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Measuring Events

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 February 2026

Guido Vanden Wyngaerd
Guido Vanden Wyngaerd*
Affiliation:
Catholic University, Brussels
*
Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk, Onderzoek-Vlaanderen, Katholieke Universiteit Brussel, Vrijheidslaan 17, B-1081 Brussels, Belgium [guido.vandenwyngaerd@kubrussel.ac.be]
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Abstract

The telic-atelic distinction has been argued to hinge on the presence of a (bounded) internal argument measuring out the event, or, alternatively, a resultative small clause providing an end point for the event. Both perspectives are partially correct and partially incorrect. On the one hand, the resultative is more adequately seen as a measure than an end point; on the other, it is the resultative predicate rather than the internal argument that performs this measuring function. Empirical evidence is adduced in support of this point of view: resultative predicates are subject to the requirement that they denote a bounded scale. Only bounded predicates can delimit an event by providing it with minimal parts. As a matter of conceptual necessity, unbounded predicates, though potentially denoting end points, cannot function as event measures.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 77 , Issue 1 , March 2001 , pp. 61 - 90
Copyright
Copyright © 2001 Linguistic Society of America

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