Finding objects of experiences

Abstract

This paper develops a semantics of experiential objects, i.e., satisfiable objects associated with experiential episodes that carry satisfaction/accuracy conditions, and uses it to analyze English find with small-clause complements. I propose that find uniformly introduces an experiential object, and that the embedded predication compositionally specifies the satisfaction conditions of that object within an object-based truthmaker semantics. The account aims to give a unified analysis for the two senses associated with find, namely, the object-encounter reading (John found the door open) and the evaluative reading (John found the cake tasty), without positing two unrelated lexical items or reducing the evaluative use to belief ascription. More generally, the analysis supports a view on which grammar makes direct reference to experiences as objects that can be evaluated for accuracy.