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Valency and aspectuality : syntactic and semantic motivation for the notion of "change of state"
(1994)
Certain semantic properties of verbs have syntactic consequences in that they restrict the ability of the verb to occur in particular constructions. It will be argued that such semantic properties may not be introduced for syntactic purposes alone, but that the semantic nature and relevance of these properties has to be proved. In the following sections it will be shown which semantic verbal properties have to be assumed to capture the restrictions for the occurrence of a certain syntactic pattern in German, the so-called a construction These same properties will also turn out to be necessary for the explanation of semantic phenomena like sentential aspect. Finally, the meaning of the introduced notions and their theoretical status will be discussed.
The paper explores how verbs like helfen "help" should be treated within event semantics. These verbs allow both agentive NP-subjects and sentential CP-subjects. Their behavior with respect to adverbial modification reveals that in their agentive variant these verbs refer to events, while in their sentential variant they refer to states. The meaning that sentential helfen conveys is that the beneficiary is in a good disposition and that this state is brought about by what is expressed by the sentential subject. This involves a kind of subjective value statement about what is good for the beneficiary and what is not. The relation of "bringing about" involved here is not mainly one of causal dependence - lacking the typical denseness of causal chains - but one that involves supervenience. Supervenience, a notion widely used in moral theory and philosophy of the mind, allows accounting for the dependence of the rather subjective nature of the resultant state of helfen on particular events which occur in the world. The agentive variant of helfen is derived by embedding the meaning of sentential helfen into an event description.