Events and Countability

There is an emerging view according to which countability is not an integral part of the lexical meaning of singular count nouns, but is ‘added on’ or ‘made available’, whether syntactically, semantically or both. This view has been pursued by Borer and Rothstein among others in order to deal with classifier languages such as Chinese as well as challenges to standard views of the mass-count distinction such as object mass nouns such as furniture. I will discuss a range of data, partly from German, that such a grammar-based view of countability receives support when applied to verbs with respect to the event argument position. Verbs themselves fail to specify events as countable in English and related languages; instead countability is made available only by the use of the event classifier time or else particular lexical items, such as frequency expressions, German beides ‘both’, or the nominalizing light noun -thing. The paper will not adopt or elaborate a particular version of the grammar-based view of countability, but rather critically discuss existing versions and present two semantic options of elaborating the view

Some features of the part-of relation with respect to verbal predication

The first part is an historical review of the "part-of" relations. In the second part, properties linked to this relation in mathematics, information systems and linguistics are treated. In part III deals with the part-of relation and the verbal predication.Nous commençons par une présentation historique des définitions de la relation "partie de", puis nous en explorons les principales propriétés en mathématiques, sciences de l'information et linguistiques Enfin, nous montrons comment elle est omniprésente dans le domaine de la prédication verbale

A linguistic, analogical, and computational analysis of the Syriac d-stem in Psalms I-XXX according to the Peshiṭta version

The function of the Semitic Doppelungsstamm, or D-stem, has proven one of the most vexing problems in Semitic linguistics. While grammarians regularly associate the D-stem with some manner of plurality, the precise contours of this relationship have remained obscure. By deductively testing the way in which a sample corpus from the Peshiṭta Psalms employs the D- stem in translation of various linguistic items in its Hebrew Vorlage, the present study seeks to ascertain the nature and type of plurality that the Syriac translators may have intended by their use of the form. The hope is that by clarifying the enigmatic plural function of the D-stem in one member of the Semitic family of languages it might be possible to contribute to its understanding in others. To accomplish this, a sample corpus from the Peshiṭta Psalms was subjected to a computational machine learning analysis whose statistical results were used to determine which occurrences of the D-stem should be subjected to analysis as well as those that have the greatest potential to yield meaningful results. Then, the various ways in which the form has been associated with plurality by both ancient and modern grammarians was explored and honed in light of general linguistic theory. This was done to provide the deductive basis by which the Syriac D-stem forms in the sample corpus could be evaluated for plurality and to allow the contributions of a discipline that has seldom been brought to bear on the topic inform the analysis. The results of the study revealed a function of the Syriac D-stem consistent with the marking of plural events as originally intimated by ancient Semitic grammarians and later termed "event-internal pluractionality" in the linguistics literature, while also revealing additional insights into Syriac's event construal vis-à-vis Hebrew and the prospect of D-stem lexicalization

When Small Is Many in the Event Domain

This paper pursues the idea that event-internal pluractional verbs are morphologically complex forms that describe non-canonical events and denote in the domain of events constituted by pluralities of phases [Tovena 2010b]. Non-canonicity is understood in comparative terms with respect to the description of the events provided by the corresponding simplex verb forms. The leading question is what is the source of the multiplicative meaning component in verb forms such as tagliuzzare and tossicchiare in Italian, and it is answered by arguing that it arises from the use of diminutive morphology specifically to build verb forms that describe modified events. Parallelisms with the nominal domain strengthen the case for a characterisation of the word formation process as involving diminutive morphology. It is also shown that the type of modification of an event description allowed by forming pluractional verbs is generally more complex that by simple adverbial or PP adjunction, as it involves at least two dimensions of the event. Furthermore, languages may use morphological distinctions to mark different binary oppositions within Cusic’s three level system.Dans cet article, nous développons l’idée que les verbes pluriactionnels à pluralité interne sont des formes morphologiquement complexes qui décrivent des événements non-canoniques et qui dénotent dans le domaine des événements constitués par des pluralités de phases [Tovena 2010b]. La non-canonicité se comprend en termes comparatifs par rapport à la description des événements fournie par les formes verbales simples correspondantes.Notre point de départ est la question de savoir quelle est la source de la composante de sens multiplicative que l’on retrouve dans des verbes tels que tagliuzzare et tossicchiare de l’italien. Notre réponse consiste à montrer qu’une telle multiplicité découle de l’emploi de la morphologie diminutive pour former des verbes qui décrivent des événements modifiés. Nous mettons au jour une forme de parallélisme entre le domaine nominal et le domaine verbal afin de renforcer notre hypothèse qu’il s’agit bien de morphologie diminutive. Nous montrons que la modification de l’événement obtenue par ce processus de formation de verbes (déverbaux ainsi que dénominaux) est toujours au moins double, alors qu’une modification par le truchement d’un adverbe ou d’un groupe prépositionnel ne concerne qu’une dimension à la fois

The evolution of Romanian gerundial periphrases with a sta/a se afla/a umbla

This paper argues that the cross-linguistic distinction between two classes of gerundial periphrases, such as proposedin Laca (2004a), can be extended to Romanian. That is, according to the level at which the finite verb is merged intothe structure, we have one class with the finite verb merged directly in the functional domain, under Aspect; and thesecond class with the finite verb inserted at the lexical level, as the head of the VP, functioning as an eventualitymodifier for the gerund. The first class is represented by structures with the auxiliary a fi 'to be' the second class,by configurations with the aspectualizers a sta 'to stay' a se afla 'to be situated' and a umbla 'to walk'. Thediachronic analysis proposed in this paper argues that these three aspectualizers undergo different stages ofgrammaticalization, although they do not reach the auxiliary status. The loss of the locative argument and thepossibility of extraction from the gerundial VP are used as arguments that the verbs a sta, a se afla and a umbla haveundergone structural changes when used as aspectualizer

Events in Contemporary Semantics

This paper will first give an overview of the role of events in semantics against the background of Davidsonian semantics and its Neo-Davidsonian variant. Second, it will discuss some serious issues for standard views of events in contemporary semantics and present novel proposals of how to address them. These are [1] the semantic role of abstract (or Kimean) states, [2] wide scope adverbials, and [3] the status of verbs as event predicates with respect to the mass-count distinction. The paper will show that abstract states as the entities described by (most) stative verbs are incompatible with Neo-Davidsonian event semantics and proposes a decompositional analysis of stative verbs that may be able to overcome the difficulty. The paper will argue that in addition to Davidsonian events, the semantics of adverbials requires events as truthmakers as well as actions as more complex entities sharply distinguished from events. The paper will also argue that the verbal domain of events sides with mass nouns rather than dividing into mass and count, unlike event nouns

Defining the Concept of Manner: An Attempt to Order Chaos

The concept of manner is extensively used in many fields of linguistics. It alo appears to ordinary speakers, students and grammarians as an intuitively clear and meaninful notion that does not need any precise definition. Some scholars even claim that manner belongs to a limited set of primitive semantic categoeris that cannot be further broken down into more specific sub-units, and which it is neither necessary, nor possible, to define. Nevertheless, such an assessment is a significant obstacle when attempting to provide fine-grained analyses of linguistic phenomena pertaining to manner. The aim of this paperi s to propose a more comprehensive definition of the concept of manner by bringing to the fore some basic mechanisms underlying the occurrence of the manner component in utterances, be ita t the syntactic, lexical, grammatical or morphological level

Zum Verhältnis zwischen Präsens und Futur im Litauischen: Präliminaria im Bereich sprechzeitenthobener Propositionen

The article examines non-deictic uses of present and future tense in Lithuanian. Narrative use, in which reference intervals match with singular events, is distinguished from suspended propositions characterized by lack of such reference intervals (habitual, dispositional and circumstantial modal, and conditional meanings). Present tense is frequently involved in both usage domains, while the future is rare in narrative use, but overlaps with present tense in certain types of suspended propositions. Moreover, its temporal-deictic use is inherently associated with suspended propositions and “linked” to them via epistemic implicatures. This, in contrast to the present, makes the future more likely to be employed in predictions which entail an observer.The analysis is supplemented by a brief comparison with non-deictic tense use in the nonpast-domain of Slavic languages, yielding a grid of criteria that should be used in crosslinguistic studies on tense-aspect systems based on stem derivation and the feature [±bounded]

Polish verbal aspect and its Finnish statistical correlates in the light of a parallel corpus

The objective of this contrastive research is (1) to determine the rules of correlation between the language-specific category Polish Verbal Aspect (PVA) and the elements of Finnish clause, whilst (2) re-examining the semantic scope of PVA, and (3) improving the definition of the cross-linguistically valid comparative concept of aspectuality. The investigation is empirical, and based on 900 Polish-Finnish clauses compiled in the form of a bidirectional parallel corpus stratified in three samples according to text types. The corpus is annotated on three levels, following the scalar model of temporality: the morphosyntactic and semantic clause-internal levels, as well as the clause-external level, including such elements as taxis and the quantificational-pragmatic context, temporally located (existentially quantified) situation, and generic or generalising interpretation (universal quantification). The reasoning in the study is mostly inductive. In contrast to the previous studies on aspect, the work is organised bottom-up. The data is approached quantitatively, using state-of-the-art methods. First, the descriptive statistics of temporal markers in the corpus are discussed. Afterwards, the data is summarised in a statistical model and visualised in a hierarchical cluster structure. Particularly interesting correlations (e.g. tense-aspect or case-aspect) are further validated with the random-forests method. The quantitative results yield a two-layered model of aspectuality, distinguishing between two levels: the outer, temporal-deictic level and the inner level related to the notion of change in time. Thus, the study confirms the validity of multi-layered concepts of aspectuality as previously postulated. As to language-specific results, PVA correlates with Polish and Finnish tenses within the outer, temporal-deictic layer. This interaction involves the third element – temporal quantification. The inner layer is realised in Finnish in the predicate-argument structure, and therefore, the Finnish argument case-marking is the closest correlate of PVA. Here the most important systematic opposition are between the lative and essive semantic cases (including Translative and Essive), and between the Total and Partitive type of object. The notion of change which is the semantically relevant factor is treated as gradable opposition (next to the traditionally used polar and equipollent oppositions), and therefore, the formal comparison between PVA and Finnish differential object marking is possible within the scalar description. The Finnish derivational valency modifiers (transtivisers and detransitivisers), however, do not seem to play any significant role in the marking of aspectual oppositions. Neither do lexical temporal expressions play much role here, as their generally low frequency does not deviate from the frequency of Polish expressions of that kind. In particular, the study shows that the measure adverbials in the object cases are quite infrequent in language use. Therefore, their contribution in expressing aspect is marginal.Väitöskirjassa tarkastellaan puolan verbiaspektin vastineita suomessa sekä puolan aspektin semanttista ulottuvuutta. Empiirisen tutkimuksen aineisto koostuu 900 puolalais-suomalaisesta virkeparista, jotka muodostavat kaksisuuntaisen rinnakkaiskorpuksen. Virkeet jakautuvat kolmeen ryhmään tekstilajin mukaan: kaunokirjallisuus, tiedottavat tekstit ja puheenvuoroiksi suunnitellut tekstit. Korpus on annototoitu virkeen sisätasolla morfosyntaktisesti, syntaktisesti ja semanttisesti sekä virkeen ulkotasolla taksiksen ja pragmaattis-kvantifioivan kontekstin mukaan. Aineistoa on lähestytty tilastollisesti, ja siitä on analysoitu kielellisten piirteiden jakaumia. Keskeisten kielipiirteiden pohjalta on rakennettu tilastollinen malli, jota visualisoidaan hierarkkisella klusteripuulla. Kiinnostavimpia suhteita (tempus–aspekti, sija–aspekti) on tutkittu myös Breimanin random forest menetelmällä, jolla on varmistettu korrelaatioiden relevanssi. Tulosten pohjalta voidaan rakentaa kaksitasoinen aspektuaalisuuden malli, jossa ulompi taso on temporaalis-deiktinen ja sisätaso pohjautuu semanttiseen piirteeseen ”ajassa tapahtuva muutos”. Tämä vahvistaa aikaisemmassa kirjallisuudessa esitettyjä kaksitasoisia malleja. Tutkimus osoittaa myös, että ajassa tapahtuvan muutoksen voi käsittää graduaalisena ilmiönä, minkä ansiosta puolan verbiaspektia ja suomen objektin sijavaihtelua voi verrata käyttämällä skaaloja. Tutkimus osoittaa, että ulkotasolla suomen tempus on puolan verbiaspektille läheisin kategoria. Tämä ei kuitenkaan ole suora korrelaatio, vaan siihen vaikuttaa ajallinen kvantifiointi. Aspektin sisätasolla puolan aspektin vastineeksi voidaan katsoa suomen argumenttirakenteessa käytettävät sijat. Laajalti tutkitun objektin sijaopposition lisäksi relevantiksi aspektin vastineeksi osoittautuu myös vähemmän tarkasteltu latiivin ja essiivin oppositio. Suorana aspektin vastineena suomi ei käytä leksikaalisia ajan adverbiaaleja, kuten usein kirjallisuudessa mainittua OSMAa. Liitepartikkeleita ei niiden matalan frekvenssin vuoksi voitu tarkastella aspektin systemaattisina vastineina