Stage-level Predicates Research Articles

Habituality Markers in Jordanian Arabic

Objectives: This study investigates the grammatical encoding of habituality within Jordanian Arabic. This linguistic phenomenon is expressed through specific markers for different tenses in the dialect. Methods: Our research employs a qualitative, theory-driven methodology rooted in truth-conditional semantics instead of a corpus-based approach. We base our findings on constructed utterances that are placed within specific contexts. Results: In the present tense, habituality is expressed using the copular verb bi-ku:n 'Pres-be'. The copula occurs within nominal sentences, serving as a marker that indicates the habitual nature of the action. The obligatory presence of the copula exclusively enforces a habitual interpretation. Conversely, the obligatory absence of the copula allows for two interpretations: episodic and habitual. Event plurality in the past tense, however, is constructed using the past auxiliary ka:n 'used to'. These constructions are known as periphrastic forms or retrospective habituals (Boneh and Doron, 2008). Conclusions: The periphrastic forms in Jordanian Arabic behave similarly to the perfective aspect, yet they are interpreted imperfectively. These periphrastic habituals are formed using both stage-level and individual-level predicates. However, the periphrastic forms incorporating stage-level predicates without an adverbial adjunct are ambiguous between a habitual and a non-habitual reading. The context serves to differentiate between the two readings.

‘To be’ or not ‘to be’: an analysis of copula production and omission in people with non-fluent aphasia

ABSTRACT Background Agrammatic aphasia has been widely associated with impairments with functional words and complex sentences. Speech errors of people with aphasia (PWA) have been reported to be selective, with patterns of omissions in functional words, most notably in the domain of tense inflection on verbs compared to agreement in morphologically rich languages. Aims In languages like English, where tense and agreement are hard to disentangle in their inflectional paradigms, investigations of the inflectional domain in PWA are rare. In this study, we introduce a novel approach that allows the disentangling of inflectional errors in English through the patterns of copula omission of the verb to be. The inflectional system of the functional verb to be is richer, and its distribution in the sentence is based on the semantics of its predicate (stage-level vs. individual-level). Methods and procedures Spontaneous productions of 16 PWA collated from AphasiaBank transcripts were analysed for violations of tense alongside other patterns of error that could suggest an impairment in the inflectional domain. Outcomes and results Copula deletion was found to be modulated by the semantics of the predicate, showing a selective pattern of omission in stage-level predicates. Incorrect case assignment (accusative in place of nominative) was also observed as an indicator of impaired tense. Conclusions The results confirm the effectiveness of copula to be to investigate the English inflectional system and substantiate previous studies on selective errors in the verbal domain in PWA in English.

MANDARIN EXISTENTIAL CONSTRUCTIONS AND THE PREDICATE RESTRICTION

In this paper I raise questions about the predicate restriction, which claims that only stage-level predicates may appear in the coda of an existential sentence. I present novel data from Mandarin to show that the predicate restriction is not universal: It is systematically absent in Mandarin. I propose that the reason behind its absence is syntactic. Specifically, I show that the English existential coda cannot be as large as a TP, while the Mandarin existential coda contains a full TP. This, in combination with Diesing’s (1992) Mapping Hypothesis, which says individual-level predicates need to be in TPs, naturally derives the difference between existentials of the English-type and those of the Mandarin-type. Finally, I show that the Mandarin existential coda is not a relative clause, despite being a full clause. Thus, this paper seeks to attain two purposes: (i) to bring attention to the possibility of violations of the predicate restriction, which has largely been thought to be universal; and (ii) to make a first attempt at explaining why the predicate restriction is absent in Mandarin.

Events always take (place with) ser

Abstract The present study aims to throw light on the behavior of the Spanish copulas ser and estar in locative sentences, beyond their classical distinction in terms of Individual-Level (IL) versus Stage-Level (SL) predicates. The behavior of the Spanish copulas in locative contexts constitutes an oddity that we aim to probe here: events (concierto ‘concert’), despite their clear spatial and temporal anchorage, combine with ser (El concierto es en París ‘The concert is in Paris’), which is the copula typically associated with IL or permanent predicates. To do so, we discuss the behavior of copulas as locative verbs in a broader empirical context, where not just events and individuals are considered, but also other types of nominals, such as qualities and states. We argue that ser emerges with events because time and place constituents combine directly with events, without the intermediation of extra predicational structure. When carrying a marked value, that extra predicational structure triggers the insertion of estar; when there is no predication structure (such as with events) and when the predication structure is unmarked (IL predicates), ser appears as the default copula.

СЕМАНТИЧНА КЛАСИФИКАЦИЯ НА ПРЕДИКАТИТЕ ЗА СЪСТОЯНИЕ В БЪЛГАРСКИ

The object of study are state predicates and their classification based on semantic features. Different classifications of state predicates are briefly presented; in general, two types of classifications can be distinguished: classifications that group predicates based on a common property, such as emotional states, perceptions, cognitive process-es, etc., and classifications that group predicates based on the presence or absence of some semantic feature, such as stativity, duration, etc. In the former case, the classifications (if detailed) are contradictory, because they are not based on clear-cut criteria, and in the latter the classifications are very general, as the distinct groups include predicates that are diverse in type and compatibility. In this study we will present the main classes of state predicates in a unified system and will illustrate them with appropriate examples (focusing only on lexical states). The following semantic features of the topical argument (the semantic subject of the predicate, regardless of its syntactic realization) are distinguished: mental experience, physical experience, conscious participation, animacy and inanimacy. Based on them, state predicates are classified, and the grouping makes it possible to draw conclusions about the distribution of permanent and temporary state predicates, as well as about the syntactic realization of the topical argument. Keywords: state predicates, individual-level and stage-level predicates, semantic characteristics of state predicates

A aceitabilidade do singular nu pré-verbal em Português Brasileiro

Nossa pesquisa investiga o julgamento de falantes nativos de Português Brasileiro (PB) com relação ao singular nu pré-verbal, dada a proposta de que a aceitabilidade de construções com esse nominal pode melhorar diante de fatores pragmáticos tais como o foco contrastivo. Em uma Tarefa de Julgamento de Aceitabilidade, falantes nativos de PB julgaram sentenças: i) genéricas; ii) com predicados-de-espécie; iii) com predicados-de-estágio. Nossos resultados sugerem que a presença do foco contrastivo pode interferir na aceitabilidade de construções com o singular nu pré-verbal, e que construções com predicados-de-espécie são gramaticais na língua. As sentenças com predicados-de-estágio apresentaram taxas baixas de aceitação.

Stage and Individual-level predicates whithin "if" and "when" clauses: what works and what doesn't

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0cm; margin-right: 28.3pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 1.0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;" lang="EN-US">Clauses headed by <em>if</em> and <em>when</em> are very often considered syntactically and semantically equivalent.  Nevertheless, in this paper we show that the type of predicate has an impact both on the grammaticality and the interpretation of the subordinate clause in Spanish. Theses clauses provide evidence for the proposal that stage-level predicates involve an extra-argument that individual-level predicates lack. Following Kratzer (1995), we assume that this is extra-argument is a spatio-temporal argument. While stage-level predicates in the subordinate clause are perfectly grammatical, individual-level predicates yield to ungrammatical sentences, unless an indefinite or a kind-referring NP is involved.  Kratzer´s Prohibition against vacuous quantification provides a sound account for the asymmetry between the two types of predicates.  In addition, a stative verb in the <em>when</em> clause is grammatical, but it forces an epistemic reading. When both predicates are individual-level predicates in the subordinate and the main clause, the <em>if</em> clause may can take a factual reading while the <em>when</em> clause is ungrammatical unless there is some kind of operator involved through a generic, a kind-referring NP or an indefinite pronoun.</span></p>

Stage-Level and Individual-Level distinction in morphological variation

<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">This work examines the role of the stage-level (SL)/individual-level (IL) distinction applied to nouns in a case of morphosyntactic regularization in Spanish: variable reanalysis of the NP argument as subject in the presentational <em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">haber </em>construction (<em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">había/habían perros</em>). We conduct variationist, quantitative analyses on all instances of existential <em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">haber </em>with a plural NP in corpora of spoken Puerto Rican Spanish (>500,000 words) to determine the linguistic factor groups that promote reanalysis and, hence, pluralized forms. Results of variable rule analyses reveal that the SL-IL distinction constrains the regularization. IL predicates significantly favor <em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">haber </em>regularization (e.g., <em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">habían muchas personas de las Antillas</em> ‘there were a lot of people from the Antillas’) whereas SL predicates significantly disfavor pluralized forms (<em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">este año hubo menos tiros que en años pasados</em> ‘this year there were fewer shots fired than previous years’). These results are interpreted from within a usage-based framework in which the status of the noun introduced in the [<em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">haber </em>+ NP] construction, as either a likely or unlikely subject for <em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">haber</em>,<em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </em>influences the analogical leveling. IL predicates are more prototypical nouns than SL predicates because the former are temporally persistent. IL predicates promote nouns’ candidacy as subjects over direct objects because prototypical subjects present two temporally-persistent characteristics: independence existence and referentiality. As a result, IL predicates increase the likelihood of reanalyzing the direct object as subject, thus triggering agreement of the verbal form with plural NPs. SL predicates, on the other hand, because they display low temporal stability, inhibit regularization.</span>

Copular sentences expressing Kimian states in Irish and Russian

AbstractThe central claim of this article is that the D(avidsonian)-state vs. K(imian)-state distinction established for German and Spanish by Maienborn is of wider crosslinguistic relevance. Stage-level and individual-level secondary predicates are both viewed here as K-states as they contain only a Kimian temporal variable but no Davidsonian event variable. Secondary predicates expressing a K-state may acquire the temporary/actual property interpretation when an alternative state entailment is added to them. In such cases the functional layer of the BE-predicate contains a syntactic operator (OPalt) that can bind the Kimian temporal variable in accessible worlds. If no such entailment is added, the same temporal variable is bound by the T0functional head of the BE-predicate in the actual world. The auxiliarytá/bhí‘be’ in Irish imposes the semantic restriction that its secondary predicate must contain the alternative state entailment. The copulais/ba‘be’, on the other hand, is used in the absence of such an entailment. Case obviation on the secondary predicate head in Russian copular sentences signals alternative state entailment, while case agreement on the secondary predicate appears in the absence of this entailment.

Aspectual composition in "ser/estar + adjective" structures: adjectival scalarity and verbal aspect in copular constructions

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0cm; margin-right: 32.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-left: 1.0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";" lang="EN-US">The </span><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";" lang="EN-US">distribution of the Spanish copulas <em>ser</em> and <em>estar </em>(‘be’) (specifically in the syntactic context <<em>ser/estar</em> + A>) has been generally accounted for in the literature in aspectual terms, more explicitly, in terms of the distinction between individual-level and stage-level predicates. Our claim is that the distributional properties of adjectives in the <<em>ser/estar</em> + A> structure can be better described if the scalar properties of the adjectives are taken into account, crucially those properties related to the <em>relative</em> vs. <em>absolute</em> distinction (in the sense of Kennedy & McNally 2005): relative adjectives combine with <em>ser, </em>absolute adjectives combine with <em>estar</em>. From this hypothesis, a better theory arises about aspectual composition in the domain of stative predications (in the line of Husband 2010, 2012).</span></p>

A pragmatic approach to the interpretations of Mandarin bare nouns

Bare nouns are nouns that occur without demonstratives, numerals or articles. Mandarin bare nouns, like English bare plurals, can have a generic or existential interpretation. But unlike English bare plurals, they can also have definite reference. There have been proposals to account for the interpretations of Mandarin bare nouns in terms of syntactic structure ( Audrey Li, 1997; Cheng and Sybesma, 1999) and predicate types ( Jie Li, 1997). This paper attempts to simplify Jie Li's (1997) generalizations by relating the kind referring vs. object referring interpretations to the semantic distinction between individual-level and stage-level predicates ( Kratzer, 1989). I show that Mandarin bare nouns have a generic interpretation with individual-level predicates. With stage-level predicates, they have a definite interpretation when they are in topic position and an existential interpretation when they are not in topic position. However, bare nouns often do not appear as arguments of any predicates in natural discourse. This paper attempts to reconstruct sentence fragments based on contexts. I show that the Givenness Hierarchy ( Gundel et al., 1993) restricts possible interpretations of Chinese bare nouns and that Relevance Theory (Sperber and Wilson, 1995) is needed to explain how people choose the intended interpretation from the possible ones.

Événementialité et partitivité dans les séquences [PREP LE NOM DE] temporelles

Our goal consists in establishing the analytical nature of French temporal sequences sharing the morphosyntactic pattern [Preposition – Definite article – Noun - Preposition]. These sequences, frequently classified as “prepositional locutions” in the French linguistic literature, appear to be regular prepositional phrases comprising a predicative nominal nucleus which represents an interval of a temporal event. Thus, the absolute use of the PP, due to the omission of the complement representing the temporal whole, can no longer be unconditionally attributed to ellipsis, but should rather be ascribed to associative anaphora. Are only stage level predicates (SLPs) acceptable as secondary predicates (SPs), and are all individual-level predicates ruled out in this position ? The paper shows that the first generalisation is wrong and argues in favour of a distinction between two types of SLPs. The first kind (e.g., “malade” ’sick’, acceptable as SPs) denotes a “pure state”, while the second one (e.g., “bavard” ’talkative’, unacceptable as SPs) denotes an “action-dependent state”. These two kinds of SLPs are defined through properties independent of the SP construction, and arguments are offered against the assimilation of “bavard”-SLPs to agentive predicates.

The Blindness Hypothesis and Individual Level Predicates

No abstract.

Copula sentences and entailment relations

In her proposal Claudia Maienborn attempts to provide evidence above all for the following basic claims: First, stative verbal expressions, regardless of whether they represent stage-level or individual-level predicates, pattern with eventive expressions in introducing a hidden referential argument which can be located in time and may serve as an antecedent for anaphoric reference. What separates statives from eventives is that their arguments are not dynamic but static entities, that is, states. Secondly, statives do not form a homogeneous class of expressions. While verbs like stand, sit, and sleep pass all of the relevant eventuality diagnostics, pattering also in this respect with eventives, copula constructions as well as verbs like know, hate, and resemble fail most of these tests.

The development of the copula in Child English

The dissertation summarized here provides an account of the fact that young children acquiring English (around age 2) often produce utterances like (1), in which they omit a form of the copula, be. (1)I in the kitchen. Children’s production of forms like (1) is interesting for two main reasons: firstly, utterances like these do not occur in the input (adult English); secondly, children’s omission of the copula conforms to a systematic pattern (it is neither across the board, nor haphazard). In particular, children omit the copula far less frequently in utterances like (2). (2)He’s a dog. The difference between the constructions in (1) and (2) can be characterized in terms of the well-known semantic stage-level/individual-level contrast. That is, a location such as ‘in the kitchen’ denotes a stage-level property of the subject; a predicate such as ‘a dog’ denotes an individual-level property of the subject. I argue for a syntactic difference between stage- and individual-level predicates: stage-level predicates contain additional functional structure (AspP) that individual-level predicates lack. Cross-linguistic support for this proposal is provided. As for why children acquiring English omit the copula in main clauses, I link this to the fact that non-finite main clauses are permitted in child English. I define finiteness in terms of a binding relation between an abstract Tense Operator (TOP) (located in CP) and Infl. In certain grammars (among them child English) TOP may bind Asp instead of Infl, if Asp is projected in the particular clause. However, this binding relation does not result in the clause being finite. Since Asp is projected in clauses with stage-level predicates, but not in those with individual-level predicates, it follows that stage-level predicates may occur in non-finite clauses while individual-level predicates occur with a finite clause. Coupled with the hypothesis that an overt copula is finite (in the sample studied here it is inflected over 99% of the time) and an omitted copula indicates non-finiteness, the pattern of copula omission and production in child English is accounted for.

Topic, Focus, and the Interpretation of Bare Plurals

In this paper we show that focus structure determines the interpretation of bare plurals in English: topic bare plurals are interpreted generically, focused bare plurals are interpreted existentially. When bare plurals are topics they must be specific, i.e. they refer to kinds. After type-shifting they introduce variables which can be bound by the generic quantifier, yielding characterizing generics. Existentially interpreted bare plurals are not variables, but denote properties that are incorporated into the predicate.The type of predicate determines the interpretation of its bare plural subject. The individual/stage-level distinction, though important, is not sufficient: since only arguments can be topics, only those stage-level predicates which have locative arguments can have existential bare plural subjects.Certain verbs (e.g., hate) fail to incorporate their bare plural objects; therefore no existential reading of the object is available. We provide a novel solution to this puzzle based on the following two claims: (i) incorporated bare plurals do not introduce discourse referents; (ii) nonincorporating verbs are presuppositional.

The Stage/Individual Distinction and (In)alienable Possession

The Stage/Individual Distinction and (in)Alienable Possession Yoshiki Ogawa The stage-level/individual-level distinction, which has so far been limited to verbal and adjectival predicates, should be extended to (underived) nominal predicates as well. Specifically, while simple nominals are individual-level predicates, event nominals and inalienable possession nominals are stage-level predicates. The currently prevailing distinction between the stage-level and individual-level predicates, that is, whether a predicate denotes a transitory state or an inherent and unchangeable stage, must be reconsidered. Current suggestions in line with this move will be discussed.* 1. Two types of predicates Kratzer (1989, 1996) proposes dividing predicates into two types: stage-level predicates and individual-level predicates. While the individual-level predicates express inherent or enduring properties of their subjects, the stage-level predicates denote transient properties of their subjects. For verbal and adjectival predicates, several diagnostics have been proposed to distinguish stage-level predicates from individual-level ones: 1. a. Only stage-level predicates can be modified by spatio-temporal modifiers. b. Only stage-level predicates can introduce a variable to be bound by adverbs of quantification. (Kratzer 1989, 1996) c. Only stage-level predicates can occur as secondary predicates. (Rapoport 1991) My main goal in this article is to show that the syntactic distinction between stage-level and individual-level predicates should be extended to nominal predicates. Since Abney (1987), a number of linguists have argued that noun phrases involve the same subject-predicate relationship as clauses: the NP selected by D is a predicate; a subject in the spec of DP and the NP complement of the D enter into a predication relation, just as a subject in the spec of TP and VP do (Stowell 1987, Safir 1987, Vergnaud & Zubizarreta 1992). Given their insight, it is not surprising to find a stage-level/individual-level distinction among the nominal predicates derived from verbs or adjectives. Endo’s (1995) proposal to extend the distinction to adjectival nouns in Japanese is reasonable for the same reasons. The originality of my proposal is that the distinction also holds in noun phrases headed by an underived nonadjectival nominal. More specifically, I propose that while inalienable possession (IAP) nominals are stage-level, simple (alienable possession) nominals are individual-level. Under this proposal, noun phrases headed by IAP nominals are expected to behave like those headed by event nominals. This proposal will be motivated on the basis of the three diagnostics noted in 1 and by consideration of the multiple object construction in Korean, possessor raising in Japanese, the multiple genitive construction in Japanese, and the quantificational possessive construction in English, among others. Given this proposal, the currently prevailing [End Page 1] distinction between stage-level and individual-level predicates—whether a predicate denotes a transitory state or an inherent and unchangeable state—should be reconsidered. 2. Preliminary assumptions To begin the discussion I introduce two motivations for the presence of a syntactic entity (specifically, the event place) that distinguishes stage-level predicates from individual-level predicates: the possibility of predicates being bound by adverbs of quantification (Kratzer 1989, 1996) and the possibility of secondary predication (Rapoport 1991). 2.1. Motivations for the event arguments Kratzer (1989, 1996) proposes that the stage-level/individual-level distinction is represented in the argument structure of each predicate, and that stage-level predicates have an argument position for spatiotemporal location, whereas individual-level predicates do not have this position.1 Following Heim (1988), Kratzer first assumes tripartite quantifier structures consisting of a quantifier, its restriction, and the nuclear scope, and assumes further that the adverb of quantification must be indexed with free variables in its restrictive clause. This means that the adverb of quantification binds all free occurrences of these variables in its entire scope and that failure of this binding relation leads to a violation of the prohibition against vacuous quantification. With this in mind, consider the asymmetry in 2. 2. a. When a Moroccan knows French, she knows it well. b. *When Mary knows French, she knows it well. c. When Mary speaks French, she speaks it well. Ex. 2a is ruled in since the nonovert operator always, which restricts the domain...

Weak readings of indefinites: type-shifting and closure

The starting point of our investigation is the assumption that weak indefinite NPs have a well-formed denotation of type (e,t). This paper explores the consequences of this flexible type-theoretic approach at the compositional level. Some expressions (e.g., predicative be) select for arguments of type (e,t). The combination of predicative NPs with stage-level predicates and other expressions which do not necessarily select for arguments of type (e, t) creates a type mismatch which can be solved by defining modes of composition other than function application. These closure operations are argued to be lexicalized in light verbs like have and intensional verbs like seek. They are grammaticalized in the existential there construction.

Syntactic structure of predicatives: clues from the omission of the copula in child English

This paper explores the syntax of main clause predicatives from the perspective of trying to account for an asymmetry in copular constructions in certain languages. One of the languages in which we find such an asymmetry is child English (around age 2). Specifically, new results show that children acquiring English tend to use an overt (and inflected) copula in individual-level predicatives, but they tend to omit the copula in stage-level predicatives. The analysis adopted to account for this pattern draws on evidence from adult English, Russian, Spanish and Portuguese that stage-level predicates are Aspectual (they contain AspP) while individual-level predicates are not (they involve only a lexical Small Clause predicate). Children's omission of the copula in structures with AspP is linked to the fact that at this stage of development, children fail to require finiteness in main clauses. In particular, Asp0 is temporally anchored in child English, thereby obviating the need for a finite (temporally anchored) Infl, i.e. an inflected copula.

Aspectual be–type Constructions and Coercion in African American English

This paper examines aspectual be–type constructions in African American English. These constructions receive a habitual interpretation, but they are distinguished from simple tense generics in that they are not ambiguous between generic/habitual and capacity readings. The analysis proposed to account for these constructions is one in which aspectual be neutralizes the distinction between stage- and individual-level predicates. Following Kratzer (1995), I assume that stage-level predicates have a separate event argument associated with them, but individual-level predicates do not. Aspectual be forces individual-level predicates to take an eventuality argument which coerces them into stage-level predicates. The logical representations of these constructions are given a tripartite structure in which a habitual operator binds variables ranging over eventualities.