Symmetry in the underlying structure of the nominal and the predicate in the English Middle construction: Exploring Qualia structure and genericity

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to explore the symmetry in the underlying structure of the nominal and the predicate in the English middle construction, basing our analysis on Rijkhoff’s (1991, 2002, 2005, 2008) analogy Clause–NP, and also by taking account of lexico-semantic and discourse-pragmatic aspects to examine how genericity (Carlson, 2011) and qualia structure (Pustejovsky, 1991; Yoshimura and Taylor, 2004) function in the process of semantic shift in compositional cospecification (Yoshimura, 1998). In this paper, we argue that middles, as generics, are indisputably non-eventive, even when they occur in other than the Present Simple tense (contra Fagan, 1992). However, it is necessary to analyse the semantic and discoursepragmatic boundaries between an individuative and a generic interpretation of those middles which incorporate what Rijkhoff (1991) calls ω3 operators, and we also need to examine the ±experiencer role of the speaker in connection to the action denoted by the predicate.