s=?iso-8859-1?Q?=E9minaire=28s=29_=E0_?=Paris 8: Fabienne Martin, lundi 25 06

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Les projets de la Fédération TUL



Structure Argumentale et Structure Aspectuelle
Langues avec Articles – Langues sans Articles

et l'UMR 7023 Structures Formelles du Langage – Equipe
Architecture
Grammaticale

ont le plaisir de vous inviter
à un exposé de Fabienne Martin (Université de Stuttgart)

Date : lundi 25.06 de 14h à 16h

Lieu:  Université de Paris 8, bâtiment D, sale D143.



Title: The modality of "offer" and other defeasible causative verbs
(joined work with Florian Schäfer)



Abstract:  As Oehrle 1976:25 observes, contrary to 'give', 'offer' with
an agentive subject necessitates only that the possessor is willing to
give the internal argument's referent up to somebody: no uptake is
required on the latter's part. However,  the uptake seems taken for
granted with causer subjects (cp. in French 'L'organisateur de la course
lui a offert la première place. Mais elle a refusé ce marché'
vs  "Son excellent résultat lui a offert la première place. \#
Mais elle ne l'a pas prise').
These verbs, that we propose to call 'defeasible causatives' since they
allow to cancel the inference that the result takes place in some
contexts, count at least 60 members in French and German. The talk
addresses the question of how their ambiguity should be handled in the
semantics.

We first show that the two uses do not differ in event  event complexity
-- even the 'non-implicative' reading involves a bi-eventive structure. 
We  then argue that these verbs involve a sublexical modal
base à la Koenig and Davis (2001) both with agent and  causer
subjects, and propose to capture the difference between the implicative
and non-implicative readings through the choice of the modal base. With
agents, defeasible causatives are typically interpreted with respect to
the energetic modal base. As a result, the result is not entailed in the
world of evaluation, no matter whether we deal with an intentional or a
non-intentional agentive reading (i.e. no matter whether the Agent's
intention fits the VP description or not). With causers, defeasible
causatives are typically interpreted with respect to the circumstantial
modal base. The result is then entailed in the world of evaluation. But
with such causer subjects, in the right context, defeasible causatives
can also have their non-implicative reading once they are interpreted
with respect to a stereotypical modal base. This fact goes against an
alternative analysis which would explain the two uses as a case of
lexical ambiguity,  the non-implicative 'offer' having a sublexical
modal component and the implicative 'offer' lacking it.


References
Koenig, J.-P. and Davis, A. (2001), Sublexical Modality and the
Structure of Lexical Semantic Representations, Linguistics and
Philosophy, 14/1, 71-124.
Martin, F. and Schäfer, F., t.a., The modality of 'offer' and other
defeasible causative verbs. Proceedings of WCCFL 30, eds. N. Arnett & R.
Bennett, Cascadilla Press.
Martin, F. and Schäfer, F., t.a., On the argument structure of verbs
with bi- and mono-eventive uses. Proceedings of NELS 42, S. Keine & S.
Sloggett (eds.). Amherst, MA: GLSA



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