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« Phonology Group | Main | Laura Holland Photography Show»

The Genitive of Negation grant group will meet on Tuesday, October 9, at 1:15 pm (notice change of time!) in the Partee Room.

Aynat Rubinstein will be presenting on "Groups in the semantics of reciprocal verbs".

Abstract:

One recurring question in studies of reciprocalization (the process that creates reciprocal verbs) concerns the difference between verbal reciprocals and their well-studied pronominal counterparts (Faller, to appear, Siloni 2001, to appear). In this paper I offer a novel answer to this question. I propose that reciprocal verbs involve collective predication that is absent from other expressions of reciprocity. In particular, I explore Artstein’s (1997) hypothesis that the domain of events is similar to the domain of individuals in containing elements which are groups. I propose that reciprocal verbs are predicates of group events and derive their essential properties from this assumption.