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New Perspectives on the Study of Ser and Estar
Edited by Isabel Pérez-Jiménez, Manuel Leonetti and Silvia Gumiel-Molina
[Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 5] 2015
► pp. 85–116

Sentences as predicates

the Spanish construction ser <muy de + infinitive>

| Universidad Complutense de Madrid
| Universidad Complutense de Madrid

The construction <muy de + infinitive> is interpreted as a gradable individuallevel predicate (IL-predicate), compatible with the copula ser but not with the copula estar. This supports the idea that the ser and estar distinction is a particular manifestation of Carlson’s (1977) distinction between individuallevel and stage-level predicates (SL-predicates). We propose that the habitual reading of the imperfective aspect of the infinitive in this construction is crucial to interpret the non-finite sentence as a characterizing property. Specifically, we distinguish two cases: animate subjects admit copular predicates containing infinitive sentences with an actualized habitual aspect; inanimate subjects are admitted in constructions with imperfective predicates interpreted as gnomic or deontic habituals. We propose two different syntactic structures for each of these cases and explain the contribution of the preposition de ‘of ’ to the licensing of the non-finite clause as a characterizing predicate.

Keywords: aspect, attitudinal, characterizing property, gradable property, habitual, imperfective, individual-level predicate, preposition de
Published online: 28 October 2015
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ihll.5.04fer
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