The Event Structure Of Perception Verbs

--Book Jacket.

C U P R I N S Florica BECHET, LA CHROMATIQUE DES AMOURS D’OVIDE Adela Livia CATANĂ, “SMELL OF MATRIX”: OLFACTORY IMAGERY AND DYSTOPIA IN THE HANDMAID’S TALE Ioana COSTA, ELECTRUM ÎN SEPTUAGINTA Aurora FIRŢA, L’IMMAGINE OLFATTIVA NEL PRIMO CAPRONI Alexandra Elena ILINA, PAS DE SENS SANS LES SENS Liviu FRANGA, SCRIITORUL PÂRVAN. SINESTEZII. Mariana FRANGA, EROSUL ÎN EPIGRAMA LATINĂ PRENEOTERICĂ: SPECTACOL DE LUMINI, CULORI, EMOŢII ŞI TEMPERATURI Sorana MAN, COVORUL ROŞU. SIMBOL ŞI PREVESTIRE A MORŢII ÎN TRAGEDIA AGAMEMNON A LUI ESCHIL Monica MANOLACHI, RAINBOW RHYTHMS IN CONTEMPORARY CARIBBEAN POETRY Luminița Mihaela NEAGU, THE USE OF PERCEPTION VERBS IN WITNESS STATEMENTS – A LEXICAL SEMANTIC PERSPECTIVE Paula PASCARU, GLASUL AVANGARDEI CHINEZE Toader SAULEA, LES COULEURS DE SURVIE DANS RITOURNELLE DE LA FAIM DE LE CLÉZIO Melania STANCU, METÁFORAS DE LA NATURALEZA INDÓMITA. VITALISMO E INTEGRALISMO EN LA NOVELA DE BENJAMÍN JARNÉS

This book explores the nature of stative verbs, their eventuality structure, and the patterns of argument realization. The study shows that there is no single class of stative verbs. Rather, several distinct groups of verbs are found: Verbs that undergo a systematic stative/eventive ambiguity; verbs that allow for a stative reading only; and verbs that seem to have an intermediate status (verbs of position and verbs of internal causation). The study concludes that there is a discrete boundary between stative and eventive verbs, excluding any intermediate status. Stativity arises because the aspectual operators DO and BECOME are absent in the lexical-semantic structure. Eventivity arises if one of these is present. A minimalist view on argument realization and event structure completes the book: Theta features on the arguments are checked against the aspectual heads within the verb phrase.

This study establishes a relation between the semantics of the subject and the direct object-NP and aspect. The notion of event is central. Events have a beginning and an end. This means in temporal terms that events have a point in time at which they begin and a point in time at which they end. However, events are not defined in temporal terms but in spatial terms. This means that they are defined in terms of the entity that can be used to identify their beginning and the entity that can be used to identify their end. These two entitites are denoted by the subject and the direct object-NP respectively. The name of the event is provided by the verb. It is these three notions that make up Event Structure: the entity denoting the beginning, i.e. the object of origin; the entity denoting the end, i.e. the object of termination; and the event itself. The three primitives are independently motivated in the domain of tense interpretations of sentences. Their presence or absence affects these interpretations in a systematic way.

In Ten Lectures on Event Structure in a Network Theory of Language, Nikolas Gisborne explores verb meaning. He discusses theories of events and how a network model of language-in-the-mind should be theorized; what the lexicon is; how to probe word meaning; evidence for structure in word meaning; polysemy; the lexical semantics of causation; a type hierarchy of events; and event types cross-linguistically. He also looks at the relationship between different classes of events or event types and aktionsarten; transitivity alternations and argument linking. Gisborne argues that the social and cognitive embedding of language, requires a view of linguistic structure as a network where even the analysis of verb meaning can require an understanding of the role of speaker and hearer.

This study establishes a relation between the semantics of the subject and the direct object-NP and aspect. The notion of event is central. Events have a beginning and an end. This means in temporal terms that events have a point in time at which they begin and a point in time at which they end. However, events are not defined in temporal terms but in spatial terms. This means that they are defined in terms of the entity that can be used to identify their beginning and the entity that can be used to identify their end. These two entitites are denoted by the subject and the direct object-NP respectively. The name of the event is provided by the verb. It is these three notions that make up Event Structure: the entity denoting the beginning, i.e. the object of origin; the entity denoting the end, i.e. the object of termination; and the event itself. The three primitives are independently motivated in the domain of tense interpretations of sentences. Their presence or absence affects these interpretations in a systematic way.