Satu Manninen

Interpretation of Adverbials with Stage/Individual Level Predicates

This paper focuses on sentences containing stage and individual level predicates, examining changes in interpretation when they are combined with certain types of adverbial elements. Based on data from Finnish, I propose that the division of predicates into just two groups, into stage and individual level predicates (as is done eg. in Carlson (1977) and Kratzer (1988)), is not always clear-cut, but that there would seem to be different degrees of stage and individual levelness: individual level predicates can sometimes also have stage level properties. Secondly, I propose that the stage/individual level reading is not always contained in the predicate itself, but can be brought about by certain types of adverbials. Basically, I shall be concentrating on sentences such as the following:

(1) Sirkku kavelee. 'Sirkku walks'
(2) Sirkku kavelee ontuen. 'Sirkku walks with a limp'
(3) Sirkku kavelee ontuen keskiviikkoisin. 'Sirkku walks with a limp on Wednesdays'
(4) Sirkku kavelee ontuen keskiviikkona. 'Sirkku walks with a limp on Wednesday'

To download this paper, please return to Proceedings of the 1997 Postgraduate Conference


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Last updated: 11th June, 1997