Date: 24-Aug-2006 From: Paul Peranteau <paulbenjamins.com> Subject: Individuals in Time: Arche
Title: Individuals in Time
Subtitle: Tense, aspect and the individual/stage distinction
Series Title: Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 94
Published: 2006
Publisher: John Benjamins
http://www.benjamins.com/
Author: María J. Arche
Hardback: ISBN: 9027233586 Pages: 281 Price: U.S. $ 138.00
Hardback: ISBN: 9027233586 Pages: 281 Price: Europe EURO 115.00
Abstract:
This monograph investigates the temporal properties of those predicates referring to individuals - the so-called individual-level (IL) predicates - in contrast to those known as stage-level (SL) predicates. Many of the traditional tenets attributed to the IL/SL dichotomy are not solidly founded, this book claims, as it examines current theoretical issues concerning the syntax/semantics interface such as the relation between semantic properties of predicates and their syntactic structure.
By using the contrast found in Spanish copular clauses (ser vs. estar), Individuals in Time shows that the conception of IL predicates as permanent and stative cannot be maintained. The existence of nonstative IL predicates is demonstrated through analyzing the correlation between the syntactic presence of certain projections (specifically, prepositional complements) and process-like aspect properties. This detailed examination of IL predicates in the domains of inner aspect, outer aspect, and tense will be welcomed by scholars and students with an interest in event structure, tense, and aspect.
Table of contents
Acknowledgments ix-x Foreword, by Tim Stowell xi-xiii Presentation of the Study 1-4 Individual-Level Predicates 5-38 Event Classes and Individual-Level Predicates 39-81 Aspectual Alternations in Individual-Level Predicates 83-145 Outer Aspect and Individual-Level Predicates 147-192 Tense and Individual-Level Predicates 193-237 Conclusions and Final Remarks 239-259 References 261-273 Name Index 275-277 Subject Index 279-281
"This book is impressive in many ways. It offers an innovative and brilliant analysis of an old issue: Spanish copular sentences with ser and estar, and of the adjectives associated with them. It develops a strong case for a syntactic approach to aspectual alternations. Arche has succeeded in developing a new view of the event type and syntactic behaviour of IL predicates based on a fine-grained analysis of the functional syntactic structure of the copular sentences in which they occur. Her work has important implications for a constructional theory of the syntax-semantics interface. Moreover, the book reads like a novel and is an example of elegant deconstruction of arguments in order to build up a minimalist and integrative new approach." Professor Violeta Demonte, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Linguistic Field(s):
Syntax
Generative Linguistics
Semantics
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