Extraction from adjuncts and the structure of events

Abstract

This paper discusses a class of grammatical A ′ -extractions from untensed verbal adjuncts in English, which appear to contradict the generalisation that adjuncts are islands. Two subclasses are presented, one of wh-extraction from secondary predicates modifying accomplishments, and one from secondary predicates modifying certain classes of achievements. In the accomplishment case, the event denoted by the secondary predicate is interpreted as the cause of the matrix event, whereas in the achievement case, it is interpreted as an event immediately preceding the matrix event. In the corresponding declaratives, on the other hand, aspectual restrictions on the matrix predicate, and the interpretation of the relation between the two events, are freer. This provides evidence for a generalisation that extraction is permitted from a secondary predicate only if the event denoted by that predicate is identified with an event position in the lexicosemantic representation of the matrix verb. This condition predicts further restrictions on the telicity of the two events, and the directness of the causal and/or temporal relations holding between the two events.