The French verb laisser (‘to let’) allows for two different syntactic constructions, an Exceptional Case Marking (ECM) construction and a Faire-Infinitive (FI) construction with a postverbal Causee, and for two different interpretations, authorize and not-intervene. According to previous studies (e.g. Kayne 1975), constructions are related to interpretations: the ECM can express intentionality, the FI cannot. In this paper, we explore a different hypothesis: the ECM construction is underspecified and allows for both interpretations, while the FI is restricted to the not-intervening interpretation. We provide empirical evidence from three distinct forced choice tasks in which participants had to match constructions and interpretations. The results reveal that, contrary to both early observations and our initial hypothesis, both constructions may allow for both interpretations, and variation depends less on the syntactic configuration than on semantic and pragmatic factors, namely on the lexical inferences triggered by the embedded verb and the authority relation between Causer and Causee expressed in the contexts.

The French verb laisser ('to let') allows for two different syntactic constructions, an Exceptional Case Marking (ECM) construction and a Faire - Infinitive (FI) construction with a postverbal Causee, and for two different interpretations, authorize and not -intervene . According to previous studies (e.g. Kayne 1975), constructions are related to interpretations: the ECM can express intentionality, the FI cannot. In this paper, we explore a different hypothesis: the ECM construction is underspecified and allows for both interpretations, while the FI is restricted to the not -intervening interpretation. We provide empirical evidence from three distinct forced choice tasks in which participants had to match constructions and interpretations. The results reveal that, contrary to both early observations and our initial hypothesis, both constructions may allow for both interpretations, and variation depends less on the syntactic configuration than on semantic and pragmatic factors, namely on the lexical inferences triggered by the embedded verb and the authority relation between Causer and Causee expressed in the contexts.

This paper investigates the grammatical strategies deployed by natural languages in order to express temporal reference. We show that temporal reference is obtained by combining a finite set of pieces of meaning which are constrained by the metaphysics of natural language and which languages distribute differently across functional categories. The paper discusses more specifically temporal adverbial clauses that express the meanings of anteriority and posteriority with respect to some reference time. We consider a relevant set of languages that make use of different strategies in order to generate these meanings, and conclude that the tools that languages may deploy are of a limited number, and include tense, aspect and temporal connectives.

Agents’ actions and intentions can be prompted or hindered in multiple ways. Across languages, verbs that lexicalize the causative primitives of CAUSE, ENABLE or PREVENT (Wolff & Song 2003) can help us understand the nature of agency, precisely because they involve multiple participants which are sometimes seen as being in a position of influencing each other via different types of relations. In this paper, we focus on the role of authority, intended as an influence that affects the choices available to a free agent with respect to the actions in service of their goal. We show that, while many causative verbs seem to imply the type of force relation between the participants in their lexical meaning, the French causative verb laisser is underspecified: the type of influence exerted by the two participants in a laisser relation is determined by the syntactic structure of the causative construction.

The French causative verb laisser can enter two different constructions: a monoclausal one resembling the faire-infinitive construction (Kayne 1975, Alsina 1992, Guasti 1996, Folli & Harley 2007) and a biclausal one. While differences in interpretation between these two constructions have been pointed out (Kayne 1975, Enghels & Roegiest 2012), the link between structure and conceptual representation has not been clearly defined yet. In this paper, we tackle the syntax and semantics of causative laisser adopting as a background Talmy’s (1988) force dynamics model of causation. We further show that the link to the selectional restrictions of the causative verb can be made by considering forces as dispositional causal properties (Fara 2001), that is, properties that become relevant with respect to the role of an entity in a causal chain.

ABSTRACT This paper focuses on the investigation of the meaning of reduplication in Brazilian Sign Language (Libras) analyzing the contribution of each of its forms: repetition (\rep) and alternation (\alt). In order to check their role, we proceeded a data collection with a native signer during elicitation sessions following the methodology for semantic elicitation (Matthewson, 2004). We also collected a spontaneous datum with another signer. We show that \rep is related to aspectual distribution, and \alt is associated to two pieces of information - participant-related distribution and aspectual distribution. We propose a formal analysis for each of the forms as well as of the way they interact compositionally.

Romance syntactic causative constructions have mixed properties that make it difficult to decide about their monoclausal or biclausal structure (Rizzi 1976, Guasti 1996, a.o.).The aim of this study is to contribute to the debate by providing an analysis of these constructions in Italian against the background of complex predicate formation. I address the issue of the syntactic category of the complement of fare in syntactic causatives by comparing them to complex predicates in Italian. I show that, contrary to what has been claimed in recent analyses, syntactic causatives are bieventive constructions where the causative verb embeds a complex clause, and I offer an account of their surface differences in terms of Voice alternation.

Abstract Romance syntactic causative constructions have mixed properties that make it difficult to decide about their monoclausal or biclausal structure (Rizzi 1976, Guasti 1996, a.o.).The aim of this study is to contribute to the debate by providing an analysis of these constructions in Italian against the background of complex predicate formation. I address the issue of the syntactic category of the complement of fare in syntactic causatives by comparing them to complex predicates in Italian. I show that, contrary to what has been claimed in recent analyses, syntactic causatives are bieventive constructions where the causative verb embeds a complex clause, and I offer an account of their surface differences in terms of Voice alternation.

Introduction to Gragoatá 46. --- DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.22409/gragoata.2018n46a1228

Apresentação à Gragoatá 46. ---DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.22409/gragoata.2018n46a1228

O objetivo deste artigo é investigar a semântica dos numerais distributivos em três línguas: português brasileiro (românica), chinês mandarim (sino-tibetana), e karitiana (arikém, tupi). A despeito da diferença tipológica, propomos uma análise uniforme para esses operadores. Analisamos os numerais distributivos nas três línguas como advérbios que estão associados a uma semântica de pluracionalidade dos eventos. Consideramos que a distribuição é um subproduto da pluralização dos eventos (CABLE, 2014). Assim, torna-se possível fornecer uma entrada lexical única que abarca as diferentes interpretações das sentenças em que esses numerais ocorrem.

This paper discusses occurrences of Italian sapere ‘know’ in mental state attributions (sa). Following the proposal of Tsohatzidis (2012) for ‘knows’, the hypothesis put forward is that sa, when used in mental state attributions, is lexically ambiguous between a factive and a non-factive sense: when sa is used in its factive sense, a sentence such as X sa che p ‘X sa that p’ entails p, whereas, when sa is used in its non-factive sense, a sentence having the same surface form does not entail p. This hypothesis seems to be confirmed by some tests traditionally used to ascertain cases of lexical ambiguity. Moreover, it will be shown that there are syntactic environments where only one of the two readings is allowed, which also seems to confirm the hypothesis that there are two sa, a factive one and a non-factive one, which select different structures. (Less)

Nomina vicis are nouns that denote in a domain of acts, free from considerations of temporal localisation. This paper tries to substantiate this notion by looking at Italian -ata event nouns, and deriving features of this reading from characteristics of these nominalisations. Event nouns ending in -ata are simple event nouns with no argument structure and yet they are endowed with the capacity of characterising an act, which is a dynamic, durative and bounded manifestation of an event property, and of affecting the full expression of such a characterisation when the noun is inserted in argumental position or under a light verb. A detailed examination of the semantic trace of an initiator within the nominalisation, and of aspectual and eventive conditions associated with it leads us to propose that the -ata suffix contributes an active semantic constraint on potential external arguments that, in turn, supports the eventive only and referential only reading of the nominal.*

This paper tackles the issue of the relation between syntax and semantics in causative structures, and it concentrates on the empirical case offered by syntactic causative constructions in Italian. Italian exhibit two types of causative constructions (so-called faire-par and faire-infinitive constructions) that have been the subject of extensive inquiry in the literature. I argue that, in order to capture the semantic similarities and differences between the two types of syntactic causatives in Italian, it is necessary to relate their properties to the underlying causative structure that they express. This approach leads to the rejection of previous accounts that distinguish the two structural types based on the selectional properties of the first causative verb. An account in terms of Voice alternation is retained, and I present new empirical evidence for this approach, drawn from comparison with other causative constructions in Italian and from the discussion of the transitive/anticausative alternation in the infinitive clause.

Abstract In this paper, we tackle the issue of the semantics of semelfactive predicates by looking at ata-nominalisations built on instrument semelfactive verbs in Italian. Being nomen vicis forms, these nominalisations denote singular instances of events. The comparison allows us to cast new light on the issue of what counts as a unit in the domain of semelfactive verbs. We then apply this line of exploration to the issue of the double reading of semelfactives – semel and processive, and show that the two readings of their ata-nominalisations correspond to predicates belonging to distinct aspectual types.

This paper presents a contrastive analysis of the distribution and interpretation of the French adverbs or and maintenant and the Italian adverb ora. Our goal is to describe the parallelism between the temporal and argumentative use of these three adverbs, and to underline at the same time the diferences in the use of ora with respect to or / maintenant. We claim that ora and or / maintenant share a common function, which is to update the point of perspective in the temporal structure of the ongoing discourse. Next, we propose that the semantic feature that justiies this updating function is the essential link between the temporal reading and the epistemic reading, which can be considered as the typical result of a process of abstraction of temporal adverbs into discourse connectives.

This paper presents a contrastive analysis of the distribution and interpretation of the French adverbs or and maintenant and the Italian adverb ora. Our goal is to describe the parallelism between the temporal and argumentative use of these three adverbs, and to underline at the same time the differences in the use of ora with respect to or / maintenant. We claim that ora and or / maintenant share a common function, which is to update the point of perspective in the temporal structure of the ongoing discourse. Next, we propose that the semantic feature that justifies this updating function is the essential link between the temporal reading and the epistemic reading, which can be considered as the typical result of a process of abstraction of temporal adverbs into discourse connectives.

In this paper, we o er a new argument for introducing dispositions in the analysis of natural language. We present data drawn from light verb constructions in Italian that show the need for a ner-grained characterisation of the properties associated with the Agentive role. These agentive properties relativised to types of events are called agentive dispositions. Dispositions can be seen to express a type of potentiality, i.e. a possibility rooted in objects and manifested as properties anchored to individuals. In the context of argument selection, an agentive disposition is a property that holds of the instantiator of the external argument and is understood to be a power for the realisation of the event described by the event predicate of the clause.

This study examines the effect of using wrong stress pattern on Persian speakers’ stress pattern perception. For this purpose, six Persian words with two possible stress patterns, which belong to two different syntactic categories, were selected. These words were then used in either correct or incorrect sentential contexts to evaluate whether Persian speakers notice the mismatching stress pattern or not. For example, the target word was used with its noun stress pattern in a sentence which required a verb. Then, the sentences were presented to the subjects and the subjects were asked to determine which stress pattern they have heard during the stimulus sentence, the noun stress pattern or the verb stress pattern. The results showed that even though Persian speakers are weak at distinguishing stress patterns, due to the nature of their language which has a predictable stress pattern, they do not neglect the stress pattern completely either. In absence of correct prosodic features, they try to exploit semantic-syntactic context to restore lexical stress perception. Using a resource other than the acoustic signal, e.g. the context, helps them to percept the word.

The focus of this paper are Reduplicated Numerals in Mandarin Chinese (Sino-Tibetan) and in Karitiana (Arikém, Tupi). Our goal is to elucidate their semantics and thus to contribute to the understanding of the relation between distributivity and individuation in the event domain. It is well known that reduplicated numerals have distributive effects across languages (Gil 1988, Balusu 2006). In this paper, we look at reduplicated numerals in two typologically unrelated languages that lack morphological Number marking on the NP/DP. We analyze the distributive effects of reduplicated numerals as generated by a pluractional operation (see also Cable 2014). By considering the semantic contribution of the numeral phrase within the pluractional operator, we wish to open a window on the delicate issue of event individuation.