Abstract
One of the longstanding problems in linguistic analysis is to identify, describe, and analyze the lexical aspect classes allowed in natural language. Recent developments on this issue have raised two interrelated questions: how many event classes there are and how they are derived from a minimum of primitives. In this article, we identify a class of predicates denoting the maintenance of a situation through which 13 tests can be shown to display mixed properties between states and activities, challenging the existing taxonomies of aspectual classes. We furthermore argue that the existence of this class is expected by any theory that treats aspectual classes as epiphenomena of the combination of a restricted set of primitives, and propose an analysis where they contain a central coincidence preposition selected by an eventive layer.
Funding statement: The research underlying this paper has been supported by projects PICS “Deverbative” (6422, Fábregas and Marín), “Connecting Conceptual and Referential Models of Meaning” (MINECO, FFI2013-41301-P, Marín) and “Variation at the syntax-discourse interface” (MINECO, FFI2014-56968-C4-2-P, Fábregas).
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Myriam Uribe-Etxebarria, Brenda Laca, Ángel Gallego, Alfredo García Pardo, Christopher Piñón and three anonymous reviewers for constructive critical comments to previous drafts of this paper. All disclaimers apply.
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