Prefixation in English and Catalan - Departament de Filologia ...

predominant features) of the N on which the V is built. He derives the following fixed
meanings for the two locative relations (p. 482):
(65) a. Locatum verbs: putting x in y is a canonical use of x.
b. Location verbs: putting x in y is a canonical use of y.
Kiparsky explains that some Vs will be able to be interpreted either way if the object the
source N denotes can have the two canonical uses, namely ‘to be put on something’ and
‘to have something put on it’.
Although Clark & Clark and Kiparksy acknowledge the existence of Vs with
two possible relations of location and explain them by the N having more than one
predominant feature or canonical use respectively, nothing is said about how the
speaker identifies which of the two locative relations is meant by a denominal V given a
context. I assume speakers will resolve these ambiguities by looking at the context in
which the V is uttered and by selecting the interpretation most relevant accordingly.
This view is in line with Relevance Theory (RT) (cf. e.g. Sperber & Wilson
(1986/1995), Wilson (1994), Wilson & Sperber (2004)), which is based on some simple
assumptions. Every utterance has several linguistically possible interpretations, not all
of which occur to the hearer simultaneously. Hearers are assumed to be equipped with a
criterion for evaluating (accepting or rejecting) interpretations, as they occur to them.
This criterion excludes all interpretations, except for one at most. So, the hearer can
assume that the first acceptable interpretation they find is the intended one. In other
words, the hearer considers interpretations in order of accessibility and stops when they
find one that is relevant enough to satisfy their expectation of relevance, with the result
that the first satisfactory interpretation is the only acceptable one. The criterion is
ultimately based on the cognitive principle of relevance: human cognition is relevanceoriented
(Wilson 1994: 17).
Following a relevance-theoretic account, when listeners are presented with the
utterance ‘to shelve the books’ for example (shelve being a V that admits the two
readings), the first interpretation they will consider will be that of ‘putting books on the
shelves’ and not the other way round. Similarly, if they are given the utterance ‘to
shelve the closet’, the first satisfactory interpretation they will find will be that of
‘putting shelves in the closet’, and not ‘putting the closet on shelves’. By simply
looking at the direct object of the V, hearers can pick out the interpretation they think
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