Events and Grammar [Paperback]

This volume covers a broad spectrum of research into the role of events in grammar. It addresses event arguments and thematic argument structure, the role of events in verbal aspectual distinctions, events and the distinction between stage and individual level predicates, and the role of events in the analysis of plurality and scope relations. It is of interest to scholars and students of theoretical linguistics, philosophers of language, computational linguists, and computer scientists.

In recent years, the study of events and their role as implicit arguments of predicates has been at the center of much important work in semantics and the syntax/semantics interface. This volume brings together fourteen original studies by leading scholars in semantics and the syntax/semantics interface, covering a broad spectrum of research into the role of events in grammar. The papers extensively address the following topics, among others: event arguments and thematic argument structure; the role of events in verbal aspectual distinctions; events and the distinction between stage and individual level predicates; the role of events in the analysis of plurality and scope relations, the mass/count distinction, and propositional attitudes.1. Introduction; S. Rothstein. 2. Generalizing Tense Semantics for Future Contexts; D. Abusch. 3. Thematic Roles and the Individuation of Events; G. Carlson. 4. Plurality of Mass Nouns and the Notion of `Semantic Parameter'; G. Chierchia. 5. Progressives, States and Backgrounding; S. Glasbey. 6. An Overt Syntactic Marker for Genericity in Hebrew; Y. Greenberg. 7. On Generic and Existential Bare Plurals and the Classification of Predicates; K.E. Kiss. 8. Scope or Pseudoscope? Are there Wide-Scope Indefinites? A. Kratzer. 9. The Origins of Telicity; M. Krifka. 10. Plurals and Maximalization; F. Landman. 11. Events in the Semantics of Collectivizing Adverbials; P. Lasersohn. 12. Stativity and Theticity; L. McNally. 13. Col3$