Cover not available

In:Hispanic Linguistics: Current issues and new directions
Edited by Alfonso Morales-Front, Michael J. Ferreira, Ronald P. Leow and Cristina Sanz
[Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 26] 2020
► pp. 137–160

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload Book EPUB
authorization required

The aspectual structure of the adjective

Spanish ser and estar

 | SUNY Purchase
 | Wichita State University
Published online: 13 May 2020
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ihll.26.07gar
Abstract
This paper argues that the stage-level and individual-level distinctions for adjectival predicates, diagnosed in Spanish by the copulas ser and estar, can be derived by positing a sortal distinction in the temporal arguments in the syntax: The temporal argument of individual-level adjectives denotes time intervals, whereas the time argument of stage-level adjectives denotes time instants. We provide evidence from the (un-)acceptability of certain temporal modifiers, the progressive, and lifetime effects. We furthermore show how our account can also explain other instances of the ser and estar distribution beyond adjectives, such as verbal and adjectival passives and locative constructions with and without eventive subjects.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Gradability-based approaches
    • 2.1Merits and problems for the gradability account
  • 3.Analysis
    • 3.1The technical implementation
  • 4.Temporal evidence
    • 4.1The Progressive and <estar + Adj>
    • 4.2Lifetime effects
  • 5.Beyond adjectives: Passives and locatives
    • 5.1Stative and eventive passives
    • 5.2Ser + Eventive subjects in locatives
  • 6.The evidential reading of estar
  • 7.Back to the gradability account
  • 8.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
References (29)
References
Arche, M. (2006). Individuals in time. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baker, M. (2003). Lexical categories: Verbs, nouns, and adjectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bosque, I. (1990). Sobre el aspecto en los adjetivos y participios. In I. Bosque (Ed.), Tiempo y aspecto en español (pp. 177–214). Madrid: Cátedra.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Camacho, J. (2012). Ser and estar: Individual/stage level predicates or aspect? In J. I. Hualde & A. Olarrea (Eds.), Blackwell handbook of Hispanic linguistics (pp. 453–476). Oxford: Blackwell. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Carlson, G. (1977). Reference to kinds in English (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA.
Demirdache, H., & Uribe-Etxebarría, M. (2000). The primitives of temporal relations. In R. Martin, D. Michaels & J. Uriagereka, (Eds.), Step by step: Essays on minimalist syntax in honor of Howard Lasnik (pp. 157–186). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Escandell, V., & Leonetti, M. (2002). Coercion and the stage/individual distinction. In J. Gutiérrez-Rexach (Ed.), From words to discourse: Trends in Spanish semantics and pragmatics (pp. 159–179). Oxford: Elsevier Science.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fábregas, A. (2007). The internal syntactic structure of relational adjectives. Probus, 19, 135–170. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2012). A guide to IL and SL in Spanish: Properties, problems and proposals, Borealis 1(2), 1–72. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fernández-Leborans, M. J. (1999). La predicación. Las oraciones copulativas. In I. Bosque & V. Demonte (Eds.), Gramática descriptiva de la lengua española (pp. 2357–2461). Madrid: Espasa-Calpe.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fults, S. (2006). The structure of comparison: An investigation of gradable adjectives (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Maryland, College Park, MD.
Gallego, A., & Uriagereka, J. (2016). ESTAR = SER + X. Borealis: An International Journal of Hispanic Linguistics, 5(1), 123–156. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Graff, D. (2000). Shifting sands: An interest-relative theory of vagueness. Philosophical Topics, 20, 45–81. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gumiel-Molina, S., Moreno, N., & Pérez, I. (2015). Comparison classes and the relative/absolute distinction. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 33(3), 955–1001. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hallman, P. (2015, April). The temporal nature of the state/event distinction. In P. Cabredo Hofherr, B. Copley, B. Gehrke, E. Soare, & L. Tovena (Eds.), States and Events. Workshop conducted at the 38th Generative Linguistics in the Old World Colloquium (GLOW 38), University of Paris Diderot, Paris.
Iatridou, S., Anagnostopoulou, E., & Izvorski, R. (2001). Observations about the form and meaning of the perfect. In M. Kenstowicz (Ed.), Ken Hale: A life in language (pp. 189- 238). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kennedy, C. (2007). Vagueness and grammar: The semantics of relative and absolute gradable adjectives. Linguistics and Philosophy, 30, 1–45. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kennedy, C., & McNally, L. (2010). Color, context and compositionality. Synthese, 174(1), 79–98. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kratzer, A. (1995). Stage-level and individual-level predicates. In G. Carlson & F. J. Pelletier (Eds.), The generic book (pp. 125–175). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Luján, M. (1981). The Spanish copulas as aspectual indicators. Lingua, 54, 165–210. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Marín, R. (2000). El componente aspectual de la predicación (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
Mateu, J. (2002). Argument structure: Relational construal at the syntax-semantics interface (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
McNally, L. (2011, March). Color terms: A case study in natural language ontology. In M. T. Espinal & X. Villalba (Eds.), Workshop on the Syntax and Semantics of Nounhood and Adjectivehood. Centre de Lingüística Teòrica, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.
Moltmann, F. (2004). Properties and kinds of tropes: New linguistic facts and old philosophical insights. Mind 123(1), 1–41. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Parsons, T. (1990). Events in the semantics of English: A study in subatomic semantics. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Toledo, A., & Sassoon, G. (2011). Absolute vs. relative adjectives- variance within vs. between individuals. In N. Ashton, A. Chereches, & D. Lutz (Eds.), Proceedings of SALT 21 (pp. 135–154). Washington, DC: Linguistic Society of America.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vlach, F. (1981). The semantics of the progressive. In P. J. Tedeschi & A. Zaenen (Eds.), Syntax and semantics. Tense and aspect (pp. 271–292). New York, NY: Academic Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zagona, K. (2010). Ser and Estar: Phrase structure and aspect. In C. Nishida & C. Russi (Eds.), Building a bridge between linguistic communities of the Old and the New World (pp. 303–327). Amsterdam: Rodopi.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (5)

Cited by five other publications

Fábregas, Antonio, Rafael Marín & Sílvia Perpiñán
2023. Events always take (place with) ser . Linguistics 61:3 ► pp. 679 ff. DOI logo
García-Pardo, Alfredo & Rafael Marín
2022. Passives of Spanish Subject-Experiencer Psychological Verbs are Adjectival Passives. Probus 34:2 ► pp. 367 ff. DOI logo
García-Pardo, Alfredo & Rafael Marín
2022. Passives of Spanish Subject-Experiencer Psychological Verbs are Adjectival Passives. Probus 34:2 ► pp. 367 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2020. Stative Inquiries [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today, 264], DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2024. The Frequency-Grammar Interface [Bilingual Processing and Acquisition, 20], DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 12 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue