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Final version of 'Nominals and Event Structure'

Posted On: May 07, 2018

'Nominals and Event Structure'. To appear in R. Truswell (ed.): Oxford Handbook of Event Structure. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2019.

Abstract: This paper discusses three semantic approaches to event nominalizations: The Davidsonian, the Kimean, and the truthmaker-based approach. It argues that a combination of the three approaches is required for the semantics of the full range of event and state nominalizations as well as the related phenomenon of adverbial modification. The paper will also present data regarding a distinction between two sorts of nominalizations of psychological and illocutionary verbs that challenge the received view of the identity of the events described by verbs and by (non-gerundive) deverbal nominalizations. These data bear on a distinction between ‘actions’ and ‘products’ introduced by the Polish philosopher Twardowski.