Lecture 13

Ling 442

Exercises (part 1)

(1) p. 173 Classify the predicates into four different types.

a. The door [creaked open].b.Sam [got the joke] about 3 minutes later.c. James [read some of his strange poems].d.A soft light [shone on the hills].e.Elsa [chewed her way through half a goat].f. Jerry [is a great talker].

Exercises (part 2)

Suppose that PROG S⟦ ⟧t = true iff there is a time t “surrounding t” such that S⟦ ⟧t = true. (Assume that PROG S is the progressive form of S and that S⟦ ⟧t reads the denotation of S at t.) This analysis cannot account for (1) or (2). Why?

• Sue is/was reaching the summit.• Mary is/was building a house.

semelfactive

• Rap, blink, cough, flash, knock (on the door)• In-adverbials are generally not felicitous.• For-adverbials/progressives are fine with

repetitive interpretations.• I think they are repeatable accomplishments

that are short in duration. (Controversial)

Nominal and verbal aspect

• When the verb is such that it works on the object in an incremental fashion, there is a predictable relationship between the types of DPs and the Aktionsart-related properties of the VP (or S).

• To build a house: accomplishment• To build houses: activity (for .. ok)• To find a rabbit: achievement• To find rabbits: activity (for .. ok)

Tense and Aspect

Syntax: Chomsky (1957)The structure of English auxiliarytense (M) (have +en) (be + ing) (be + en) V perfect progressive passiveAffix hopping: an affix is attached to the

“following” stem, not to the stem it is semantically associated with.

Tense in English

• The simple present (V(-s))1.She knows where we are. (current state)2.Bill smokes. (habitual)3.Dogs are faithful animals (generic)4.The sun sets tomorrow at 6:03. (future event)5.Jones passes the ball to King. King shoots.(sports announcer type -- reportive present)

Present progressive

In most cases (cases other than stative verbs), if you wish to describe “what is going on”, you must use the present progressive.This is not true in all languages. German lacks an overt verbal form that indicates on-going actions. So “John smokes” can mean two things: John smokes (like in English) and John is smoking.

Semantics of the Progressive

Suppose that PROG S⟦ ⟧t = true iff there is a time t “surrounding t” such that S⟦ ⟧t = true.

(1)Sue is/was reaching the summit.(2)Mary is/was building a house.Even when they are intuitively true, there is no

guarantee that the event that is “on-going” is completed at a future time. Perhaps we may need to invoke a modal concept here. If you are interested, you are referred to David Dowty’s work.

The present perfect

• When do you use the simple past and when do you use the present perfect?

1.I lost my wallet.2.I have lost my wallet.3.I went to the Grand Canyon.4.I have been to the Grand Canyon.