Edited by Reineke Bok-Bennema, Brigitte Kampers-Manhe and Bart Hollebrandse
[Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory 2] 2010
► pp. 215–232
One known puzzle in Creole systems is that temporal interpretation seems to be constrained by stativity (Bickerton 1974). For decades, the relevant division has been, roughly: bare stative verbs mean present, bare nonstatives mean past. In Capeverdean, a Portuguese-based Creole, we do indeed have: N sabe risposta “I know the answer”, N kume pexe “I ate fish”. The above generalization, however, is inaccurate: most Capeverdean statives pattern with nonstatives in this respect. Crucially, also sabe “know” may pattern with nonstatives, challenging further this traditional view. In this paper I argue that the distinct temporal readings above can only be explained via the internal structure of events. A Become subevent (Dowty 1979) accounts for N sabe risposta – “I got to know the answer”, with its consequent state (Moens & Steedman 1988) being “[now] I know.” In contrast, there is no consequent state as “I eat fish” for “I ate fish” (cf. “I’ve eaten.”).
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