Telicidade e detelicização : semantica e pragmatica do dominio tempo-aspectual

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2007

RESUMO

This dissertation investigates the phenomenon of detelicization, represented by sentences such as "João leu o livro por 1 semana" ("John read a book for 1 week"), in which there is a telic event (i.e., an event which has a non-arbítrary final point) followed by an adjunct like "for X time", which, according to the literature, is incompatible with telic events. In order to accommodate the fact that the speakers accepted thís kind of sentence, most of the theories which deal wíth detelicization treat the alleged incompatibilíty via coercion or type-mismatch. Thís díssertatíon presents an alternative to the main stream: a semantic-pragmatic approach. In order to investigate detelicization, first we present the theoretic framework we adopt. In this framework, we consíder the temporal-aspectual domaín as composed of three subdomaíns, namely: (i) temporal reference, whích gives the deictic localization of an event in the time arrow; (ií) aspect, which is the way a speaker chooses to represent an event; the event can be concluded or unconcluded; (iii) actionality, that ís, what kínd of event is denoted by the predicate. The objective of the second chapter ís to achieve a better understandíng of the notion of telícíty, and of how it is captured by contemporary temporal-aspectual theories. This understanding ís índispensable, since only telic events can be "detelicízed". In the third chapter we define detelicization in detail, Í.e. ít ís the presentatíon of and event as interrupted, that is, a telic event which begíns and stops wíthout reaching its final point, íts telos. We then íntroduce a semantic-pragmatic theory which explaíns how this interpretation comes about, and what ís semantics and what is pragmatics in it. Finally, in the fourth chapter we perform two psycholinguistícs experiments aíming at verifyíng the existence of some empirical grounds (i.e., reading time) sustaíníng coercion or type-mismatch, postulated to account for sentences as " João leu o livro por 1 semana". The analysis of experiments results shows no significative difference in reading time between, e.g., "João leu o livro por 1 semana" and "João leu o livro em 1 semana" ("John read a book in 1 week"). Gíven this result and the semantic-pragmatic approach sketched here, we claím that the notion of coercion is unnecessary to ::.ccount for the phenomenon of detelicization

ASSUNTO(S)

semantica pragmatica semantics psycholinguistics psicolinguistica portuguese language lingua portuguesa - gramatica pragmatics lingua portuguesa - aspecto verbal portuguese language

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