Martha McGinnis: Idioms (reply to Heidi Harley)

[Martha McGinnis]

Heidi's right: if Higginbotham were correct that idiomatic VPs are
aspectually different from non-idiomatic VPs, this would be a thorn
in the side of DM.  According to DM, both types of VPs are built in
the syntax, so both should show the same 'compositional meaning.'
Since aspectual meaning is clearly compositional, it should
definitely allow the same possibilities for idioms and non-idioms.
And, in fact, it does.

I'm no aspect expert, but let's see if we can define the relevant
verb classes.  Accomplishments (1) and achievements (2) can be
distinguished from activities (3) and states (4) by the fact that
they're telic -- they allow endpoint-modification with "in an
hour"-type adjuncts.

(1)  I climbed the mountain in an hour.   ACCOMPLISHMENT
(2)  I recognized him in an instant.      ACHIEVEMENT
(3) *I climbed in an hour.                ACTIVITY
(4) *He was tall in an hour.              STATE

Achievements and accomplishments can be distinguished according to
the interpretation they get with "for an hour"-type adjuncts.  For
accomplishments, the process preceding the endpoint is modified, as
in (5).  For achievements, if the modification is grammatical, it's
not a pre-event modification but a result-modification, as in (6).

(5)  I climbed the mountain for an hour.   ACCOMPLISHMENT
(6) ?I recognized him for a moment.        ACHIEVEMENT

According to Vendler, accomplishments (7) are generally more
compatible with the progressive in English than achievements (8), and
activities (9) are more compatible with the progressive than states
(10).  ('Understand' is like 'recognize'... no doubt there are more.)

(7)   I'm climbing the mountain.
(8) ??I'm recognizing him.
(9)   I'm climbing.
(10)??He's being tall.

However, there are some achievements which do allow the
endpoint-modification (11), don't allow the pre-event modification
interpretation with "for an hour"-type adjuncts (12), but are OK with
the progressive (13).  Let's call the first type of achievements
Progless and the second type Progful.

(11)   He reached the top of the mountain in an hour
(12) ??He reached the top of the mountain for an hour.
(13)   He's reaching the top of the mountain even as we speak.

OK, so now we have a 5-way classification of VPs: states, activities,
accomplishments, and progless and progful achievements.  As expected,
all classes contain idiomatic VPs as well as the non-idiomatic ones
listed above.

States: *in an hour, *progressive

(14)  He's the cat's pyjamas.
(15) *He was the cat's pyjamas in an hour.
(16)??He's being the cat's pyjamas.

Activities: *in an hour, progressive

(17)  He pulls my leg constantly.
(18) *He pulled my leg in an hour.
(19)  He's pulling my leg again!

Accomplishments: in an hour, for an hour, progressive

(20) He showed me the ropes in a couple of days.
(21) He showed me the ropes for a couple of days.
(22) He's showing me the ropes.

Progful achievements: in an hour, *for an hour, progressive

(23)  I found my feet in a month.
(24)??I found my feet for a month.
(25)  I'm still finding my feet.

Others like this: cross the Rubicon, earn X's wings, make the grade,
give up the ghost...

Progless achievements: in an hour, *for an hour, *progressive

(26)  He croaked/kicked the bucket in three hours.
(27) *He croaked/kicked the bucket for three hours.
(28)??He's croaking/kicking the bucket.

These are aspectually punctual, like their non-idiomatic
counterparts, but they don't allow an iterative reading, for obvious
reasons (a frog can croak again, a corpse can't). I think both the
progressive and for-modification become OK if we talk about a group:

(27)' The nearby animals were croaking for weeks following the
       Chernobyl meltdown.


So there's no need for DM proponents to scurry around trying to find
an explanation for why idioms aren't aspecually like non-idioms...
they are.


mcginnis at ucalgary.ca