Semantics Seminar - Adverbials and Event Semantics

Event semantics is a framework that has proven very useful in dealing with the semantics of adverbial adjuncts (e.g., "for an hour" or "with a knife"). In this class we will examine the literature on the best way to treat events in formal semantics, and questions of how to unify the predicate logic system used in traditional Davidsonian event semantics with compositional Montague semantics. We will review arguments for why events are necessary in our ontology, as well as some of the complications adding events to the system can create. Along the way, we will discuss topics like argument structure, aspectual class, and temporal properties of events, and how to properly account for the optionality and compositionality of adverbials.