The Relevance of Type in Semantic Analyses of Incremental Theme Predicates in English and Spanish

The present study investigates the relevance of type in semantic analyses of incremental theme predicates (ITPs) with a specific focus on how type influences the availability of incompletion readings for accomplishment ITPs in both English and Spanish. To investigate this question, the present study employs techniques from experimental semantics. Two formal controlled experiments, one for each language of investigation, were conducted in which native speakers were asked to judge the acceptability of accomplishment ITPs of different types when modified by time adverbials to effect an aspectual shift to an incompletion activity reading. In English, incompletion readings of accomplishment ITPs were judged more acceptable on the whole for definite change ITPs than for creation and consumption ITPs, with no significant difference in acceptability observed between the latter two types. These results suggest that ITP type is a relevant factor and should be considered in formulating semantic analyses of ITPs. The results of the experiment involving Spanish corroborated the findings for English, albeit in a qualified way both because of the need to limit the types of ITPs investigated and because of a certain anomaly observed in the data believed to have arisen because of something related to the experimental design. By way of explanation of the results obtained in both experiments, the present study suggests that the observed differences in ITP behavior relate to fundamental essential differences between incremental themes undergoing definite change, as opposed to themes incrementally created or consumed.