Aspect shift in stative verbs and their arguments
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Joshua Rodriguez
Abstract
This paper offers an alternative explanation for coercion effects or ‘aspect shift’ with stative verbs in combination with the progressive or the aspectually specific and distinct Spanish past tenses. The account follows Rodriguez (2007) in exploiting lexical ambiguities to provide a richer set of VP Aktionsarten via normal compositional semantics. Crucially it is the addition of aspectually specific morphology that functions to filter out those VP interpretations which have incompatible Aktionsarten. The purported shifting effect therefore derives from one or another VP meaning (potentially including alternating NP denotations as well) in association with corresponding morphology via aspectual compatibility. The analysis provides a natural means for explaining why certain cases of ‘aspect shift’ do not occur, namely on the basis of the lack of the underlying semantic potentials of the words involved. The proposal investigates three cases in depth, with implied applicability to a broader range of examples.
Abstract
This paper offers an alternative explanation for coercion effects or ‘aspect shift’ with stative verbs in combination with the progressive or the aspectually specific and distinct Spanish past tenses. The account follows Rodriguez (2007) in exploiting lexical ambiguities to provide a richer set of VP Aktionsarten via normal compositional semantics. Crucially it is the addition of aspectually specific morphology that functions to filter out those VP interpretations which have incompatible Aktionsarten. The purported shifting effect therefore derives from one or another VP meaning (potentially including alternating NP denotations as well) in association with corresponding morphology via aspectual compatibility. The analysis provides a natural means for explaining why certain cases of ‘aspect shift’ do not occur, namely on the basis of the lack of the underlying semantic potentials of the words involved. The proposal investigates three cases in depth, with implied applicability to a broader range of examples.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgments vii
- Editors’ introduction 1
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Part 1. Language contact and bilingualism
- Subject pronoun expression in bilinguals of two null subject languages 9
- Where are hiatuses left? 23
- Loanword adaptation in the French of Spanish-speaking immigrants in Montréal 39
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Part 2. Phonology and interfaces
- Morphology and phonology of word-final vowel deletion in spoken Tuscan Italian 57
- Relativization, intonational phrases and rich left peripheries 73
- Stress domain effects in French phonology and phonological development 89
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Part 3. Syntax and morphophonology
- Syntactic realizations of plural in Romance and Germanic nominalizations 107
- The syntax of Spanish parecer and the status of little pro 125
- Two types of (apparently) ditransitive light verb constructions 139
- Modal ellipsis in French, Spanish and Italian 157
- Optional prepositions in Brazilian Portuguese 171
- An apparent ‘number case constraint’ in Romanian 185
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Part 4. Semantics and morphology
- Generic bare singulars in Brazilian Portuguese 203
- Aspect shift in stative verbs and their arguments 217
-
Part 5. Psycholinguistics
- Experimenting with wh -movement in Spanish 233
- How Spanish phonotactics informs psycholinuistic models of speech production 249
- Index 265
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgments vii
- Editors’ introduction 1
-
Part 1. Language contact and bilingualism
- Subject pronoun expression in bilinguals of two null subject languages 9
- Where are hiatuses left? 23
- Loanword adaptation in the French of Spanish-speaking immigrants in Montréal 39
-
Part 2. Phonology and interfaces
- Morphology and phonology of word-final vowel deletion in spoken Tuscan Italian 57
- Relativization, intonational phrases and rich left peripheries 73
- Stress domain effects in French phonology and phonological development 89
-
Part 3. Syntax and morphophonology
- Syntactic realizations of plural in Romance and Germanic nominalizations 107
- The syntax of Spanish parecer and the status of little pro 125
- Two types of (apparently) ditransitive light verb constructions 139
- Modal ellipsis in French, Spanish and Italian 157
- Optional prepositions in Brazilian Portuguese 171
- An apparent ‘number case constraint’ in Romanian 185
-
Part 4. Semantics and morphology
- Generic bare singulars in Brazilian Portuguese 203
- Aspect shift in stative verbs and their arguments 217
-
Part 5. Psycholinguistics
- Experimenting with wh -movement in Spanish 233
- How Spanish phonotactics informs psycholinuistic models of speech production 249
- Index 265
