Agent control over non culminating events
-
Hamida Demirdache
Abstract
This paper investigates a correlation between the availability of non-culminating construals for accomplishments and the control of the agent over the described event (the Agent Control Hypothesis, ach). We consider two versions of the ach, on the basis of a new typology of non-culminating construals. On the strong version, non-culmination requires agent control whether what is being denied is the occurrence of any change of state of the type φ encoded by the verb, or merely that the change of state satisfies the property φ to degree 1. On its weak version, agent control is required in the former case only. The evidence reviewed from Romance, Germanic, Salish, and Mandarin, suggests that the weak version of the ach might indeed hold. The weak version of the ach seems, however, to be too weak for Salish languages. The final section shows how the existing analyses of non-culminating construals could capture the link between non-culmination and agentivity.
Abstract
This paper investigates a correlation between the availability of non-culminating construals for accomplishments and the control of the agent over the described event (the Agent Control Hypothesis, ach). We consider two versions of the ach, on the basis of a new typology of non-culminating construals. On the strong version, non-culmination requires agent control whether what is being denied is the occurrence of any change of state of the type φ encoded by the verb, or merely that the change of state satisfies the property φ to degree 1. On its weak version, agent control is required in the former case only. The evidence reviewed from Romance, Germanic, Salish, and Mandarin, suggests that the weak version of the ach might indeed hold. The weak version of the ach seems, however, to be too weak for Salish languages. The final section shows how the existing analyses of non-culminating construals could capture the link between non-culmination and agentivity.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- List of contributors xvii
- The conceptualization of change of state in verbs coming from gentilicios 1
- Event structure and lexical semantics in a scalar approach to actionality 21
- Lexical synonymy and argumental structure 60
- Inner and outer prepositions with Spanish verbs of vertical movement 77
- Argumental comitative and reciprocity in Spanish 98
- Causativity and psychological verbs in Spanish 110
- Lexical agreement processes 131
- Variable aspectual coercion in Spanish fictive motion expressions 153
- Agent control over non culminating events 185
- The pseudo-copulative verbs verse and sentirse 218
- On events that express properties 238
- Some reflections on verbs with clitic increase 264
- Transitivity and verb classes 288
- Romance object-experiencer verbs 312
- Aspectual approach to causative-resultative denominal verbs 334
- Denominal parasynthesis and inchoativity from both lexical-semantic and aspectual points of view 357
- Diachronic prototypicity and stativity in Spanish physical affection verbs 378
- Negative imperatives with Spanish copulas ser y estar 412
- Index 439
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- List of contributors xvii
- The conceptualization of change of state in verbs coming from gentilicios 1
- Event structure and lexical semantics in a scalar approach to actionality 21
- Lexical synonymy and argumental structure 60
- Inner and outer prepositions with Spanish verbs of vertical movement 77
- Argumental comitative and reciprocity in Spanish 98
- Causativity and psychological verbs in Spanish 110
- Lexical agreement processes 131
- Variable aspectual coercion in Spanish fictive motion expressions 153
- Agent control over non culminating events 185
- The pseudo-copulative verbs verse and sentirse 218
- On events that express properties 238
- Some reflections on verbs with clitic increase 264
- Transitivity and verb classes 288
- Romance object-experiencer verbs 312
- Aspectual approach to causative-resultative denominal verbs 334
- Denominal parasynthesis and inchoativity from both lexical-semantic and aspectual points of view 357
- Diachronic prototypicity and stativity in Spanish physical affection verbs 378
- Negative imperatives with Spanish copulas ser y estar 412
- Index 439
