Albrespit, Jean et Moreau, Catherine
(2024).
« Co-predication in resultative constructions in English and French with special reference to unaccusative verbs: telicity and intensity » (Colloque 50 ans de linguistique : Regards croisés sur les enjeux de la linguistique, Université du Québec à Montréal, 22 au 24 avril 2021), sous la dir. de Pinsonneault, Reine et Léveillé, Yoann.
Montréal, pp. 5-19.
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Résumé
In this article, our purpose is to examine resultative constructions in English with an unaccusative verb, i.e. an intransitive, change of state verb such as freeze. The verb is followed by an adjective (freeze solid) which we argue is in a relation of co-predication (the status of which we discuss). We compare the V-ADJ construction with V-ADV patterns (freeze over). We argue that there is a high degree of constraint in forming resultatives: crack open is licensed, but not *crack gaping. A comparison with co-predication in French (geler dur) shows how semantic constraints greatly vary in the two languages. Our claim is that a syntactic explanation is not sufficient to account for the construction. The resultative reading is based on the lexical properties of the verb in the first predication while the second predication encodes high degree and modalization. As the verb in the main predication includes a telic orientation in its semantics, there is an apparent redundancy with the final state denoted by the adjective. We show that there is in fact no real redundancy and that the co-predication expresses both a high degree and an endpoint since it has an aspectual function (telicity) and a semantic function (intensity).
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