Predication and equation

English is one language where equative sentences and non-equative sentences have a similar surface syntax (but see Heggie 1988 and Moro 1997 for a discussion of more subtle differences). In this paper we address the fact that many other languages appear to use radically different morphological means which seem to map to intuitive differences in the type of predication expressed. We take one such language, Scottish Gaelic, and show that the real difference is not between equative and non-equative sentences, but is rather dependent on whether the predicational head in the structure proposed above is eventive or not. We show that the aparently odd syntax of “equatives” in this language derives from the fact that they are constructed via a non-eventive Pred head. Since Pred heads cannot combine with non-predicative categories, such as saturated DPs, “equatives” are built up indirectly from a simple predicational structure with a semantically bleached predicate. This approach not only allows us to maintain a strict one-to-one syntax/semantics mapping for predicational syntax, but also for the syntax of DPs. The argument we develop here, then, suggests that the interface between the syntactic and semantic components is maximally economical— one could say perfect

Time and the event: The semantics of Russian prefixes

In this paper, I draw on data from prefixation in Russian to argue for a basic distinction between event structure and temporal struc- ture. I present a linguistic semantics of verb and argument structure interpretation on the one hand, and a formal semantic implementa- tion of 'telicity' on the other, which makes sense of the generalisations apparently common to both domains. I will claim that the temporal domain embeds the event structure domain, and that the latter con- strains the former. At the same time, the different formal primitives that operate at the levels proposed form the basis for a principled linguistic distinction between the two tiers of composition: the event structure level encodes subevental relations and predicational rela- tions within those subevents; the temporal structure level introduces a t variable explicitly and relates it to the structure built up by the event level. Whether the event structure is homogenous or not will have an impact on whether the temporal variable chosen will be 'def- inite' or 'indefinite.' This latter claim then forms the basis for a new conception of the difference between perfective and imperfective verb forms in Russian

Occasional-type frequency adjectives and quantification over stages

Occasional, odd and rare are different from other frequency adjectives (such as daily or frequent) in that they are able to pluralize a verbal event outside its immediate scope. While attempts have been made to capture this association to the event (Morzycki 2016; Gehrke & McNally 2011, 2015; Gehrke 2021; Schäfer 2007; Zimmermann 2003; Stump 1981; Sæbø 2016; Bücking 2012), none of them capture all the relevant empirical facts, namely that these sentences are distributive, stage-level and can optionally involve a verbal or a nonverbal event plurality. We present an analysis in which occasional-type frequency adjectives quantify over stages, following Barker’s (1999) definition of a stage as an ordered pair of an event and an individual . This analysis better accounts for the data and leads to a larger discussion of the nature of stages

Aspect and Verbal Prepositions

In this paper, we explore some previously unanalysed interactions between verbal aktionsart and prepositional complementation in Norwegian, namely the alternations between a DP object and PP complements with på ‘on/at’ and til ‘to/at’. We argue that a simple account based on [±telic] or [±quantized] features cannot be correct. Instead, we generalize the notion of path and homomorphism, and integrate it in a syntactic theory of how complex events are built up compositionally. The path structure introduced by the PP interacts with the path structure of the VP to produce complex events based on ‘homomorphic unity’ in much the same way as has been argued for in the Verb + Nominal domain (Krifka 1992). Specifically, an extended location (a på-PP) in the complement of and activity verb (in our terms, a process subevental projection) gives rise to a non-directed path for the event; a point location ( a til-PP) in the complement of an accomplishment verb (one which in our terms will contain a result subevental projection) gives rise to the specification of an endpoint

Structure Matching and Structure Building in Marathi Complex Predicates

This paper presents a descriptive exploration of three distinct types of complex predicates in Marathi with the aim of trying to answer deeper questions about structure building and structure matching in language. In particular, we investigate for each type, the selectional relations between the main and light verbs and the division of labour between them with respect to the lexicalization of the event structure in syntax. We show that a class of complex predicates in a language is not homogenous and that different types of light verbs contribute different kind of information. We analyze the different patterns of Marathi complex predicates using the framework of Ramchand (2008, 2016) which provides an explicit decomposition of the verbal domain required to account for the composition of complex predicates

Stativity and present tense epistemics

Some modals are ambiguous between epistemic and circumstantial interpretations, but allow epistemic readings only when they combine with stative verb phrases. For other modals, the epistemic reading is not so constrained. I propose a theory of modal semantics that is sensitive to height of merge position and by extension the properties of the situational description that the modal combines with. To capture the pattern, modals are argued to have two important dimensions of meaning: (i) they will describe a topic situation asserted to be either an exhaustive or non-exhaustive choice over live situational alternatives; (ii) they will either anchor that topic situation indexically, or anaphorically. Modal meaning can then systematically interact with situational descriptions to build different interpretations while keeping the underlying semantics of the modal the same. Epistemic readings emerge when a modal attaches above the height at which temporal parameters of the situation are bound, circumstantials attach below the temporal specification. State-constrained epistemic modals are those that have indexical anchoring properties

Verbal Nouns and Event Structure in Scottish Gaelic

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Comparing infrared and webcam eye tracking in the Visual World Paradigm

Visual World eye tracking is a temporally fine-grained method of monitoring attention, making it a popular tool in the study of online sentence processing. Recently, while infrared eye tracking was mostly unavailable, various web-based experiment platforms have rapidly developed webcam eye tracking functionalities, which are now in urgent need of testing and evaluation. We replicated a recent Visual World study on the incremental processing of verb aspect in English using ‘out of the box’ webcam eye tracking software (jsPsych; de Leeuw, 2015) and crowdsourced participants, and fully replicated both the offline and online results of the original study. We furthermore discuss factors influencing the quality and interpretability of webcam eye tracking data, particularly with regards to temporal and spatial resolution; and conclude that remote webcam eye tracking can serve as an affordable and accessible alternative to lab-based infrared eye tracking, even for questions probing the time-course of language processing