Unlikely Imperfectives | Zendy

Timothy Wood Grinsell | Zendy

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Unlikely Imperfectives

Author(s) -

Timothy Wood Grinsell

Publication year - 2015

Publication title -

proceedings from semantics and linguistic theory

Language(s) - English

Resource type - Journals

eISSN - 2163-5951

pISSN - 2163-5943

DOI - 10.3765/salt.v24i0.2431

Subject(s) - vagueness , culmination , event (particle physics) , linguistics , theme (computing) , reading (process) , modal , modality (human–computer interaction) , epistemology , philosophy , psychology , computer science , artificial intelligence , physics , fuzzy logic , chemistry , quantum mechanics , astronomy , polymer chemistry , operating system

The event-in-progress reading of the English incremental-theme progressive ( Elena is drawing a circle ) displays vagueness effects, especially when the culmination of the event denoted by the progressive is unlikely. This paper explains these unexpected vagueness effects by adopting a modal theory of the progressive and a gradable theory of modality. It is then possible to explain vagueness effects in the progressive as a result of the same semantic phenomena that generate vagueness effects in gradable adjectives like healthy .

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