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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
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