Against Lexical Decomposition in Syntax

level of representation. Instead we will propose a treatment that assumes syntactic integrity of lexical items. It makes crucial use of a Davidsonian semantics both of eventive and stative predicates. The second part deals with the partial resolution of the ambiguity by means of word order and intonation in German. We will argue that this is the result of a process of pragmatic strengthening, a mechanism that selects optimal candidates from a highly underspecified relation between form and meaning. It makes use of the evaluation mechanism of Optimality Theory but differs from the standard picture in taking both the hearer perspective and the speaker perspective into account.