Degree achievements, telicity and the verbal prefixmeN-in Malay
| Autor: | Hiroki Nomoto, Hooi Ling Soh |
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| Rok vydání: | 2014 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | Journal of Linguistics. 51:147-183 |
| ISSN: | 1469-7742 0022-2267 |
| Popis: | One issue in the analysis of degree achievements is whether or not what are called degree achievements are in fact achievements (Hay, Kennedy & Levin 1999, Kearns 2007, Rothstein 2008a). In this paper, we offer evidence from Malay that they are. Our evidence involves findings about the aspectual effect of the verbal prefixmeN-in degree achievement sentences, which may receive a natural account under an approach where degree achievements are lexically specified as achievements, but are difficult to explain if they are not. We propose thatmeN-merges with a verbal projection (VP) that describes eventualities with stages, in the sense of Landman (1992, 2008). This requirement explainsmeN-'s apparent effect on telicity in degree achievement sentences and the absence of such an effect in non-degree achievement sentences. It also accounts for the restricted distribution ofmeN-in stative sentences (Soh & Nomoto 2009) and regular achievement sentences. While certain aspectual parallels exist between the verbal prefixmeN-and the English progressive, we argue thatmeN-is not a progressive marker, and that the parallels with the English progressive are due to the subcategorization requirement ofmeN-, which makes event stages more prominent in sentences withmeN-compared to ones without. Our analysis supports the treatment ofmeN-as a light verb (v) (Aldridge 2008; Nomoto 2008, 2011; Sato 2012), rather than a marker of voice (Voice) (Cole, Hermon & Yanti 2008). |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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