Inner Aspect: The Articulation of VP (Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory Book 80)

This monograph probes the structure of the verb phrase through a cross-linguistic investigation of the syntax and morphology of relevant constructions. In particular, the author provides evidence for two event-related non-lexical projections called "inner aspect" and "event". The former is found within the verb phrase and encodes information on the endpoint of an event. The latter is found at the edge of the verb phrase and demarcates the boundary of a particular domain of syntax, L-syntax. Although languages vary in their use of these projections and in the way they encode the endpoints of events, the author argues that the comparison of a number of languages and the analysis of a range of constructions results in the emergence of a consistent picture. While much of the discussion involves Austronesian languages such as Malagasy and Tagalog, other languages such as French, Spanish, Swedish, Scots Gaelic, Chinese, Japanese, Navajo, Slave, and Kalagan are discussed. Syntactic and morphological data from these languages are used to illuminate the details of the phrase structure of the verbal predicate. These data also aid in understanding how phrase structure is used to express certain facets of language, such as event structure, aspectual verb classes, productive and lexical causatives, derived objects, agents and causes, and coerced structures. Finishing this book was one of the most difficult things I have ever done. It took far too long from original idea to page proofs and suffered from being relegated to small corners of my life. It was very rarely on the front burner. Since I started working on this topic in 1991, there has been a lot of interesting work done on the areas of the articulation of VP, phrase structure mirroring event structure, the use of functional categories to represent Aktionsart, and many other areas that the research presented here touches on. The hardest thing about doing a project of this size is to accept that not everyone’s ideas can be addressed and not all new research can be incorporated. The only way that I have found it possible to let this book go to press is to reread the Preface to Events in the Semantics of English by Terence Parsons where he writes, ‘‘The goal of this book is neither completeness nor complete accuracy; it is to get some interesting proposals into the public arena for others to criticize, develop, and build on. ’’ My aim in this book is to make connections between various accounts of various constructions in various languages at the risk of treating each of these too lightly. I am grateful to too many people to thank them individually. Front Matter....Pages i-xii Introduction....Pages 1-17 Inner Derived Objects....Pages 19-50 Inner Aspect and Event....Pages 51-91 Event Structure and Phrase Structure....Pages 93-131 Interaction of Objects and Aspect....Pages 133-156 L-Syntax and S-Syntax....Pages 157-204 The Syntax of Achievements....Pages 205-239 Bounds and Coercion....Pages 241-274 Conclusion....Pages 275-284 Back Matter....Pages 285-308