The Oxford Handbook of Event Structure

Abstract

This volume offers an introduction to current research in event structure, the study of the role of events in grammar. This area of study breaks down into several interrelated questions: How do we perceive events? How do events as objects of perception relate to linguistic event descriptions? What structural distinctions can we make among events, and how are these distinctions reflected grammatically? How do events relate to their participants? To what extent does syntax constrain the grammar of event descriptions? The handbook reflects the growth of this field, from three foundational hypotheses: that action sentences are predicates of event variables (Davidson), that verb meanings can be divided into a small number of aspectual classes (Vendler), and that verb meanings can be partly decomposed into a small set of recurring primitives (Lakoff, McCawley). Part I considers the implications of the Davidsonian event variable for aspects of natural language metaphysics; Part II considers the relationship of event structure to morphosyntax; Part III focuses on crosslinguistic variation in event descriptions; and Part IV covers less narrowly grammatical aspects of event structure.