Verbs Aspect and Causal Structure

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ISBN: 9780199248599 | 0199248591
Cover: Paperback
Copyright: 5/4/2012

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This book presents a model of event structure for the analysis of aspectual constructions and argument structure constructions in English and other languages. Representing the culmination of two decades of the author's research and thought, it explores the contribution of semantics to the argument-structure and tense-aspect constructions in which verbs occur, integrating the aspectual and causal structures of events. The argument is framed in relation to current and previousscholarship and takes full account of diachronic and usage-based research. Professor Croft's analysis encompasses the full range of English verb classes and is enriched throughout by a strong typological dimension: the syntax and semantics of verbs are always seen from a crosslinguistic perspective. Thisallows the author to demonstrate the generality of his theory and to show how it breaks new ground in predicting and explaining linguistic facts.The subject of the book is at the heart of current work in syntax and semantics and the interface between them. It will interest semanticists, syntacticians and cognitive and functional-typological linguists. The transparency of the author's style and his avoidance of theory-dependent constructs will extend its appeal to linguists of all theoretical stripes.

Preface and Acknowledgements	p. xi
List of Figures	p. xiv
List of Tables	p. xv
List of Abbreviations	p. xvi
Introduction	p. 1
Clause structure and meaning	p. 1
Approaches to semantics and semantic representations	p. 4
Semantic frames	p. 11
The question of construal	p. 13
Argument structure constructions and grammatical relations	p. 19
Language form and language function	p. 28
The aspectual structure of events	p. 31
Introduction	p. 31
Lexical aspectual types (construals)	p. 33
The Vendler classification and its problems	p. 33
Alternative construals and new aspectual types	p. 37
New aspectual subtypes	p. 41
Summary	p. 44
A two-dimensional geometric analysis of aspectual types/construals	p. 45
Symbolic and phasal analyses of aspectual types	p. 45
A two-dimensional phasal analysis of aspectual types	p. 53
A general framework for aspectual types	p. 57
Motivating the typology of aspectual types/construals	p. 57
The two-dimensional model and interval semantics	p. 66
Conclusion	p. 69
Change, boundedness, and construal	p. 70
Boundedness and change	p. 70
Directed changes, incremental themes, and scales	p. 70
Event boundaries and the imperfective paradox	p. 77
Construal and aspectual potential	p. 83
The contribution of predicate semantics to aspectual types	p. 84
Mechanisms of aspectual construal	p. 92
Aspectual construal in English adverbial and auxiliary verb constructions	p. 101
Some observations on aspect in Russian	p. 110
Determinate and Indeterminate verbs of motion	p. 110
Remarks on the Russian Perfective/Imperfective distinction	p. 115
Conclusion	p. 125
The interaction of grammatical and lexical semantics: quantitative and qualitative analyses	p. 127
Introduction	p. 127
A multidimensional scaling analysis of Dahl's crosslinguistic tense-aspect data	p. 127
Multidimensional scaling as an extension of the semantic map model in typology	p. 128
Reanalyzing Dahl's tense-aspect data	p. 132
The temporal dimension	p. 137
The aspectual dimension	p. 139
Grammatical and lexical aspect in Dahl's data	p. 143
The basic tense-aspect constructions of English	p. 145
The English Present tense construction	p. 149
The English Progressive construction	p. 152
The English Past tense construction	p. 155
Remarks on the English Perfect	p. 162
A multidimensional scaling analysis of lexical aspectual potential and grammatical aspect	p. 165
Conclusion	p. 171
Toward a force-dynamic theory of argument realization	p. 173
Introduction	p. 173
Some approaches to argument realization	p. 173
Thematic roles and thematic role hierarchies	p. 175
Role designation	p. 182
Event-based theories of argument realization	p. 187
Summary	p. 197
A force-dynamic (causal) theory of argument realization	p. 197
The force-dynamic (causal) structure of events and role ranking	p. 197
Role designation by the verbal profile, and the realization rules	p. 205
Integrating force-dynamic and aspectual representations of event structure	p. 209
Shortcomings of the event structure representation in Croft (1991)	p. 209
A three-dimensional representation of causal and aspectual structure in events	p. 212
Event structure decomposition and predicate entailments	p. 217
Causal structure in verbal semantics and argument realization	p. 220
Introduction	p. 220
The verbal causal chain: directed, acyclic, and nonbranching	p. 221
The Causal Order Hypothesis and two types of Obliques	p. 222
The construal of noncausal (causally undirected) relations: spatial, possessive, and other relations	p. 226
The construal of noncanonical (cyclic) causal relations	p. 233
Mental events	p. 233
Reflexives, reciprocals, and comitatives	p. 236
The commercial event	p. 248
Summary	p. 252
Alignment, voice, and the verbal profile	p. 252
Passive voice, ergativity, and alignment	p. 252
Voice systems, topicality, and the verbal profile	p. 260
Causation type and diathesis (Causatives and Applicatives)	p. 263
Causation type and the simple verb	p. 263
Causatives and inducive causation	p. 267
Applicatives and Base Object Inertia	p. 271
The typology and diachrony of case syncretisms: toward a conceptual space for participant roles	p. 274
Conclusion	p. 281
The interaction of aspect and causal structure in verb meaning	p. 283
Introduction	p. 283
Inactive actions and noncanonical force dynamics	p. 283
The aspectual type and temporal unity of simple verbal events	p. 286
Two types of verbal semantic structure	p. 292
Manner vs. result, verb-framing vs. satellite-framing, or directed change vs. undirected change	p. 292
Manner conflation in simple verbs	p. 302
Result verbs and directed change	p. 307
Conclusion	p. 318
Complex predicate constructions and the semantics of simple verbs	p. 320
Introduction	p. 320
Two types of Resultatives	p. 321
Temporally dependent vs. independent, adjunct vs. argument, or weak vs. strong	p. 321
An aspectual analysis, with a digression on unspecified Objects and related constructions	p. 328
The typology of complex constructions and simple events	p. 343
Depictive constructions	p. 343
Serial Verb constructions and Converb constructions	p. 346
Conclusion: simple verbs as maximally individuated events	p. 353
Verb meaning and argument structure constructions	p. 358
The semantic interaction of verbs and constructions revisited	p. 358
The conceptual structure of events in argument structure constructions	p. 364
The semantic contributions of verbs and constructions	p. 374
A usage-based exemplar model of verb + construction meaning	p. 383
Conclusion	p. 392
Envoi	p. 394
Glossary of terms	p. 397
References	p. 408
Index of authors	p. 429
Index of languages	p. 433
Index of grammatical categories and constructions	p. 435
Index of subjects	p. 439
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

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Verbs Aspect and Causal Structure

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Verbs Aspect and Causal Structure

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Author Biography

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