Mental action and event structure in the semantics of \u27try\u27

Abstract

Sharvit (2003) proposes a semantics for \u27try\u27 inspired by Landman\u27s (1992) account of progressive aspect. This paper discusses two empirical shortcomings of Sharvit\u27s analysis and proposes a new solution that retains Sharvit\u27s insight that \u27try\u27 has an aspectual meaning but argues that (a) as suggested by much work in action theory, volitional events include an initial stage corresponding to a `mental action\u27 and (b) \u27try\u27 picks out the \u27mental action\u27 stage of an event. The proposal is formalized by adapting Condoravdi\u27s (2009) theory of progressive meaning