Aspect And Predication : The Semantics Of Argument Structure Hardcover

Gillian Catriona Ramchand

This book investigates the systematic correspondences between syntactic structure and semantic interpretation in the domain of predicate-argument relationships. It takes as its starting point the striking effects of nominal argument interpretation on aspectual semantics, pursuing the intuition that these effects are not quirky or exceptional, but are in fact the most visible reflexes of a more pervasive and systematic interaction between the aspectual event structure of a predicate and its arguments. The Scottish Gaelic language is the empirical base of the investigation, as it exhibits a set of predicational structures which interact in a highly visible way with its aspectual system. The book provides a detailed working out of a semantic system of argument classification which moves away from lexically-driven thematic roles in the traditional sense and towards a more constrained, syntactically motivated, set of primitives.

9780198236511

English

Oxford University Press

08-05-1997

264

This book is an important contribution to the study of aspect and the interface between syntax and semantics ... Ramchand's book presents a very interesting syntactic analysis of the intriguing data in SGaelic aspectual constructions ... an important contribution to the study of tense and aspect and its relation to the semantics of nominal expressions. * Glot International * This monograph is an important contribution to several areas in formal linguistics... the book represents a significant milestone in the theoretical work on Irish/ SG and is the first major publication on the semantics of this language group for almost twenty years./ ... there is much to recommend this book. It is ground-breaking work in teh syntax-semantics interface and in Irish/ SG studies./ ... this book represents a significant advance in theoretical work on these languages./ Cathal Doherty, University College Dublin, Linguistics, Vol 35, 1999.