Dual Aspectual Forms and Event Structure in Caribbean English Creoles

Description

This book tackles the divisive question of the Stative/Non-stative distinction by going straight to the root of the lexical items that have been at the heart of this discussion. It provides an analysis of property items (Dual Aspectual Forms) couched in the syntax-semantics interface eliminating the false dichotomy at the base of the controversy in the field and the suggestion that a lexical item needs be unambiguously Stative or Non-stative. What we see in this work is theoretical grounding for a flexible group of lexical items comprising both verbs and adjectives underlyingly with allowances made for derivation into either category. The result is a work that is conceptually and theoretically appealing and one that brings consensus. Contents Abbreviations 1 Introduction 1.1 Background 1.2 Outer/viewpoint Aspect 1.3 Compositionality 1.3.1 Viewpoint aspect and inherent aspect 1.3.2 Progressive aspect and stativity 1.4 Inner Aspect 1.5 Aspect in CECs and the nature of the verb 1.6 A note on the compositionality of Aspect 1.7 Dual aspect and the Stative/Non-stative distinction 1.8 The proposal 1.9 Aim and scope of this work 1.10 The organisation of the work 2 Aspect in Caribbean English Creoles: An overview of works 2.1 Background 2.2 Some contributions to the study of Aspect in CECs 2.2.1 Voorhoeve1957 2.2.2 Alleyne1980 2.2.3 Bickerton1975 2.2.4 Bickerton1981 2.2.5 Jaganauth1987 2.2.6 Winford1993 2.2.6.1 Winford2001 2.2.7 Andersen1990 2.2.8 Sidnell2002 2.2.9 Gooden2008 2.2.10 Youssef2003 2.3 Observations 3 The problem of dual aspectual forms 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Verb or adjective? The categorial status of property items 3.2.1 The Sranan case: A debate between Sebba and Seuren 3.2.2 Kouwenberg1996 3.2.3 A note on later works 3.3 The question of the Stative/Non-stative distinction 3.4 Winford’s semantic categorisation of CEC property items and an evaluation 3.4.1 Winford’s semantic categorisation of CEC property items 3.4.2 An evaluation 3.5 Summary of observations 4 The Stative/Non-stative distinction and change as a lexico-semantic concept 4.1 Introduction 4.2 The stative/non-stative distinction and the notion of Change 4.3 Event structures and primitives of change 4.3.1 Event types and structures 4.3.2 State 4.3.3 Transition 4.3.4 Process 4.4 Primitives of Change 4.4.1 become and cause 4.4.2 do 4.5 More on Change: Transitivity alternations 4.5.1 cause and become in the middle and causative/inchoative alternations 4.5.2 contact in the body-part possessor ascension alternation 4.5.3 motion + contact in the conative alternation 4.6 Observations 5 Syntactic behaviour, event types and semantic interpretations 5.1 Background 5.2 Criteria for the categorisation of property items 5.2.1 Non-stative use: The progressive criterion 5.2.2 Non-stative use: Transitive alternation 5.2.3 Event types and semantic interpretations: State, Transition and Process 5.3 Property items in JC: Towards a classification 5.3.1 Transitions in JC 5.3.2 States among JC property items 5.3.3 On the Non-stative use of State items 5.3.3.1 Derived Transitions 5.3.3.2 Derived Processes 5.4 A classification of property items in JC 5.5 Summary 6 Summing up: On the sbj]categorial statuscategorial status of sbj]dual aspectual formsdual aspectual forms 6.1 Overview 6.2 On the categorial status of dual aspectual forms 6.2.1 Class 1 property items as Non-stative verbs 6.2.2 Class 2 property items as (Stative) adjectives 6.3 Contribution to scholarship 6.4 Scope for further study References Index Name index Language index Subject index