Iberia: An International Journal of Theoretical Linguistics - 2013 - Vol. 5 - Nº 2

URI permanente para esta colecciónhttps://hdl.handle.net/11441/72133

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    Another Look at Modi!cation in Spatial Prepositions
    (Universidad de Sevilla, 2013) Ursini, Francesco-Alessio; Akagi, Nobuaki
    The goal of this paper is to propose a uni!cation of two strands of research within the semantics of spatial prepositions. The !rst strand focuses on the socalled modi!cation problem, which can be stated as follows. Some, but not all spatial prepositions can occur in sentences including measure phrases, such as ten meters (Mario went ten meters in front of the car). The second strand focuses on so-called prepositional aspect: the fact that some but not all spatial prepositions can occur with temporal adverbial phrases such as in one hour. A uni!ed account is proposed, based on a minimal version of Type-Logical syntax combined with situation semantics. This uni!ed account is shown to explain and predict why, for instance, telic prepositions cannot occur with measure phrases (viz. *ten meters to the park). A compositional analysis of the contribution to lexical aspect of measure phrases, and their compositional interplay with spatial prepositions and temporal adverbials, is o"ered in detail. The main conclusion is that measure phrases do contribute to the lexical aspect reading of a sentence, but do so in fairly subtle (and compositionally-based) ways.
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    Not always a stage. A typical patterns in Spanish copular clauses
    (Universidad de Sevilla, 2013) Mangialavori, María Eugenia
    The present paper focuses on cases that challenge the classical de!nition of the Spanish copula estar as stage-level, temporary or unstable predication by patterning with individual-level predicates (associated, by de!nition, with ser, rather than with estar). More importantly, data also indicates that the choice for estar over ser is not semantically nor syntactically trivial, even in those contexts where similar aspectual implications are involved (i.e., even in the delivery of IL predicates). Accordingly, we aim to show that (i) the distinctive semantic properties of estar occurrences follow from its conceptual construal as a location (in either concrete or abstract space); and that (ii) a di"erent implementation of an implied comparison approach to the IL/SL distinction (cf. Franco & Steinmetz 1986) could succeed in capturing the two kind of predications rendered by estar in way that is more in tune with its primary (locative) semantic properties. Moreover, we will claim that a view on semantic content sensitive to cognitive operations available for locative predicates (e.g., perspectival location) may correctly account for di"erent facets of meaning classically ascribed to this copula (e.g., contrastiveness, subjectivity) as well as for the semantic and syntactic patterns restraining the selection of both the DP subject and the adjectival predicate.