Open AccessUnlikely Imperfectives
Author(s) -
Timothy W. 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 .