scholarly journals What secondary predicates in Russian tell us about the link between tense, aspect and case

2001 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 171-195
Author(s):  
Kylie Richardson
Keyword(s):  
Event Structure ◽  
Direct Object ◽  
Tense And Aspect ◽  
Semantic Constraints ◽  
Event Time ◽  
Change Of State ◽  
Instrumental Case ◽  
Predicate Adjective ◽  
Secondary Predicates ◽  
Secondary Predication

In this paper I show that the different case marking possibilities on predicate adjectives in depictive secondary predicates in Russian constitute the uninterpretable counterpart of the interpretable tense and aspect features of the adjective. Case agreement entails that the predicate adjective is non-eventive, i.e., it occurs when the event time of the secondary predicate is identical to the event time of the primary predicate. The instrumental case, however, entails that the secondary predicate is eventive: some change of state or transition occurred prior to or during the event time of the primary predicate. I claim that case agreement occurs in conjoined tense phrases in Russian, while the instrumental case occurs in adjoined aspectual phrases. In English, secondary predication is sensitive both to the structural location of its antecedent and to the event structure of the primary predicate. I suggest that depictives with subject antecedents in English are true adjunction structures, while those with direct object antecedents occur in a conjoined aspectual phrase. This hypothesis finds support in the different movement and semantic constraints in conjunction versus adjunction phrases in both English and Russian.  

Secondary Predication

2019 ◽  
pp. 425-455
Author(s):  
Tova Rapoport
Keyword(s):  
Event Structure ◽  
Structural Representation ◽  
Structure Representation ◽  
Semantic Constraints ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Main Verb ◽  
Secondary Predicates ◽  
Secondary Predication

This chapter examines the thematic and aspectual properties of two constructions of secondary predication, resultatives and depictives. The thematic and aspectual constraints on the two types of secondary predicate and their hosts are detailed, as are the semantic constraints on the relation between the main verb and each of the secondary predicate types and the structural representation of these relations. The final sections focus on the issue of the argument or adjunct status of the different types of depictive and resultative (such as true versus false resultative) predicates, the role of each type in the event structure representation, and the possibility of distinguishing between secondary predicates and certain adverbial types. As noted by the studies reviewed in this chapter, an examination of secondary predicate constructions sheds light on properties of verb and adjective types, the characterization of argument versus adjunct, and the thematic and aspectual underpinnings of event structure.

scholarly journals Secondary predication in Russian

2001 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 79
Author(s):  
Anatoli Strigin ◽  
Assinja Demjjanow
Keyword(s):  
Instrumental Case ◽  
Secondary Predicates ◽  
Secondary Predication ◽  
Semantic Typology

The paper makes two contributions to semantic typology of secondary predicates. It provides an explanation of the fact that Russian has no resultative secondary predicates, relating this explanation to the interpretation of secondary predicates in English. And it relates depictive secondary predicates in Russian, which usually occur in the instrumental case, to other uses of the instrumental case in Russian, establishing here, too, a difference to English concerning the scope of the secondary predication phenomenon.  

scholarly journals On inchoative states. Evidence from modification of Polish perfective psych verbs by degree quantifiers

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 63-79
Author(s):  
Ewa Willim
Keyword(s):  
Event Structure ◽  
Perfective Aspect ◽  
Lexical Aspect ◽  
Measure Function ◽  
Change Of State ◽  
Psych Verbs ◽  
The Subject

AbstractThe special properties that psych(ological) verbs manifest cross-linguistically have given rise to on-going debates in syntactic and semantic theorizing. Regarding their lexical aspect classification, while verbal psych predicates with the Experiencer argument mapped onto the subject (SE psych predicates) have generally been analyzed as stative, there is little agreement on what kinds of eventualities object Experiencer (OE) psych predicates describe. On the stative reading, OE psych predicates have been classified as atelic causative states. On the (non-agentive) eventive reading, they have been widely analyzed as telic change of state predicates and classified as achievements or as accomplishments. Based on Polish, Rozwadowska (2003, 2012) argues that nonagentive eventive OE psych predicates in the perfective aspect denote an onset of a state and that they are atelic rather than telic. This paper offers further support for the view that Polish perfective psych verbs do not denote a change of state, i.e., a transition from α to ¬α. The evidence is drawn from verbal comparison and the distribution of the comparative degree quantifier jeszcze bardziej ‘even more’ in perfective psych predicates. It is argued here that in contexts including jeszcze bardziej ‘even more’, the perfective predication denotes an onset of a state whose degree of intensity exceeds the comparative standard. While a degree quantifier attached to the VP in the syntax contributes a differential measure function that returns a (vague) value representing the degree to which the intensity of the Experiencer’s state exceeds the comparative standard in the event, it does not affect the event structure of the perfective verb and it does not provide the VP denotation it modifies with a final endpoint. As the perfective picks the onset of an upper open state, perfective psych predicates typically give rise to an atelic interpretation.

scholarly journals A formação de construções resultativas no português brasileiro

2011 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Núbia Rech
Keyword(s):  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Romance Languages ◽  
Small Clause ◽  
Resultative Constructions ◽  
Verb Phrase ◽  
Causative Alternation ◽  
Change Of State ◽  
Motion Constructions ◽  
Secondary Predicates ◽  
Germanic Languages

This paper aims mainly at investigating if there is the formation of resultative constructions with simple adjective in Brazilian Portuguese, since researchers disagree on the existence of these constructions in Romance Languages. To start this discussion, first I make a distinction between resultative, depictive and circumstantial constructions. Then, I relate some of their main characteristics, testing how they appear in sentences written in Brazilian Portuguese. Afterwards, I propose an extension of Folli and Ramchand (2001)’s analysis on the Portuguese. These authors use a structure of verb phrase that consists of three different projections, each one consisting in a subpart of the event: Cause, Process and Result. My hypothesis about the Brazilian Portuguese is that the verbs of causative alternation – as they imply change of state – are the head of Result projection and have as their complement an adjective small clause (SC), whose predicate indicates the telic aspect of event, forming a resultative construction. Following this perspective of analysis, I study the possibility of formation of adjective resultatives with atelic and telic verbs that admit causative alternation. I also approach – although briefly – other types of constructions that express results, whose secondary predicates are, respectively, a complex adjective phrase, a PP or a DP. In this paper, only the constructions resulting from verbal actions are considered. Thus, goal of motion constructions – in which prepositions indicate the following of movement and its ending – and resultative constructions with causative verbs are not considered. The results show that there are not resultative constructions in the Brazilian Portuguese equivalent to those found in Germanic Languages, in which an atelic verb becomes a telic verb by adding a resultative secondary predicate to the sentence.

scholarly journals Secondary Nominal Predication in Non-elementary Simple Sentence

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Андрей Пантелеев ◽  
Andrey Panteleev
Keyword(s):  
Russian Language ◽  
Simple Sentence ◽  
Procedural Semantics ◽  
Semantic Categories ◽  
Language Representation ◽  
Abstract Nouns ◽  
Simple Sentences ◽  
Secondary Predicates ◽  
High Degree ◽  
Secondary Predication

This monograph is devoted to the study of the functioning of concrete and abstract nouns as bearers of secondary predication and proposition in the folded non-elementary simple sentences in the Russian language. At the level of non-elementary simple sentences, there are specific means of updating the procedural semantics of specific nouns, specific ways of language representation of functional-semantic categories of personality, temporality and taxis. A high degree of compression of the statements suggests a closer relationship to secondary predicates with context and background knowledge speaking

scholarly journals Argument-Structure-Reducing Operations in Standard Arabic: An Exploratory Comparative Study

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. p1
Author(s):  
Abdellatif ED-DARRAJI
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Argument Structure ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Direct Object ◽  
External Argument ◽  
Standard Arabic ◽  
Change Of State

This paper attempts to examine some argument-structure-reducing operations in Standard Arabic (SA for short). It is proposed here that some affixes (viz. prefixes and infixes) can decrease the argument structure (or valence) of the subclass of change-of-state (COS for short) verbs in the language under study. More specifically, these affixes function as unaccusativizers or decausativizers in that they can derive unaccusative COS verbs from causative COS verbs by suppressing the external argument of the latter verbs and syntactically promoting the direct object to subject position. Crucially, the ability of these affixes to affect the argument structure and the morphosyntactic realization of arguments is not limited to SA, but it has been attested in some other languages, such as Italian, Russian, Chichewa, Spanish, French, Eastern Armenian, West Greenlandic, and Tzutujil, among others.            

scholarly journals Semantic constraints on case assignment in secondary adjectival predicates in Russian

2001 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
pp. 99-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roland Hinterholzl
Keyword(s):  
Case Assignment ◽  
Semantic Constraints ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
Secondary Predicates ◽  
Control Relation ◽  
Case Frames

Adjectival secondary predicates can enter into two Case frames in Russian, the agreeing form and the Instrumental. The paper argues that these Case frames go together with two syntactic positions in the clause which are correlated with two different interpretations, the true depictive and the temporally restricted reading, respectively. The availability of the two readings depends on the houndedness of the secondary predicate. Only bounded predicates can enter into both Case frames and only partially non-bounded predicates can appear in the Instrumental. The paper therefore argues that the pertinent two-way SL/IL-contrast is to he replaced by a three-way distinction in terms of boundedness. The paper outlines the syntax and semantics of the true depictive and the temporally restricted interpretation and discusses how adjectival secondary predicates whose salient properties involve a cotemporary interpretation with the matrix predicate and a control relation of an individual argument, differ from temporal adjuncts as well as from non-finite clauses.  

scholarly journals Development of Aspect and Tense in Semitic Languages: Typological Considerations

2011 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 7-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vit Bubenik
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Pertinent Literature ◽  
Semitic Languages ◽  
Progressive Aspect ◽  
Middle Stage ◽  
Tense And Aspect ◽  
Event Time ◽  
European Languages ◽  
Morphosyntactic Development ◽  
Classical Arabic

Development of Aspect and Tense in Semitic Languages: Typological ConsiderationsA survey of pertinent literature reveals that many studies of aspect in Semitic languages do not pay a due attention to the crucial theoretical distinction of perfect and perfectivity. In this paper I will adopt the ‘chronogenetic' model of the morphosyntactic development of tense and aspect tested for the Indo-European languages (Hewson & Bubenik 1997) that allows five major aspectual categories to be distinguished (prospective, inceptive, imperfective, perfective, perfect) within ‘Event Time’. I will argue that the appearance in Arabic of the analytic double-finite perfect (of the typekun-tu katab-tu‘I had written’) was the most significant innovation during the New Stage not to be found in the other Central Semitic languages. During the Middle Stage in Mishnaic Hebrew and Middle Aramaic the canonical progressive aspect was paradigmatized while Classical Arabic created its double-finite counterpart (kān-a ya-ktub-u‘he was writing’). The significance of this approach to the study of the universals of tense and aspect will be evaluated.

scholarly journals Aspectual coercion and the typology of change of state predicates

2007 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANDREW KOONTZ-GARBODEN
Keyword(s):  
Event Structure ◽  
Detailed Case ◽  
Change Of State ◽  
Aspectual Coercion ◽  
Property Concepts ◽  
Point Of Departure

The point of departure of this paper is the consideration of how words with the meanings of property concept states (states that are lexicalized as adjectives in languages that have that lexical category, cf. Dixon 1982), e.g. ‘red’, are related to words denoting their corresponding change of state, e.g. ‘redden’. It is shown that while many languages relate words with these meanings to one another via some morpholexical process, this is not so in the Polynesian language Tongan. A detailed case study shows that in this language there are no non-causative change of state lexemes based on property concepts. Rather, these meanings are derived pragmatically from verbs denoting the corresponding state via aspectual coercion (Moens & Steedman 1988, Jackendoff 1997, de Swart 1998, Zucchi 1998, Michaelis 2004). This finding is shown to have consequences for the understanding of the typology of change of state predicates (Koontz-Garboden 2005, 2006, Koontz-Garboden & Levin 2005) and for theories of event structure: (a) the typological space is broader than previously thought and (b) theories of event structure need to be reconsidered in order to account for the postlexical derivation of meaning.

scholarly journals Verb phrase secondary predication: Biblical Hebrew as a case study

Linguistics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 363-378
Author(s):  
Galia Hatav
Keyword(s):  
Biblical Hebrew ◽  
Verb Phrase ◽  
Verb Phrases ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Infinitive Absolute ◽  
Secondary Predicates ◽  
Secondary Predication ◽  
Finite Verb

AbstractIn this article, I discuss secondary predication in Biblical Hebrew, showing that contrary to what linguists such as Rothstein (2004. Structuring events. Malden, MA & Oxford: Blackwell) suggest, there are languages with verb phrases as secondary predicates.In particular, I deal with a construction in Biblical Hebrew I refer to as the double infinitive-absolute construction, where in addition to a finite verb, the sentence contains two conjoined occurrences of an infinitive absolute, where the first is of the same root and binyan (pattern) as the finite verb but deprived of temporal and agreement features, while the second is of a different root and (maybe) binyan. I show that Biblical Hebrew uses this construction to form a new complex verb with the primary predicate, such that it shares the subject or the object with the primary predicate, depicting a situation that overlaps in time with the situation depicted by the primary predicate or results from it.

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