Chapter 3 - LOT publications

More documents

Recommendations

Info

58 The putative uniqueness of try 3.1.4 Restrictions on subjects Conative try constructions seem to require an obligatorily sentient subject. Consequently, it is incompatible with the expletive subject of weather verbs and with nonsentient objects such as trees (unless one imputes consciousness to them). This makes try seem rather more like a SceCo verb (section 2.1.3). (16) John will try and become a pilot (17) *I wonder if it will try and rain today (18) *The acorn will try and become an oak 3.1.5 Semantic bleaching There does not seem to be much semantic bleaching of try per se. For instance, there does not seem to be any significant semantic difference between pseudo-coordination with conative try and the corresponding infinitival construction. The following example is (2) repeated for convenience. (19) a. John will try and eat an apple [Conative try] b. John will try to eat an apple Moreover, conative try does not seem to exhibit bleaching independently of pseudocoordinative constructions; in fact, it is not at all clear to me what a ‘bleached’ semantics of try would correspond to. Given the lack of semantic bleaching, conative try seems quite similar to SceCo. Paradoxically, however, conative try contexts are intrinsically different from SceCo; SceCo implies a sequence of events, where the pseudo-coordinative verb denotes an event that sets the scene for the main activity to take place. Where conative try is used, however, the trying event must necessarily be cotemporaneous with the main activity. In this respect constructions with conative try are like ConCo constructions. 3.1.6 VP deletion In VP deletion contexts with conative try, it is not necessary that try obligatorily be deleted with the rest of the VP. This sets try apart from ConCo constructions and makes it similar to a SceCo predicate (section (2.1.5)). (20) a. They will try to kill mosquitos and Mary will too → ‘Mary will also try to kill mosquitos’ b. They will try and kill mosquitos and Mary will try too → ‘Mary will also try to kill mosquitos’
Pseudo-coordinative try and reduplicative coordination 59 3.1.7 Coordinator substitution The coordinator cannot be substituted by another in conative try constructions. This is a characteristic shared by all pseudo-coordinative structures (section 2.1.6) and indicates that conative try constructions are not a special case of OCo. (21) a. John will try and kill mosquitos b. *John will try or kill mosquitos 3.1.8 Semantic subordination In conative try constructions, as for ConCo and SceCo, the activity denoted by the first predicate (try) is semantically subordinate to the main activity denoted by the lexical verb, in the sense of Na and Huck (1992). This is reflected in the fact that the conjuncts of a conative try construction cannot be reordered. This is a common property of all pseudo-coordinative constructions (section (2.1.7)). (22) a. John will try and kill mosquitos b. *John will kill and try mosquitos c. *John will kill mosquitos and try 3.1.9 Distributivity Conative try constructions do not allow both modification. This shows that there is a semantic dependency between the verbs since the distributor requires to verbs denoting independent events (section (2.1.8)). This too shows that conative try constructions are not instances of OCo. (23) a. *John will both try and kill mosquitos b. *What will John both try and kill? 3.1.10 Quantifier raising Conative try constructions allow quantifier raising, thereby yielding both wide and narrow scope readings. This is not surprising since conative try is not a selective island. This property is also common to ConCo constructions (section (2.1.9)). (24) A policeman will try and kiss every widow ‘Some policeman will attempt to kiss every widow’ [NS] ‘For every widow, some policeman or other will attempt to kiss her’ [WS]
Page 1 and 2: Chapter 3 Pseudo-coordinative try a
Page 3: Pseudo-coordinative try and redupli
Page 7 and 8: Property Section OCo SceCo try ConC
Page 9 and 10: Pseudo-coordinative try and redupli

Chapter 3 - LOT publications

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?