The semantics of degree verbs and the telicity issue

Authors

  • Eugenio Civardi
  • Pier Marco Bertinetto Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7557/1.4.1.3398

Keywords:

aspect, Aktionsart, degree achievements, degree verbs, tense

Abstract

This paper addresses the formal representation of Degree Verbs (DVs), also known as degree
achievements. After assessing the similarities and differences of DVs vis-à-vis the accomplishment
predicates within the set of “incremental theme verbs”, a double scale system is proposed to account for the telicity calculus. It is shown that DVs should be regarded as telic even though in most cases ,they do not imply culmination, but rather the mere attainment of a “contingent” telos. This formalism can be exploited to account for related phenomena, such as the so-called “conative oblique constructions” and “non-culminating” telic predicates

Downloads

Published

2015-05-29

How to Cite

Civardi, E., & Bertinetto, P. M. (2015). The semantics of degree verbs and the telicity issue. Borealis – An International Journal of Hispanic Linguistics, 4(1), 57–77. https://doi.org/10.7557/1.4.1.3398

Issue

Section

Articles on the monographic topic
Bastian Persohn (2022)
Non-culmination in two Bantu languages. Studies in Language, 46(1), 76.
10.1075/sl.20051.per
António José Rodriguez Leal, Fátima Oliveira, Purificação Silvano (2018)
Tense, Aspect, Modality and Evidentiality. Studies in Language Companion Series, 197, 335.
10.1075/slcs.197.15rod
Guglielmo Inglese, Simone Mattiola (2020)
Pluractionality in Hittite. STUF - Language Typology and Universals, 73(2), 261.
10.1515/stuf-2020-2003
Alida Maria Silletti (2018)
Les périphrases en aller et venir de l’italien contemporain : grammaticalisation et effets de sens. Syntaxe & Sémantique, N° 19(1), 87.
10.3917/ss.019.0087
Giulio Imberciadori (2023)
PIE *ǵerh2- ‘become old’ and PIE *ǵerhx- ‘crush, grind’: Why Both?. Historical Linguistics, 136(1), 94.
10.13109/hisp.2023.136.1.94
(2023)
The Spanish and the Portuguese Present Perfect in Discourse. Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today, 279,
undefined