From state to change of state by type-shift

Area of Science:

• Linguistics
• Semantics
• Morphology

Background:

• State/change-of-state lability describes how predicates can denote states or changes of state.
• Languages vary in how they express these meanings, particularly in the absence of dedicated inchoative morphology.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a novel type-shifting analysis, termed Inchoative Shift, for state/change-of-state lability.
• To explain the restricted distribution of change-of-state meanings in labile languages.
• To account for the interaction between inchoative morphology, periphrastic constructions, and type-shifting.

Main Methods:

• A type-shifting analysis is proposed, introducing an operation called Inchoative Shift.
• The analysis incorporates a Blocking Principle, drawing on Chierchia's (1998) work.
• The Blocking Principle is augmented with structural alternatives (Katzir, 2007) to refine predictions.

Main Results:

• The Inchoative Shift analysis successfully explains the distribution of change-of-state meaning in labile languages.
• It accounts for the complementary distribution of change-of-state readings and inchoative morphology cross-linguistically.
• The augmented Blocking Principle explains why periphrastic inchoatives do not always block inchoative type-shifting.

Conclusions:

• The proposed type-shifting analysis offers a more comprehensive account of state/change-of-state lability compared to previous coercion-based analyses.
• The model makes accurate predictions regarding the cross-linguistic distribution of lability and its interaction with other change-of-state expressions.