Resumen

PARIS, Luis. Gramatically encoded event relations: Means_E. Rev. signos [online]. 2006, vol.39, n.61, pp.259-282. ISSN 0718-0934.  http://dx.doi.org/10.4067/S0718-09342006000200006.

Natural language grammars encode only a subset of event relations among the ones that are logically possible either in the lexicon or in grammatical constructions. One of these relations is Means_E, which has remained undefined even if it has been considered for long to be a member of the set of semantic categories necessary to describe world languages. In this paper, I define Means_E and describe its grammatical import on the Spanish construction SGC_C-MEANS. In particular, Means_E is characterized as a semantic category that consists of a relation between two arguments such that I) they are in a proper-part relation; II) they are in the same ‘course of events’ (category that is introduced and characterized in this paper); and III) they satisfy ‘conditions f’, which means that (a) they share participants and at least a relation between them, and (b) they unfold correlatively (‘incrementality’). Beside these referential properties, Means_E comprise an informational asymmetry such that the more specific event description is associated with the second argument of the relation whereas the underspecified one is linked to the first argument.

Palabras clave : Event; event relations; means; mereology; gerunds.