In this paper I propose that a core property of adverbial meaning is the ability (or the lack thereof) of an adverbial to introduce a new time discourse referent. The core data comes from that same day in narrative discourse. I argue that unlike other previously studied temporal adverbials—which introduce a new time discourse referent and relate it to the speech time or a previously mentioned t...

The paper explores the possibilities of representing the semantics of eventualities in continuation semantics framework. It focuses on providing an analysis for quantification over eventualities and for anaphora to eventualities. We give specific lexical entries for the adverbial quantifiers always and never and for a silent adverbial quantifier we consider responsible for the meaning of expres...

Most studies of the so-called Proportion Problem seek to understand how lexical and structural properties of sentences containing adverbial quanti ers give rise to various proportional readings. This paper explores a related but distinct problem: given a use of a particular sentence in context, why do only some of the expected proportional readings seem to be available? That is, why do some sen...

Abstract This paper investigates adverbial superlative expressions in Dutch that have a temporal interpretation, i.e. contain the forms eerst ‘first’, laatst ‘latest’, and vroegst ‘earliest’. I focus on possessive superlatives embedded under preposition voor . Although both constructions bare are interpreted temporally, they represent semantically pragmatically different readings, attach to sen...

This paper deals with the syntax and semantics of the German adverbial intensifying particle selbst/selber as in Paul hat seine Wäsche selbst gewaschen ‘Paul has done his washing himself.’ I will claim that selbst denotes the identity function, and that it takes the agentive Voice head proposed by Kratzer (1996) as its semantic argument. This minimal semantics will be combined with standard ass...