Verbs and (sub)Event Structure: A Case Study from Italian

Verbs and (sub)Event Structure: A Case Study from Italian ∗ Francesca Strik Lievers Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong Dipartimento di Linguistica, Università di Pisa, Via Santa Maria 36, Pisa, Italy francesca.striklievers@gmail.com Abstract. In this paper, I try to show the advantages of analyzing events in terms of subevent structure, by taking into consideration the case of a specific class of verbs: transitive and intransitive verbs which obligatorily require the presence of a predicative complement (e.g., English seem, consider). The proposed analysis is exemplified with data from Italian. Two verbs are described in detail: rimanere, ‘remain’ and rendere, ‘make’. It is shown that subevent structure representation is useful for the description of the different uses and meanings of these verbs. This type of description can also be the basis for an accurate treatment in computational semantic lexica. Keywords: event structure, Italian, predicative complement, verbs, Generative Lexicon. 1 Introduction The relationship between events1 and verbs is notoriously strong, since in most cases verbs lexicalize event predicates, and event predicates are lexicalized by verbs. However, the class of verbs is not uniform (although at least in Italian and in other European languages it is easily defined on the basis of morphological criteria). And, at the same time, it is not exclusively verbs that can be used to code events. A brief overview of some cases of mismatch between verbs and (lexicalizations of) events will be useful for defining the class of verbs with predicative complement in Italian. 2 The place of verbs with predicative complement in the verbal lexicon The most relevant distinction is that between predicative verbs and verbs that are used to support other predicative elements. The label “predicative verbs” refers to verbs that function as nucleus of simple sentences (e.g., sleep, eat). Support (or “light”) verbs, on the contrary, do not have the role of predicative nucleus of the sentence, but they can supply event nouns with the verbal morphology they lack, thus allowing the noun to act as predicative nucleus. Verbs can function as support to other predicative elements in at least two other cases: auxiliaries and the copula. In both cases the verb functions as the “skeleton” of a process, and “[a]n adjective, preposition, participle, or infinitive puts ‘flesh’ on the skeleton” (Langacker 1987: 77). Auxiliary and semi-auxiliary verbs occur with predicative verbs in non-finite form, contributing morphological information and eventually additional information such as modality or aspect. The copula essere (‘to be’) is also non-predicative: it enables a non-verbal predicate to function ∗ This work was supported by Erasmus Mundus Action 2 Strand 2 Lot 4 MULTI programme / agreement number 2009-5259/005-001-EMA2. Copyright 2011 by Francesca Strik Lievers. 1 As it is well known, the term “event” has been used in many different ways. In what follows, it has a meaning similar to what elsewhere in the literature is often called “eventuality” (after Bach 1986), that is, it refers to all types of situation (cf. Levin …

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