Aspectual interpretations of verb-particle combinations in English: Telic, comparative, resultative

Particles do not necessarily make the event denoted by the simplex verb "telic". We wish to show in this paper that the impact of the particle in phrasal verbs can be much more varied than is assumed to be the case ; and among the possibilities, there seem to be cases in which there is an incremental/ decremental dimension (straighten something up, make it straight(er)). We show what the different cases may be, and suggest that the notions of open/ closed scale, as well as aspects more specific to each particle, turn out to be interesting tools to discuss the data.

ISBN:978-2-600-01406-9

Publication year:2010

Keywords:verb particle, aspect, telicity, incrementality, resultativeness