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Unlikely Imperfectives
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The event-in-progress reading of the English incremental-theme progressive (<em>Elena is drawing a circle</em>) displays vagueness effects, especially when the culmination of the event denoted by the progressive is unlikely. This paper explains these unexpected vagueness effects by adopting a modal theory of the progressive and a gradable theory of modality. It is then possible to explain vagueness effects in the progressive as a result of the same semantic phenomena that generate vagueness effects in gradable adjectives like <em>healthy</em>.
Title: Unlikely Imperfectives
Description:
The event-in-progress reading of the English incremental-theme progressive (<em>Elena is drawing a circle</em>) displays vagueness effects, especially when the culmination of the event denoted by the progressive is unlikely.
This paper explains these unexpected vagueness effects by adopting a modal theory of the progressive and a gradable theory of modality.
It is then possible to explain vagueness effects in the progressive as a result of the same semantic phenomena that generate vagueness effects in gradable adjectives like <em>healthy</em>.
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