On Scalarity in the Verbal Domain. The Case of Polish Psych Verbs. Part 2: The Aspectual Classes of Polish Psych Verbs, Perfectivity, and Scales

Ewa Willim

On Scalarity in the Verbal Domain. The Case of Polish Psych Verbs. Part 2: The Aspectual Classes of Polish Psych Verbs, Perfectivity, and Scales

Publication date: 03.2021

Studies in Polish Linguistics, Volume 16 (2021), Vol. 16, Issue 1, pp. 41 - 71

https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.21.003.13957

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On Scalarity in the Verbal Domain. The Case of Polish Psych Verbs. Part 2: The Aspectual Classes of Polish Psych Verbs, Perfectivity, and Scales

Abstract

Polish perfective psych verbs are generally analyzed as inceptive predicates denoting the beginning of an emotional state holding of an experiencer. However, a perfective psych verb can also denote an event of gradual scalar change. In this paper, I argue that on the inceptive reading a perfective psych predicate denotes a transition from a state in which

p does not hold to a state in which p holds of an experiencer. In events of gradual change, there is an increase in the degree on the scale of intensity of a given psych state or on the (abstract) extent scale contributed by a verb’s argument. As the internal temporal structure of the events denoted by perfective psych predicates can depend on elements of syntactic context outside the verb, the domain of aspectual composition in Polish is not the verb, pace Rothstein (2020), but VoiceP/vP.

Dokonane czasowniki stanów emocjonalnych są zwykle analizowane jako czasowniki wyróżniające fazę początkową danego stanu. Te same predykaty mogą w pewnych kontekstach składniowych wyrażać znaczenia ewolutywne. W artykule przedstawiona jest hipoteza, że w kontekstach inicjalnych, czasownik wyraża moment zaistnienia stanu w nosicielu. W kontekstach ewolutywnych predykat wyraża stopniową zmianę na skali intensywności stanu lub stopniowe nabycie stanu przez wszystkie części podzielnego argumentu czasownika. Zależność interpretacji wewnętrznej struktury temporalnej zdarzeń od kontekstu składniowego pokazuje, wbrew tezie zawartej w pracy Rothstein (2020), że interpretacja rodzaju zdarzenia nie jest określona na poziomie czasownika dokonanego, ale ustalana jest na poziomie struktury zdaniowej (VoiceP/vP).

Keywords

Aktionsart, perfectivity, Scale Hypothesis, scalar change, degree achievement, experiencer, Polish

inicjalność, aspekt dokonany, Hipoteza Skali, zmiana skalarna, czasownik parametryczny, nosiciel stanu, język polski

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Information

Information: Studies in Polish Linguistics, Volume 16 (2021), Vol. 16, Issue 1, pp. 41 - 71

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4467/23005920SPL.21.003.13957

Article type: Original article

Titles:

English:

On Scalarity in the Verbal Domain. The Case of Polish Psych Verbs. Part 2: The Aspectual Classes of Polish Psych Verbs, Perfectivity, and Scales

Authors

Ewa Willim

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2002-6166

Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Gołębia 24, 31-007 Kraków, Poland

Published at: 03.2021

Article status: Open

Licence: CC BY-NC-ND

Article financing:

* This research is funded by grant 2014/15/B/HS2/00588 from National Science Centre, Poland.

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Ewa Willim (Author) - 100%

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