Transcript Lecture 14

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?
(1)Sue is/was reaching the summit.
(2)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 auxiliary
tense (M) (have +en) (be + ing) (be + en) V
perfect progressive passive
Affix 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.