Theoretical foundations

Abstract

Adopting the constructivist approach, especially building on Borer’s (2005a, b, 2013a) XS Model, two theoretical elements in the theory of the syntax of events are put forward. The first element concerns the specific constraints on the interaction between conceptual meaning and syntactic derivation. The content of the predicate will be integrated into the interpretation derived from the syntax via a set of Integration Conditions, according to which, the interpretation derived from syntax licenses the legitimacy of the predicate content. The second theoretical assumption is the addition of the DivP to the event phrase (EP) structure. A verbal feature is in nature an [iDiv] feature, which is equivalent to the interpretable feature provided by the classifier in the nominal domain. The stative/dynamic interpretation of an event is tied to the value of the [iDiv] feature, which further explains the grammatical distinction between two types of homogeneous predicates.