On the syntax and semantics of English adverbials
| dc.contributor.author | McKercher, David | en_US |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2024-08-14T22:46:33Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2024-08-14T22:46:33Z | |
| dc.date.copyright | 1996 | en_US |
| dc.date.issued | 1996 | |
| dc.degree.department | Department of Linguistics | |
| dc.degree.department | School of Languages, Linguistics and Cultures | |
| dc.degree.level | Master of Arts M.A. | en |
| dc.description.abstract | In his 1966 presentation 'The Logical Form of Action Sentences', Donald Davidson proposed that a sentence such as (1) be represented as in (2), where (2) reads as in (3): (1) I flew my spaceship to the Morning Star. (2) (3x)(Flew(I, my spaceship, x) & To(the Morning Star, x)). (3) There is an event x such that x is a flying of my spaceship by me and x is to the Morning Star. Two main consequences of Davidson's proposal are examined in this thesis. First, sentence modifiers such as possibly, allegedly, and fortunately have no place in Davidson's representation. Second, Davidson's treatment of event-modifying adverb phrases as separate from the structural core (the transitive or intransitive relation denoted by the verb) runs counter to the venerable argument/adjunct distinction in syntactic theory since, in his system, (4) would have the logical form in (5): (4) I gave my spaceship to NASA. (5) (3x)(Gave(I, my spaceship, x) & To(NASA, x)). In order to examine these two consequences, motivation is first given for the sentence modifier versus predicate modifier distinction, relying on convergence of the results of applying several syntactic and semantic tests which have been proposed for the distinction. The operator approach to the semantics of adverbials, as an alternative to Davidson's approach, is evaluated and the case made for aligning sentence modifiers with the operator approach and predicate modifiers with the Davidsonian approach. Finally, two tests for the argument/adjunct distinction-optionality and iterability-are assessed in light of the absence of subcategorized adverb phrases in Davidson's logical form. | |
| dc.format.extent | 116 pages | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/1828/18946 | |
| dc.rights | Available to the World Wide Web | en_US |
| dc.title | On the syntax and semantics of English adverbials | en_US |
| dc.type | Thesis | en_US |
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