Modifying Event Nominals: Syntactic Surface Meets Semantic Transparency

Abstract

The paper starts out with the observation that modifiers to eventive ung-nominals can both target at the denoted event as a whole and modify it from inside. The internal reading will be shown to challenge iconic mapping between surface-oriented c-command and semantic scope. By using Egg (2006)’s flexible syntax-semantic interface the given ambiguity is analyzed as landing site underspecification allowing for a compositional make-up in both cases: based on a bipartite eventive structure for ung-nominals, the internal reading is argued to result from applying the modifier to an event concept fed by the verbal lexical base whereas the external reading emerges if the modifier targets at a concept-correlate introduced by the nominal affix.