Excessive events

The syntax and semantics of Over-modification in Icelandic

Bibliographic Data

ID22130801
AuthorsVolker Gast (0000-0002-3034-0052, Friedrich Schiller University Jena), Kristín M Jóhannsdóttir (0000-0002-8970-3639, University of Akureyri), Michael T Putnam (0000-0002-7758-8266, Pennsylvania State University)
Year2025
Volume10
Issue1
Publication date2025-04-16
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueGlossa a journal of general linguistics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2397-1835 • E-ISSN: 2397-1835
PublisherOpen Library of the Humanities (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.16995/glossa.16842
OpenAlexW4408027467
LanguageEN
References cited20

This paper presents a detailed semantic and accompanying syntactic analysis of predicates denoting events that we describe as ‘excessive’ in Icelandic. Icelandic uses two types of strategies for marking of excess, the preposition yfir complemented by an anaphor (e.g. Sara bakaði yfir sig ‘Sara baked too much’), and the verbal prefix of- (e.g. Sara of-bakaði kökuna ‘Sara over-baked the cake’). We argue that the former strategy regularly expresses excess relative to the external argument, while the latter strategy expresses excess relative to the internal argument. We illustrate how the semantics of such predicates can be analysed using standard semantic approaches to degree predicates with some extensions, and how a decompositional approach to morphosyntax such as Distributed Morphology can capture these distinctions in a conceptually appealing way, with a plausible account of the syntax-semantics interface

Computer Science · Intellectual Property Law

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access