Event modifying adjectives in Portuguese

Transcription

1 Event modifying adjectives in Portuguese ara MENDE Group for the Computation of Lexical Grammatical Knowledge University of Lisbon Center of Linguistics Avenida Professor Gama Pinto, Lisboa - Portugal [email protected] Abstract 1 Adjectives, perhaps more than any other partof-speech, show a non trivial semantic behaviour, namely in what concerns sense change depending on the linguistic context. In this paper we analyse the behaviour of event modifying adjectives which can be understood as matrix adverbs in some particular linguistic contexts. We provide a description of the data, identifying the restrictions of occurrence of this alternation. In a second moment we propose an analysis which provides an explanation for the data. Our proposal accounts for the role nouns have in the structuring of the event and on event modification. 1 Introduction Adjectives, perhaps more than any other part-ofspeech, show a non trivial semantic behaviour, namely in what concerns sense change depending on the linguistic context. Bouillon (1998) analyses this issue in the Generative Lexicon framework, using qualia structures to derive several different uses. Nonetheless, her work focuses on particular cases, namely the behaviour of «vieux» (old) in French. Adjective sense change is also analysed by Amaro (2002), who describes the connection between sense change and the relative position of adjectives and nouns in Portuguese. This analysis focuses on a particular group of Portuguese adjectives which show important sense changes when they occur in prenominal position. However, in comparison to the large amount of work devoted to verbs and nouns, adjectives have been somewhat neglected in traditional lexical semantics, and large scale research on adjective behaviour still rests to be done. Appearing in different positions in the sentence, as a modifier of the noun or as a complement of a copular verb, adjectives, more than any other part- This research was supported by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (grant FRH/BD/8524/2002). of-speech, can take different meanings depending on their linguistic context. In this paper we focus on the behaviour of a particular group of adjectives. These are event modifying adjectives which can be understood as matrix adverbs in the mentioned linguistic contexts. Our approach accounts for these data via event modification and the association of some nouns to events. In section 2 and 3 we present some of the crucial data and introduce some of the theoretical assumptions we use to explain the data discussed, namely the role of events in lexical semantics, in general and in the Generative Lexicon framework in particular, as well as the way we will understand adverbial modification in this paper. ection 4 analyses the restrictions shown by the data and accounts for it. A representation of the crucial examples is provided, formalising our analysis. ection 5 presents our final remarks. 2 Event modifying adjectives First noted by Bolinger (1967) and later discussed by Larson (1999), the data we are concerned with in this paper regard adjectives occurring inside a nominal phrase which seem to be understood as if they were a matrix adverbial. In this paper we will discuss this kind of alternations, taking as starting point some of Larson s (1999) examples, presented in (1), but mainly focusing on Portuguese data. (1) a. Barbara saw an occasional sailor. b. Barbara saw a person who occasionally sailed. (internal Adv reading) c. Occasionally, Barbara saw a sailor. (external Adv reading) Larson states that the existence of an external adverbial reading constitutes a puzzle for compositional semantics and refers a movement analysis in which the adjective requires an article as an escape-hatch out of DP and cannot move over an intervening adjective. However accounting

2 for certain constraints on the availability of the external reading, this analysis appears nonetheless dubious: it offers no account for the reason why an element interpreted outside DP is projected whithin it initially, nor explains the adjective non participation in the semantic composition of the DP. In fact, if the adjective does not participate in the semantic composition of DP, what does it do there in the first place? Besides this, there are also some empirical difficulties regarding an alternation in definiteness which are left unexplained by this analysis (see (2)-(3), taken from Larson (1999)). (2) a. The occasional customer strolled by. b. = Occasionally, a customer strolled by. c. Occasionally, the customer strolled by. (3) a. Max saw the occasional customer. b. = Occasionally, Max saw a customer. c. Occasionally, Max saw the customer. Larson also comments that the behaviour we have been referring to is confined to adjectives of infrequency. If adjectives were simply raising out of DP, then a difference in frequency versus infrequency would not to be expected. English examples will not be discussed here, but as we will show further down, Portuguese adjectives behave quite differently in this kind of contexts. (4) a. Passou um cliente ocasional do bar. An occasional customer of the pub strolled by. b. = Passou uma pessoa que ocasionalmente é cliente do bar. A person who is occasionally a customer of the pub strolled by. c. Ocasionalmente passou um cliente do bar. Occasionally a customer of the pub strolled by. (5) a.ele é um cliente ocasional do bar. He is an occasional customer of the pub. b. = Ocasionalmente ele é cliente daquela loja. Occasionally he is a customer of the pub. Differently from what is observed by Larson, even if (4)a, b and c are possible Portuguese sentences, they do not have the same semantic content. Nonetheless, (5)a and b show the alternation discussed by Larson and presented in (1). The examples above seem to indicate further restrictions regarding these phenomena than those observed by this author, which we will analyse in more detail in section 4. Furthermore, in Portuguese, this kind of alternation is not restricted to infrequency adjectives, as shown in (6). (6) a.ele é um cliente habitual do bar. He is a usual customer of the pub. b. = Habitualmente ele é cliente do bar. Usually he is a customer of the pub. What seems to be at stake is the adjective association to events. In fact, the kind of alternation discussed here is restricted to event modifying adjectives. Therefore, it is only natural that an alternation between adjectives and adverbs is possible. Our approach to account for these data regards noun association to events and event modification. The role of events in verbal semantics is generally acknowledged in linguistic research. Pustejovsky (1991) evaluates the role of events within a theory of lexical semantics, proposing a configurational model of event structure. Incorporated in the Generative Lexicon framework, an event structure provides a useful level of representation for linguistic analysis. As argued in Pustejovsky (1991), finer-grained distinctions than sorts of events are necessary in order to capture different phenomena such as aspect and Aktionsarten. Thus, events are described in terms of their subeventual structures, an option which has significant theoretical consequences, making available, within the Generative Lexicon framework, an event semantics defined not only by sorts but also by the internal configurational properties of the event 2. But, since we are dealing with event modifying adjectives, what is crucial for the sake of our discussion is the possibility of associating events to the semantics of nominals 3. But not all nouns seem to be associated to events as the following examples seem to indicate. 2 ince each event potentially has a complex internal structure, the theory needs to represent the relation between an event and its proper subevents. This relation is represented as a tuple, <E,,<,,,*>, where E is the set of events, is a partial order of part-of, < is a strict partial order, º is overlap, is inclusion and * designates the head of an event. 3 It is important to notice that not all nouns discussed in this paper are event denoting, and therefore associated to an event structure, being semantically very close to verbs. The main difference between event descriptions in s and those at the sentence level, as pointed out by Pustejovsky, is that event descriptions at the sentence level are anchored by tense (Pustejovsky leaves the door open to also considering aspect as an anchoring relation) within an interval structure. Tense is then viewed as a functional property applying to event descriptions in a way that is similar to a quantifier.

3 (7) *Este veículo é um carro habitual da Maria. This vehicle is a usual car of Maria. (8) a. Este rapaz é um colaborador habitual da Maria. This boy is a usual collaborator of Maria. b. = Este rapaz colabora habitualmente com a Maria. This boy usually collaborates with Maria. (9) a. Este veículo é o carro habitual da Maria. This vehicle is Maria s usual car. b. = Este veículo é o carro que a Maria conduz habitualmente. This vehicle is the car Maria usually drives. (10)a. Este rapaz é o colaborador habitual da Maria. This boy is Maria s usual col laborator. b. = Este é o rapaz que colabora habitualmente com a Maria. This is the boy that usually collaborates with Maria. Focusing at first on (7) and (8), we notice a clear grammaticality contrast between these two sentences. However, they have exactly the same syntactic structure, the only difference being the head noun modified by the adjective habitual (usual). Let us now look at (9) and (10). These are identical to (7) and (8) in every aspect, the exception being the determiner introducing the noun phrase modified by habitual (usual). However, (7) is ungrammatical but (10) is perfectly acceptable. The explanation for the acceptability of (10) 4 seems to be the availability of an event to be modified by habitual (usual). In fact (7), differently from (8), (9) and (10), is the only sentence which does not have an adverbial reading (cf. (8)b, (9)b and (10)b). This fact seems to indicate the absence of an event associated to the noun carro (car), which might be modifiable by an adverb, the same not being true for colaborador (collaborator). This idea gains more strength as we look at the examples presented further down, which show that the event which 4 The fact that both the noun phrases in 9 and 10 are definite descriptions, and not in 7 and 8, seems to somehow make an event available to be modified by habitual (usual), making 10 acceptable, by contrast with 8. We will not develop the issue of definiteness in this paper, nor why it has an impact on making an event available to the adjective, as it is out of the scope of this work. What is indeed crucial for the sake of our analysis is the fact that the acceptability of 9, 10 and 11 seems to depend on an event being made available to the adjective. makes (9) acceptable, is context-dependant, i.e. it is not associated to the noun carro (car) but can be retrieved from the context. As for colaborador (collaborator), it is always associated with the same event: colaborar (collaborate). (11) a. A Maria alugou o carro habitual. Maria rented the usual car. b. = A Maria alugou o carro que habitualmente aluga. Maria rented the car she usually rents. (12)a. A Maria cumprimentou o colaborador habitual. Maria greeted the usual collaborator. b. = A Maria cumprimentou a pessoa que colabora habitualmente com ela. Maria greeted the person that usually collaborates with her. As we were saying, there is a contrast between the nouns colaborador (collaborator) and carro (car) in what concerns their association to events. Based on (7)-(10), we formulated the hypothesis of colaborador (collaborator) always being associated to an event, the same not being true for carro (car), a noun which can only be modified by adjectives such as habitual (usual) when an event can be retrieved from the context. The contextdependency of the event modified by habitual (usual) in (9) becomes clearer as we look at (11) and (12). In fact, all the sentences in which colaborador (collaborator) occurs have an adverbial reading where the adverb always modifies the same verb: colaborar (to collaborate). When carro (car) is the noun at stake, the verb modified by the adverb in the paraphrase - when an adverbial reading is possible - depends on the context, varying from sentence to sentence (conduzir (to drive) in (9) and alugar (to rent) in (11)). These examples show the event modifying nature of the adjectives we analyse in this paper. As noted above, these adjectives are closely related to adverbs, modifying the manner of occurence of an event over time. 3 Adverbial modification Davidson (1967) analyses adverbs as event predicates and introduces event quantification at the verb phrase level in connection with adverbial modification, as shown in (13) (taken from Pustejovsky (1991:68)). (13) Mary fatally slipped. e[slipped(e,m) fatal(e,m)]

4 In Pustejovsky s (1991:68) words, «a n event structure provides a natural representation for adverbs as event predicates». In fact, event structures in the Generative Lexicon framework allow for richer structural possibilities for adverbs as event predicates: sentences can have as many interpretations for an adverbial as there are distinct predicates in the event structure. The two usually available readings for adverbs manner versus speaker-oriented result, in this framework, from the different scopes they can take. P [rude(p)] [act(x) & departed(x)] P [act(x) & departed(x)] T T[rude(T)] Fig. 1 Lexical conceptual structures of the two possible readings of "Lisa rudely departed" (taken from Pustejovsky (1991:69-70)) Fig. 1, above, schematically represents the two possible readings of Lisa rudely departed. In the first structure, the adverb takes scope over the process of leaving, resulting on a manner interpretation. In the second, the adverb takes scope over the entire event, thus being interpreted relatively to the speaker and situation. Thus, the ambiguity of adverbials can be derived from a scope difference of the same lexical item, the possibility of having multiple readings depending on the event structure of the modified event 5. Let us now go back to the discussion of the data. 5 Pustejovsky (1991) also mentions idiosyncratic aspects of adverbs influencing the possibility of multiple readings. We will not discuss these aspects as they are over the scope of this paper. [departed(x)] [departed(x)] 4 Restrictions on the alternation with verb adverbial modification As mentioned in the first section of this paper, Larson observes the following restrictions on the kind of alternations considered here: they only occur with infrequency adjectives; they are subject to some definiteness constraints and they must cooccur with an article. In 2 we have shown that the infrequency restriction does not hold for Portuguese. But, as it becomes clear in the following examples, there are other aspects in which the observations made by Larson (1999) do not hold for Portuguese data. Let us take (14) and (15), which remind us of the examples with which we began our discussion of Larson s analysis of event modifying adjectives. However we will now focus on other restrictions shown by these examples. (14) a. Passam clientes habituais desta loja. Usual customers of this store stroll by. b. = Passam pessoas que habitualmente compram nesta loja. People who usally buy at this store stroll by. c. Habitualmente passam clientes desta loja. Customers of this store usually stroll by. (15) a. Este senhor é cliente habitual desta loja. This gentleman is a usual customer of this store. b. = Habitualmente este senhor é cliente desta loja, i.e. habitualmente este senhor compra nesta loja. Usually this gentleman is a client of this store i.e. usually this gentleman buys at this store. These examples seem to indicate that the event modifying adjective can only have scope over the matrix verb when a single event is denoted by the whole sentence. Fig. 2 represents (14) 6. Looking at the structure presented in this figure the presence of two distinct events becomes clear: e 1, associated to the verb passar (to stroll), and e 2, associated to the telic quale of the noun cliente (customer). ince in (14) the event modifying adjective habitual (usual) applies to the noun cliente (customer), it naturally 6 In the representations proposed in Fig. 2 and Fig. 3, the modifiers are not yet included. As we are discussing the kind of structures which show the alternation under analysis, focusing on the number of modifiable events in each sentence, we opted for not representing adjectives at this stage for the sake of simplicity. We believe in this way our analysis presentation becomes clearer.

5 takes scope over e 1, the buying-event, associated to it. ince the main verb passar (to stroll) denotes a different event, e 2, it is only natural that the adverbial reading in (14)c is not equivalent to (14)a. V Passam clientes desta loja stroll_by ARG1 = = x : ind D - ARG = y : location [ ] EVENTTR = E1= e1 : activity customer ARGTR ARGTR = [ ARG1= x : human] QUALIA = TELIC= buy( e, x,w, z) [ ] 2 Fig. 2 Representation of sentence (15), "Passam clientes habituais desta loja" without representing the modifier habitual Moving on to (15), in this case the main verb is the verb ser (to be). emantically empty, we will assume here that this verb only carries information regarding tense and aspect. In Fig. 3, we adopt Pustejovsky's treatmentof tense as an anchoring function over event descriptions. Below we present the tense function as proposed by Pustejovsky (1995: 8.4). The anchoring relation anch embeds an event within an interval structure. Thus, for the sake of simplicity, in Fig. 3 we associate this relation to é (is), showing no event is denoted by this verb. [[ Tnsα]] = λε i e[α(i,n) anch(i,e) ε(e)] In (15), only one event is denoted by the sentence because no event is denoted by é (is). Therefore, only the event introduced by the noun cliente (customer), e 1 in the telic role of the qualia structure of this lexical item, is available to be modified by habitual (usual). Este senhor VP é cliente desta loja V é cliente desta loja gentleman ARGTR = [ARG1 = x:human] QUALIA = [CONT = male(x)] anch(i,e 1) customer ARGTR = [ARG1 = x:human] QUALIA = [TELIC = buy(e 1,x,y,z)] Fig. 3 Representation of sentence (15), "Este senhor é cliente habitual desta loja" without representing the modifier habitual (16) also supports this idea of making the possibility of an adverbial reading of the event modifying adjective over the main verb depend on the number of events denoted in the sentence. It is nonetheless a slightly different case also showing this alternation.

6 (16) a.o soldado disparou tiros esporádicos. 'The soldier shot sporadic shots.' b. = Esporadicamente o soldado disparou tiros. 'poradically the soldier shot shots.' Keeping in mind the restriction stated above, that only when a single event is denoted by the whole sentence can the alternation under analysis be observed, let us take the representations below. Looking at Fig. 3 and Fig. 4, it becomes clear that (15) and (16) exemplify two different cases allowing the alternation we are discussing in this paper. Once again in (16) only one event is denoted, but this time not because the matrix verb is semantically empty as it was the case in the previous example. As we can see in Fig. 3, in (16) the event denoted by the verb disparou (shot) and the event associated to the noun tiros (shots) is the same, e 1 in the agentive role of tiros (shots) qualia structure and in the eventstr of disparou (shot). The event denoted by the verb and the event introduced by the noun being the same, it is quite natural that sentences (16)a and (16)b, the first with an event modifying adjective and the second with a matrix adverb, be semantically equivalents. (17) a.o soldado condenou os tiros esporádicos. 'The soldier condemned the sporadic shots.' b. Esporadicamente o soldado condenou os tiros. 'poradically the soldier condemned the shots.' c. = O soldado condenou que se dispare esporadicamente. 'The soldier condemned that one shoots sporadically.' O soldado VP disparou tiros V disparou tiros soldier ARGTR = QUALIA = [ ARG1 = x : human ] [ ] CONT = male(x) shoot ARG1 = = x : human ARG2 = y : ind [ ] EVENTTR = E1= e1 : process shot ARGTR ARGTR = [ ARG1= y : ind] [ ( )] QUALIA = AGENTIVE = shoot e1, x,y Fig. 4 - Representation of sentence (16), "O soldado disparou tiros esporádicos" without representing the modifier esporádicos Assuming an analysis such as the one proposed here, the non equivalence of (17)a and (17)b is predicted. Looking at the example represented in Fig. 4, differentely from what happened in (16), there are two distinct events, e 1 introduced by the agentive role of tiros (shots), just as in the previous example, and e 2 denoted by the eventstr of condenou (condemned). Being so, the non equivalence of two sentences such as (17)a, where the event introduced by the noun tiros (shots), e 1, is modified by the adjective esporádicos (sporadic), and (17)b, where the event denoted by the verb condenou (condemned), e 2, is modified by the adverbial counterpart of esporádicos (sporadic), esporadicamente (sporadically), is only to be expected, exactly in the same way as the equivalence between (14)a and (14)c is ruled out.

7 O soldado VP condenou os tiros V condenou os tiros soldier ARGTR = QUALIA = [ ARG1 = x : human ] [ ( )] CONT = male x condemn ARG1 = x : human ARGTR = ARG2 = y : ind [ ] EVENTTR = E1= e2 : state shot ARGTR = QUALIA = [ ARG1= y : ind] [ ( )] AGENTIVE = shoot e1,z, y Fig. 5 - Representation of sentence (17), "O soldado condenou os tiros esporádicos" without representing the modifier esporádicos Nonetheless, in some particular cases, it is possible to have two different events in one sentence and still observe the event modifying matrix adverb alternation. Let us look at (18). (18) a.o soldado ouviu tiros esporádicos. 'The soldier heard sporadic shots.' b. = Esporadicamente o soldado ouviu tiros. 'poradically the soldier heard shots.' c. =O soldado ouviu disparar esporadicamente. 'The soldier heard sporadically shooting.' It is clear in these examples that two different events are introduced by these sentences: the shooting event, introduced by the noun tiros (shots) just as in the previous examples, and the hearing event, denoted by the verb ouviu (heard). Being so, it was to be expected that the alternation between the event modifying adjective and the adverb would not be semantically equivalent. But this is not the case, as (18) shows. We believe the equivalence between (18)a and (18)b holds because the event denoted by the verb is somewhat implicated in the event introduced by the noun. In fact, as we have seen in previous examples, the noun tiros (shots) introduces a shooting event. Well this shooting event produces noise as it takes place, being therefore hearable. (18) is therefore yet another particular case of the alternation event modifying adjective matrix adverb. In this case we do have two different events, which blocked the equivalence between (17)a and (17)b, as shown above. The crucial difference is that in (18) the two events present in the sentence are dependent, as one only takes place because of the other. This seems to be enough to guarantee the semantic equivalence between the adjectival and adverbial couterparts. As shown bellow, (18) is not an exceptional or isolated case. In fact, perceptive verbs seem to enter quite easily in this kind of alternation. (19) a.as crianças viram clarões repetidos. 'The children saw repeated lightnings.' b. =Repetidamente as crianças viram clarões. 'Repeatedly the children saw lightnings.' (20) a. As pessoas sentiram abalos frequentes. 'The people felt frequent earthquakes.' b. = Frequentemente as pessoas sentiram abalos. 'Frequently people felt earthquakes.' 5 Final Remarks In this paper we have carried out an analysis of event modifying adjectives which can be interpreted as adverbs. We have managed to identify the restrictions on the semantic equivalence of the alternations between event modifying adjectives and adverbs in Portuguese. Our approach evidences the role of events associated to the lexical items at stake, providing a unified treatment of both event modifying adjectives and adverbs. The results presented here appear in the context of ongoing research on the syntax and semantics of adjectives in Portuguese. In the future, we will enlarge the analysis to other classes of adjectives, exploring the expressiveness of the Generative Lexicon framework. 6 Acknowledgements I wish to thank Palmira Marrafa and Raquel Amaro for all their reviews and insightful comments.

8 References [1] Amaro, R. (2002) Posição do Adjectivo e Ligação electiva: Especificações para a computação do ignificado, Ms. dissertation presented to the University of Lisbon, Portugal. [2] Bolinger, D. (1967) "Adjectives in English: Attribution and Predication", Lingua, 18, [3] Bouillon, P. (1998) Polymorphie et émantique Lexicale: le cas des adjectifs, Presse du eptentrion, Lille, France. [4] Davidson, D. (1967) The Logical Form of Action entences, in N. Rescher (ed.) The Logic of Decision and Action, University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, [5] Larson, R. K. (1999) emantics of Adjectival Modification, Lectures presented at the Dutch National Graduate chool (LOT), Amsterdam, Netherlands. [6] Pustejovsky, J. (1991) The yntax of Event tructure. Cognition, 41, [7] Pustejovsky, J. (1995) The Generative Lexicon, The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, UA.