1887
Volume 10, Issue 2
  • ISSN 1876-1933
  • E-ISSN: 1876-1941
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Abstract

Abstract

This paper offers a fresh perspective on (restrictions on) aspectual coercion, thereby focusing on the essentially epistemic import of aspectual constructions. The case study that I will discuss is the unexpected use of the simple tenses for ongoing event reports in sentences involving full-verb inversion. I will argue that this attestation of the simple present/past in inverted sentences can be analyzed as a kind of aspectual mismatch between the higher-order construction and the embedded tenses. Yet at a more basic, epistemic level of analysis, there is no mismatch: the full-verb inversion construction and the embedded tenses are similar in the sense that both report events that are conceived of as fully and instantly identifiable.

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2019-01-21
2025-02-08
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  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): coercion; epistemic schemas; full-verb inversion; progressive aspect; simple tenses
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