Electrophysiological Evidence for Sentence Comprehension - Wings

Figure 6. A sentence with both constituent and operator projection
Layered structure of the clause implies an important distinction between predicating and
non-predicating elements (and among non-predicating elements between arguments and
non-arguments). The distinction plays a role in semantic representation of the sentence.
Verbal meaning is analyzed into ‘semantic primitives’ – a sort of semantic meta-
language. This system of lexical decomposition is based on the distinctions in Aktionsart
proposed by Vendler (1967). On the basis of lexical decomposition Vendler distinguished
four verbal classes: state verbs, accomplishment verbs, achievement verbs and action
verbs. These four classes are defined in terms of three features (Van Valin, LaPolla,
1997: 92), [static±], [punctual±] and [telic±]. Static verbs are verbs that refer to a state,
e.g. to love, to be tall or to have. Punctual verbs refer to an action that happens in a
moment, such as break, explode or pop. Telic verbs refer to an action with a terminal
point, such as dry or freeze. Accomplishment and achievement verbs differ in this respect:
while both refer to an action that is telic, only achievement verbs are also punctual.
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