Susan Rothstein - Böcker

The use of numerals in counting differs quite dramatically across languages. Some languages grammaticalise a contrast between count nouns (three cats, three books) vs 'non-count' or mass nouns (milk, mud), marking this distinction in different ways. Others use a system of numeral classifiers, while yet others use a combination of both. This book draws attention to the contrast between counting and measuring, and shows that it is central to our understanding of how we use numerical expressions, classifiers and count nouns in different languages. It reviews some of the more recent major linguistic results in the semantics of numericals, counting and measuring, and theories of the mass/count distinction, and presents the author's new research on the topic. The book draws heavily on crosslinguistic research, and presents in-depth case studies of the mass/count distinction and counting and measuring in a number of typologically unrelated languages. It also includes chapters on classifiers, constructions and adjectival uses of measure phrases.

In recent years, the study of events and their role as implicit arguments of predicates has been at the center of much important work in semantics and the syntax/semantics interface. This volume brings together fourteen studies by scholars in semantics and the syntax/semantics interface, covering a broad spectrum of research into the role of events in grammar. The papers address the following topics: event arguments and thematic argument structure; the role of events in verbal aspectual distinctions; events and the distinction between stage and individual level predicates; the role of events in the analysis of plurality and scope relations, the mass/count distinction, and propositional attitudes.

This is an in-depth study of the syntax-semantics interface focusing on the structure of the subject-predicate relation. Starting where the author's 1983 dissertation left off, the text argues that there is syntactic constraint that clauses (small and tensed) are constructed out of a one-place unsaturated expression, the predicate, which must be applied to a syntactic argument, its subject. The author shows that this predication relation cannot be reduced to a thematic relation or a projection of argument structure, but must be a purely syntactic constraint. Chapters show how the syntactic predication relation is semantically interpreted, and how the predication relation explains constraints on DP-raising and on the distribution of pleonastics in English. The second half of the book extends the theory of predication to cover popular constructions; it includes an account of the structure of small clauses in Hebrew, of the use of "be" in predicative and identity sentences in English, and concludes with a study of the meaning of the verb "be".

The use of numerals in counting differs quite dramatically across languages. Some languages grammaticalise a contrast between count nouns (three cats, three books) vs 'non-count' or mass nouns (milk, mud), marking this distinction in different ways. Others use a system of numeral classifiers, while yet others use a combination of both. This book draws attention to the contrast between counting and measuring, and shows that it is central to our understanding of how we use numerical expressions, classifiers and count nouns in different languages. It reviews some of the more recent major linguistic results in the semantics of numericals, counting and measuring, and theories of the mass/count distinction, and presents the author's new research on the topic. The book draws heavily on crosslinguistic research, and presents in-depth case studies of the mass/count distinction and counting and measuring in a number of typologically unrelated languages. It also includes chapters on classifiers, constructions and adjectival uses of measure phrases.

In recent years, the study of events and their role as implicit arguments of predicates has been at the center of much important work in semantics and the syntax/semantics interface. This volume brings together fourteen original studies by leading scholars in semantics and the syntax/semantics interface, covering a broad spectrum of research into the role of events in grammar. The papers extensively address the following topics, among others: event arguments and thematic argument structure; the role of events in verbal aspectual distinctions; events and the distinction between stage and individual level predicates; the role of events in the analysis of plurality and scope relations, the mass/count distinction, and propositional attitudes.

Predicates and their Subjects is an in-depth study of the syntax-semantics interface focusing on the structure of the subject-predicate relation. Starting from where the author's 1983 dissertation left off, the book argues that there is syntactic constraint that clauses (small and tensed) are constructed out of a one-place unsaturated expression, the predicate, which must be applied to a syntactic argument, its subject. The author shows that this predication relation cannot be reduced to a thematic relation or a projection of argument structure, but must be a purely syntactic constraint. Chapters in the book show how the syntactic predication relation is semantically interpreted, and how the predication relation explains constraints on DP-raising and on the distribution of pleonastics in English. The second half of the book extends the theory of predication to cover copular constructions; it includes an account of the structure of small clauses in Hebrew, of the use of `be' in predicative and identity sentences in English, and concludes with a study of the meaning of the verb `be'.

Structuring Events presents a novel semantic theory of lexical aspect for anyone interested in the study of verb meanings. Provides an introduction to aspectual classes and aspectual distinctions.Utilizes case studies to present a novel semantic theory of lexical aspect and compare it with alternative theories.Useful for students and scholars in semantics and syntax as well as the neighboring fields of pragmatics and philosophy of language.