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Structuring Telicity

Hagit Borer

in Structuring Sense Volume 2: The Normal Course of Events

This chapter discusses the projection of functional event structure, arguing specifically for an Event Phrase (EP) and for an Aspectual Quantity Phrase (Asp Q P). In the context of both of these ... More

This chapter discusses the projection of functional event structure, arguing specifically for an Event Phrase (EP) and for an Aspectual Quantity Phrase (Asp Q P). In the context of both of these nodes, argument role labels may emerge, those of originator and subject-of-quantity, respectively. In both cases, however, it is not the structure itself that assigns a role. Rather, the role is assigned as an entailment from the event structure. It is argued that the appearance of an obligatory argument, especially in the case of unaccusatives and telic transitives, does not arise from assignment relations, but from the need to assign range to aspectual structure, which must occur under well-defined syntactic conditions, specifically under specifier-head relations. As such, the existence of well-defined formal syntactic conditions on the emergence of a telic interpretation will provide a strong argument for the syntactic representation of event structure.Less

Why Events?

Hagit Borer

in Structuring Sense Volume 2: The Normal Course of Events

Argument structure is licensed by functional syntactic structure, and specifically, functional structure that is interpreted as event structure. This syntactic structure, in turn, affects aspects of ... More

Argument structure is licensed by functional syntactic structure, and specifically, functional structure that is interpreted as event structure. This syntactic structure, in turn, affects aspects of the basic meaning of its L-head, where by L-head we mean a (category-neutral) listeme, part of the conceptual array. The functional structure may further have the effect of ‘verbalizing’ the L-domain (if not already verbalized by categorial morphology), where by the L-domain we mean the maximal category the L-head projects. The L-head, or, more accurately, the listeme, in turn functions as a modifier of the structure, giving rise to appropriateness or oddity, as the case may be, and as already discussed extensively. To the extent that argument structure is altogether severed from the properties of the L-head that is to become the verb, we expect massive polysemy. This chapter turns to at least one well-known case of polysemy within the verbal domain. It illustrates this polysemy within the domain of verb structures, arguing not only that it occurs, but that its best characterization is through the projection of functional structure which is interpreted as event structure.Less

The Human Prefrontal Cortex Stores Structured Event Complexes

Frank Krueger and Jordan Grafman

in Understanding Events: From Perception to Action

Event sequence knowledge is necessary for learning, planning, and performing activities of daily living. Clinical observations suggest that the prefrontal cortex (PFC) is crucial for goal-directed ... More

Event sequence knowledge is necessary for learning, planning, and performing activities of daily living. Clinical observations suggest that the prefrontal cortex (PFC) is crucial for goal-directed behavior such as carrying out plans, controlling a course of actions, or organizing everyday life routines. This chapter proposes a “representational” approach to PFC function, which assumes that the PFC (a) stores long-term memories of goal-oriented event sequence knowledge and (b) seeks to establish the format and categories according to which such information is stored. It argues that the human PFC stores a unique type of knowledge in the form of structured event complexes (SECs). SECs are representations composed of higher-order goal-oriented sequences of events that are involved in the planning and monitoring of complex behavior.Less

Case Marking on the Internal Argument and Lexical Aspect

Kylie Richardson

in Case and Aspect in Slavic

This chapter demonstrates that in the Slavic languages the accusative case arises on the internal argument of a ‘base’ verb whose event structure (lexical/semantic aspect) is compositional, whereas ... More

This chapter demonstrates that in the Slavic languages the accusative case arises on the internal argument of a ‘base’ verb whose event structure (lexical/semantic aspect) is compositional, whereas lexical case-marking occurs with atelic base verbs whose event structure is never compositional. A syntactic analysis is provided to account for this pattern.Less

Interpreting Telicity

Hagit Borer

in Structuring Sense Volume 2: The Normal Course of Events

This chapter presents an elaboration of the notion of quantity as proposed in this work both for nominals and for events. The notion will be argued to be the same one in both cases, differing in some ... More

This chapter presents an elaboration of the notion of quantity as proposed in this work both for nominals and for events. The notion will be argued to be the same one in both cases, differing in some important ways from, e.g., Krifka's notion of quantization. In that context, the chapter further argues for the syntactic rather than lexical representation of event argument roles, for the view of telicity as the ‘structuring’ of atelicity, and for the emergence of argument interpretation as an entailment from event structure rather than as a direct assignment relationship.Less

Introduction *

Malka Rappaport Hovav, Edit Doron, and Ivy Sichel

in Lexical Semantics, Syntax, and Event Structure

This chapter introduces the volume by outlining the general themes explored and describing the structure of the book. The chapters all address aspects of the same basic research programme: ... More

This chapter introduces the volume by outlining the general themes explored and describing the structure of the book. The chapters all address aspects of the same basic research programme: determining the division of labour between the lexicon, (morpho)syntax, and compositional semantics in the encoding of what can broadly be construed as event structure, encompassing event participants and the temporal properties associated with the linguistic representation of events.Less

Direct Range Assignment: The Slavic Paradigm

Hagit Borer

in Structuring Sense Volume 2: The Normal Course of Events

This chapter turns to cases where range assignment in event structure is marked morphologically, specifically through the Slavic perfective system. It argues that the perfective system is ... More

This chapter turns to cases where range assignment in event structure is marked morphologically, specifically through the Slavic perfective system. It argues that the perfective system is fundamentally the marking of aktionsart (although this does not hold for the imperfective system), and that just as within languages such as English or Hebrew, quantity marking of the argument translates into quantity marking of an aspectual head. Thus, in Slavic languages, quantity marking on the head (i.e., a quantity head feature) translates into quantity marking on the argument. One of the most important predictions of the system presented here is that in well-defined structural environments, telicity could exist without an ‘internal’ argument.Less

Direct Range Assignment: Telicity without Verkuyl's Generalization

Hagit Borer

in Structuring Sense Volume 2: The Normal Course of Events

This chapter argues that there is telicity without Verkuyl's generalization in Slavic, which lends support to the specifier-head agreement mechanism suggested as an account for Verkuyl's ... More

This chapter argues that there is telicity without Verkuyl's generalization in Slavic, which lends support to the specifier-head agreement mechanism suggested as an account for Verkuyl's generalization. It also constitutes strong support for the syntactic representation of telicity and event structure proposed here.Less

Envoi

William Croft

in Verbs: Aspect and Causal Structure

Chapter 10, “Envoi”, summarizes the book (NB: this is only a little over one page long!)

Toward a force‐dynamic theory of argument realization

William Croft

in Verbs: Aspect and Causal Structure

Chapter 5, “Toward a force-dynamic theory of argument realization”, provides a critical survey of theories of the role of event structure in argument realization, concluding with the causal chain ... More

Chapter 5, “Toward a force-dynamic theory of argument realization”, provides a critical survey of theories of the role of event structure in argument realization, concluding with the causal chain (force dynamic) model. Many prior theories have proposed a number of syntactic or semantic constructs in addition to causal-aspectual event structure in order to account for a wide range of argument realization patterns. These additional constructs can be replaced by using two properties of event structure: the causal transmission of force between participants, and the profiling of part of the causal chain (leaving the remainder as part of the causal semantic frame of the event). The chapter concludes by introducing the integration of the two geometric dimensions of the aspectual representation from chapters 2-4 and the causal chain. This is achieved by assigning each participant in the event its own aspectual subevent; the subevents are causally related to one another in the causal chain.Less

Introduction

Nikolas Gisborne

in The Event Structure of Perception Verbs

This chapter introduces the book as a whole. It presents the data set, and explores some of the issues that need to be addressed in a study of these verbs as well as indicating some general concerns ... More

This chapter introduces the book as a whole. It presents the data set, and explores some of the issues that need to be addressed in a study of these verbs as well as indicating some general concerns in the study of event structure. It is observed that there are three main classes of perception verb — listen‐class verbs; hear‐class verbs; and sound‐class verbs — and there is some exploration of how different perception verbs fit into these categories, and what the core features of the categories are. This chapter locates the study in the relevant literature, and explains the features of Word Grammar, which is the organizing framework for the analysis in this book. It ends with a section describing what is coming up in the rest of the book.Less

Event Structure and Morphosyntax in Navajo

CARLOTA S. SMITH

in The Syntax of Aspect: Deriving Thematic and Aspectual Interpretation

Event structure in Navajo presents a challenge to generative linguistic analysis. The Navajo verb word has a complex structure with an abstract stem and prefixes that appear in fixed positions. The ... More

Event structure in Navajo presents a challenge to generative linguistic analysis. The Navajo verb word has a complex structure with an abstract stem and prefixes that appear in fixed positions. The positions are traditionally represented by a template. This chapter determines how information about event structure is conveyed in the Navajo verb, and considers how best to represent such structure in a linguistic account. It discusses two different approaches: that of semantically-based syntax, and the surface-structure interpretation of Discourse Representation Theory. It is argued that the latter is preferable on grounds of simplicity and adequacy.Less

Complex predicate constructions and the semantics of simple verbs

William Croft

in Verbs: Aspect and Causal Structure

Chapter 8, “Complex predicate constructions and the semantics of simple verbs”, compares the semantic possibilities of certain complex predicate constructions in order to gain a better understanding ... More

Chapter 8, “Complex predicate constructions and the semantics of simple verbs”, compares the semantic possibilities of certain complex predicate constructions in order to gain a better understanding of the semantics of simple verbal constructions. Resultative constructions (those combining a main predicate with a result expression) fall into two categories, which are best characterized in terms of the contrast between directed change and undirected change. The range of semantic relations between subevents found in depictive constructions, serial verb constructions and converb constructions also suggest that by contrast, the semantics of simple verb constructions are more constrained in a number of semantic dimensions. Simple verbs appear to denote maximally individuated events.Less

Verb meaning and argument structure constructions

William Croft

in Verbs: Aspect and Causal Structure

Chapter 9, “Verb meaning and argument structure constructions”, addresses the question of the relationship between the meaning of a verb and the meaning of the argument structure construction(s) it ... More

Chapter 9, “Verb meaning and argument structure constructions”, addresses the question of the relationship between the meaning of a verb and the meaning of the argument structure construction(s) it occurs in. Verbs never occur outside of an argument structure construction, and an argument structure construction never occurs without a verb. Moreover, a verb occurs in multiple argument structure constructions. These facts make it difficult to identify the semantic contributions of verb and construction. A verb’s meaning involves a force-dynamic potential which allows it to occur in multiple argument structure constructions; a verb occurring in a particular argument structure construction represents a specific force-dynamic construal of that event. The semantic contributions of verb and construction overlap in complex ways and may be analyzed differently across speakers and over time. Fine-grained analyses of the distribution of verbs across various constructions supports a usage-based, exemplar model of verb + construction meaning.Less

Executive Functions

Jordan Grafman

in Neuroergonomics: The brain at work

This chapter shows that key higher-level cognitive functions known as the executive functions are strongly associated with the human prefrontal cortex (HPFC). It argues that an important way to ... More

This chapter shows that key higher-level cognitive functions known as the executive functions are strongly associated with the human prefrontal cortex (HPFC). It argues that an important way to understand the functions of the HPFC is to adapt the representational model that has been the predominant approach to understanding the neuropsychological aspects of, for example, language processing and object recognition. The representational approach developed is based on the structured event complex framework. This framework claims that there are multiple subcomponents of higher-level knowledge that are stored throughout the HPFC as distinctive domains of memory. The chapter also argues that there are topographical distinctions in where these different aspects of knowledge are stored in the HPFC.Less

The interaction of aspect and causal structure in verb meaning

William Croft

in Verbs: Aspect and Causal Structure

Chapter 7, “The interaction of aspect and causal structure in verb meaning”, examines a number of semantic properties in order to identify what constraints can be proposed on the event structures ... More

Chapter 7, “The interaction of aspect and causal structure in verb meaning”, examines a number of semantic properties in order to identify what constraints can be proposed on the event structures expressed by a simple verb. Simple verbal events tend to start from a rest state and express the prototypical “billiard-ball” causation, and tend to be temporally unified across subevents. A widely-discussed basic distinction between two types of simple events (manner vs. result, or verb-framing vs. satellite-framing) is argued to be aspectual in nature: a contrast between events with a profiled directed change and events with a profiled undirected change.Less