Time in probabilistic causation: direct vs. indirect uses of lexical causative verbs
- It is traditionally assumed that lexical causative verbs (e.g. kill) express direct causation only, while periphrastic (bi-clausal) causatives (e.g. cause to die) may also express indirect causation. In favour of this constraint, Fodor famously observed that the (change of) state introduced by lexical causative verbs is not accessible for separate adverbial modification by temporal (or manner) adverbials. In this paper, I present old and new arguments against the direct causation constraint under the definitions of directness of Fodor and Wolff. I then propose a new definition of directness in terms of ab-initio causal sufficiency framed in Kvart’s probabilistic account of singular causation. I argue that directness so redefined is an implicature rather than an entailment of lexical causative verbs, which enables me to account for old and new data. Furthermore, I account for why the constraint on separate modification by temporal adverbials can be relaxed with eventuality-denoting subjects.
Author: | Fabienne Martin |
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URN: | urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-558365 |
DOI: | https://doi.org/10.21248/zaspil.61.2018.487 |
ISSN: | 1435-9588 |
ISSN: | 0947-7055 |
Parent Title (English): | Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 22, Vol. 2 / eds. Uli Sauerland and Stephanie Solt. Berlin, Leibniz-Zentrum Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft: ZAS papers in linguistics ; Nr. 61 |
Publisher: | Leibniz-Zentrum Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft (ZAS) |
Place of publication: | Berlin |
Document Type: | Part of a Book |
Language: | English |
Year of Completion: | 2020 |
Year of first Publication: | 2018 |
Publishing Institution: | Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg |
Release Date: | 2020/09/16 |
Tag: | causal sufficiency; direct vs. indirect causation; lexical causative verbs; probabilistic theories of causation; semantics/pragmatics interface |
Page Number: | 18 |
First Page: | 107 |
Last Page: | 124 |
HeBIS-PPN: | 470274115 |
Dewey Decimal Classification: | 4 Sprache / 40 Sprache / 400 Sprache |
4 Sprache / 41 Linguistik / 410 Linguistik | |
Sammlungen: | Linguistik |
Linguistik-Klassifikation: | Linguistik-Klassifikation: Semantik / Semantics |
Zeitschriften / Jahresberichte: | ZAS papers in linguistics : ZASPiL / ZASPiL 61 = Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 22, Vol. 2 |
: | urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-559361 |
Licence (German): | Creative Commons - Namensnennung 4.0 |