An Interpretation Domain with Context-Dependent Events

Eun-Joo Kwak¹^,^†

¹Sejong University

^†Corresponding Author : Eun-Joo Kwak, Department of English Language and Literature, Sejong University 98 Gunja-dong, Gwangjin-gu, Seoul 143-747, Korea. Phone: +82-2-3408-3633; Email: ejkwak@sejong.ac.kr

Copyright ⓒ 2016, Sejong University Language Research Institue. This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Received: Nov 12, 2012; Revised: Jan 05, 2013; Accepted: Feb 10, 2013

Published Online: Jan 01, 2017

Abstract

I address the interpretations of verbal predicates, focusing on the structural similarities between the domains of objects and events. Based on Davidson’s (1967) theorum that events are individuals just like objects, I start from a proper interpretation domain for nominal interpretations and expand it to verbal interpretations. I critically review Rothstein (2008), which takes an interpretation domains suggested by Chierchia (1998). To resolve problems in the earlier approaches, I resort to a vague interpretation domain of Chierchia (2010) and suggest an event structure for proper interpretations of verbal predicates in accord with Vendler’s (1967) classification.

Keywords: predicate; aspectual class; state; activity; achievement; accomplishment; event; interpretation domain; atom; nonatom; vagueness

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