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Deverbal nominalization with the ‘Down’-operator

  • Gianina Iordachioaia and Elena Soare
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Abstract

We argue that the nominal supine in Romanian is a nominalization by the definite determiner in its interpretation as a ‘Down’-operator, which correlates with an event-kind denotation. We use as evidence the restricted nominal properties of the nominal supine, which indicate that it does not have a typical (overt or covert) nominalizing suffix of the kind that other nominalizations like the nominal infinitive and the nominalized participle have. We further show that among these nominalization patterns, only the semantics of the nominal supine correlates with kinds. Eventually, this case study shows how the nominalizing function of the ‘Down’-operator from Chierchia (1984) can be unified with its kind semantics in Chierchia (1998).

Abstract

We argue that the nominal supine in Romanian is a nominalization by the definite determiner in its interpretation as a ‘Down’-operator, which correlates with an event-kind denotation. We use as evidence the restricted nominal properties of the nominal supine, which indicate that it does not have a typical (overt or covert) nominalizing suffix of the kind that other nominalizations like the nominal infinitive and the nominalized participle have. We further show that among these nominalization patterns, only the semantics of the nominal supine correlates with kinds. Eventually, this case study shows how the nominalizing function of the ‘Down’-operator from Chierchia (1984) can be unified with its kind semantics in Chierchia (1998).

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