Truth and Predication nonetheless makes telling use of the work of a great number of modern philosophers from Tarski and Dewey to Quine and Rorty. Representing the very best of Western thought, it reopens the most difficult and pressing of ancient philosophical problems, and reveals them to be very much of our day.


Book Synopsis Truth and Predication by : Donald Davidson

Download or read book Truth and Predication written by Donald Davidson and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-07 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This brief book takes readers to the very heart of what it is that philosophy can do well. Completed shortly before Donald Davidson's death at 85, Truth and Predication brings full circle a journey moving from the insights of Plato and Aristotle to the problems of contemporary philosophy. In particular, Davidson, countering many of his contemporaries, argues that the concept of truth is not ambiguous, and that we need an effective theory of truth in order to live well. Davidson begins by harking back to an early interest in the classics, and an even earlier engagement with the workings of grammar; in the pleasures of diagramming sentences in grade school, he locates his first glimpse into the mechanics of how we conduct the most important activities in our life--such as declaring love, asking directions, issuing orders, and telling stories. Davidson connects these essential questions with the most basic and yet hard to understand mysteries of language use--how we connect noun to verb. This is a problem that Plato and Aristotle wrestled with, and Davidson draws on their thinking to show how an understanding of linguistic behavior is critical to the formulating of a workable concept of truth. Anchored in classical philosophy, Truth and Predication nonetheless makes telling use of the work of a great number of modern philosophers from Tarski and Dewey to Quine and Rorty. Representing the very best of Western thought, it reopens the most difficult and pressing of ancient philosophical problems, and reveals them to be very much of our day.

Adverbs, Events, and Other Things

Adverbs, Events, and Other Things

Author: Regine Eckardt

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter

Published: 2013-02-06

Total Pages: 176

ISBN-13: 311091378X

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"Adverbs, Events, and Other Things" treats issues in the semantics of manner adverbs. Part I takes up the Davidsonian claim that manner adverbs are predicates of events. The book investigates the subtle interplay of event individuation and various kinds of event modification and claims that manner adverbs play a core rôle in singling out both simple and complex events. Part II of the book is devoted to word order phenomena involving manner adverbs in German. Presenting a general theory of predication structure for German sentences, the author shows how the position of manner adverbs - in interplay with other factors - determines the division of an utterance into topic and comment. She thereby gives semantic evidence in favour of the claim that manner adverbs in German have a syntactic base position.


Book Synopsis Adverbs, Events, and Other Things by : Regine Eckardt

Download or read book Adverbs, Events, and Other Things written by Regine Eckardt and published by Walter de Gruyter. This book was released on 2013-02-06 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Adverbs, Events, and Other Things" treats issues in the semantics of manner adverbs. Part I takes up the Davidsonian claim that manner adverbs are predicates of events. The book investigates the subtle interplay of event individuation and various kinds of event modification and claims that manner adverbs play a core rôle in singling out both simple and complex events. Part II of the book is devoted to word order phenomena involving manner adverbs in German. Presenting a general theory of predication structure for German sentences, the author shows how the position of manner adverbs - in interplay with other factors - determines the division of an utterance into topic and comment. She thereby gives semantic evidence in favour of the claim that manner adverbs in German have a syntactic base position.

Structuring Events

Structuring Events

Author: Susan Rothstein

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2008-04-15

Total Pages: 216

ISBN-13: 0470759100

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Structuring Events presents a novel semantic theory of lexical aspect for anyone interested in the study of verb meanings. Provides an introduction to aspectual classes and aspectual distinctions. Utilizes case studies to present a novel semantic theory of lexical aspect and compare it with alternative theories. Useful for students and scholars in semantics and syntax as well as the neighboring fields of pragmatics and philosophy of language.


Book Synopsis Structuring Events by : Susan Rothstein

Download or read book Structuring Events written by Susan Rothstein and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2008-04-15 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Structuring Events presents a novel semantic theory of lexical aspect for anyone interested in the study of verb meanings. Provides an introduction to aspectual classes and aspectual distinctions. Utilizes case studies to present a novel semantic theory of lexical aspect and compare it with alternative theories. Useful for students and scholars in semantics and syntax as well as the neighboring fields of pragmatics and philosophy of language.

Essays on Actions and Events

Essays on Actions and Events

Author: Donald Davidson

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2001-09-27

Total Pages: 347

ISBN-13: 0199246262

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Donald Davidson has prepared a new edition of his classic 1980 collection of Essays on Actions and Events, including two additional essays.


Book Synopsis Essays on Actions and Events by : Donald Davidson

Download or read book Essays on Actions and Events written by Donald Davidson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2001-09-27 with total page 347 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Donald Davidson has prepared a new edition of his classic 1980 collection of Essays on Actions and Events, including two additional essays.

Plurals and Events

Plurals and Events

Author: Barry Schein

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 1993

Total Pages: 412

ISBN-13: 9780262193344

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Barry Schein proposes combining a second-order treatment of plurals with Donald Davidson's suggestion that there are positions for reference to events in ordinary predicates in order to account for several of the more puzzling features of plurals without invoking plural objects, with its attendant metaphysics, and also provide an absolute truth-theoretic characterization of the semantics of sentences with plurals in them. How do we make sense of sentences with plural noun phrases in them? In Plurals and Events, Barry Schein proposes combining a second-order treatment of plurals with Donald Davidson's suggestion that there are positions for reference to events in ordinary predicates in order to account for several of the more puzzling features of plurals without invoking plural objects, with its attendant metaphysics, and also provide an absolute truth-theoretic characterization of the semantics of sentences with plurals in them. Schein's highly original argument should have significant impact on how natural-language semantics is done, with repercussions for philosophy and logic. The book opens with foundational arguments that the logical language should have four major features: reduction to singular predication via a Davidsonian logical form, amereology of events, a logical syntax that allows the constituents of a Davidsonian analysis to be predicated of distinct events and separated from one another by other logical elements, and descriptive anaphors that cross-refer to the events described by antecedent clauses. A semantics for plurality and quantification is developed in the remaining chapters, which address some of the empirical and formal questions raised by the variety of interpretations in which plurals and quantifiers participate.


Book Synopsis Plurals and Events by : Barry Schein

Download or read book Plurals and Events written by Barry Schein and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 1993 with total page 412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Barry Schein proposes combining a second-order treatment of plurals with Donald Davidson's suggestion that there are positions for reference to events in ordinary predicates in order to account for several of the more puzzling features of plurals without invoking plural objects, with its attendant metaphysics, and also provide an absolute truth-theoretic characterization of the semantics of sentences with plurals in them. How do we make sense of sentences with plural noun phrases in them? In Plurals and Events, Barry Schein proposes combining a second-order treatment of plurals with Donald Davidson's suggestion that there are positions for reference to events in ordinary predicates in order to account for several of the more puzzling features of plurals without invoking plural objects, with its attendant metaphysics, and also provide an absolute truth-theoretic characterization of the semantics of sentences with plurals in them. Schein's highly original argument should have significant impact on how natural-language semantics is done, with repercussions for philosophy and logic. The book opens with foundational arguments that the logical language should have four major features: reduction to singular predication via a Davidsonian logical form, amereology of events, a logical syntax that allows the constituents of a Davidsonian analysis to be predicated of distinct events and separated from one another by other logical elements, and descriptive anaphors that cross-refer to the events described by antecedent clauses. A semantics for plurality and quantification is developed in the remaining chapters, which address some of the empirical and formal questions raised by the variety of interpretations in which plurals and quantifiers participate.

Big Events, Small Clauses

Big Events, Small Clauses

Author: Cathrine Fabricius-Hansen

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter

Published: 2012-10-01

Total Pages: 468

ISBN-13: 311028586X

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This book investigates specific syntactic means of event elaboration across seven Indo-European languages (English, German, Norwegian, French, Russian, Latin and Ancient Greek): bare and comitative small clauses (“absolutes”), participle constructions and related clause-like but non-finite adjuncts that increase descriptive granularity with respect to constitutive parts of the matrix event (elaboration in the narrowest sense), or describe eventualities that are co-located and connected with but not part of the matrix event. The book falls in two parts. Part I addresses central theoretical issues: How is the co-eventive interpretation of such adjuncts achieved? What is the internal syntax of participial and converb constructions? How do these constructions function at the discourse level, as compared to various finite structures that are available for co-eventive elaboration? Part II takes an empirical cross-linguistic perspective. It consists of five self-contained chapters that are based on parallel corpora and study either the use of a specific construction across at least two of the seven object languages, or how a specific construction is rendered in other languages.


Book Synopsis Big Events, Small Clauses by : Cathrine Fabricius-Hansen

Download or read book Big Events, Small Clauses written by Cathrine Fabricius-Hansen and published by Walter de Gruyter. This book was released on 2012-10-01 with total page 468 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book investigates specific syntactic means of event elaboration across seven Indo-European languages (English, German, Norwegian, French, Russian, Latin and Ancient Greek): bare and comitative small clauses (“absolutes”), participle constructions and related clause-like but non-finite adjuncts that increase descriptive granularity with respect to constitutive parts of the matrix event (elaboration in the narrowest sense), or describe eventualities that are co-located and connected with but not part of the matrix event. The book falls in two parts. Part I addresses central theoretical issues: How is the co-eventive interpretation of such adjuncts achieved? What is the internal syntax of participial and converb constructions? How do these constructions function at the discourse level, as compared to various finite structures that are available for co-eventive elaboration? Part II takes an empirical cross-linguistic perspective. It consists of five self-contained chapters that are based on parallel corpora and study either the use of a specific construction across at least two of the seven object languages, or how a specific construction is rendered in other languages.

Nonverbal Predication

Nonverbal Predication

Author: Isabelle Roy (Writer on linguistics)

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2013-04-25

Total Pages: 229

ISBN-13: 0199543542

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This book concerns the interpretation and structure of non-verbal predicates in copular sentences (i.e. sentences with the verb 'be'). The author provides a unifying analysis based on a ternary distinction between defining/characterizing/situation-descriptive predicates.


Book Synopsis Nonverbal Predication by : Isabelle Roy (Writer on linguistics)

Download or read book Nonverbal Predication written by Isabelle Roy (Writer on linguistics) and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2013-04-25 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book concerns the interpretation and structure of non-verbal predicates in copular sentences (i.e. sentences with the verb 'be'). The author provides a unifying analysis based on a ternary distinction between defining/characterizing/situation-descriptive predicates.