EXTRA SIL talk: Jonathan MacDonald

Syntactic ingredients for telicity: An aspectual projection, an aspectual operator, and scalar points

Jonathan MacDonald (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), 29th of November.

Abstract

In this talk, I argue for the presence of an aspectual functional projection (AspP) between VoiceP and VP, following work by Travis (1991, 2010), MacDonald (2008), Kardos & Farkas (2022), the presence of which, I claim, gives rise to an eventive verbal predicate and whose absence results in a stative verbal predicate. Novel support from Spanish, specifically hacerlo “do so” substitution and derivational interfixes like -ot- in fregotear “half-wash” or -iz- in lloviznar “drizzle”, support the proposal. I argue that hacer is a light vebr that selects for AspP while the interfixes themselves head AspP. Interestingly, hacerlo cannot take a stative antecedent and the interfixes cannot occur with statives, supporting the overall approach. Following Kardos & Farkas (2022), I assume the syntactic presence of a maximalization operator (Filip & Rothstein 2006, Filip 2008) in Spec,AspP. Following Hay, Kennedy, & Levin (1999), Kennedy & Levin (2008), we adopt the idea that eventive verbal predicates can be analyzed in terms of a model of change along a scale. Following Filip & Rothstein (2006) and Filip (2008), I argue that the maximalization operator scopes over scalar points introduced by phrases like English goal PPs and Spanish aspectual se, and, cross-linguistically, other phrases as I discuss. As we will see, however, these phrases behave differently when occurring with statives, which, we attribute to the lack of AspP and, by hypothesis, the lack of a maximalization operator.

References

Filip, Hana. 2008. Events and maximalization: The case of telicity and perfectivity. In Susan Rothstein (ed.), Theoretical and crosslinguistic approaches to the semantics of aspect, 217–256. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Filip, Hana & Susan Rothstein. 2006. Telicity as a semantic parameter. In James Lavine, Steven Franks, Hana Filip & Mila Tasseva-Kurktchieva (eds.), Formal approaches to Slavic linguistics XIV, 139–156. Ann Harbor, MI: University of Michigan Slavic Publications.

Hay, J., C. Kennedy, and B. Levin. 1999. Scalar Structure Underlies Telicity in “Degree Achievements”. In Proceedings of SALT IX. T. Mathews & D. Strolovitch (eds), 127-144. NY: CLC Publications.

Kardos, Éva & Imola-Ágnes Farkas. 2022. The syntax of inner aspect in Hungarian. First View article in the Journal of Linguistics.

Kennedy, C. & B. Levin. 2008. Measure of Change: The Adjectival Core of Degree Achievements. In McNally, L. and C. Kennedy (eds.), Adjectives and Adverbs: Syntax, Semantics and Discourse, 156-182. Oxford University Press

MacDonald, Jonathan. E. 2008a. Domain of aspectual interpretation. LI: 38(1): 128-147.

Travis, Lisa 1991. Inner Aspect and the Structure of VP. Ms., McGill University

Travis, L. 2010. Inner Aspect: the articulation of VP. Dordrecht: Springer.

As usual, if you wish to attend and are not in the SIL Team, please contact the SIL organizers