On an Asymmetry in Temporal Interpretation Constraints of Events and States

doi: https://doi.org/10.31810/rsel.55.1.2

Abstract

In Spanish, states exhibit an episodic reading in present simple, while the unmarked reading received by event predicates is ‘temporally shifted’, be that prospective, habitual, or generic. A similar pattern is shown by epistemic modal constructions, as future simple or the periphrasis deber ‘must’ + infinitive. The main aim of this work is to address an asymmetry (in general scarcely attended previously) in the aspectual restrictions displayed by both contexts: while events with an episodic reading can be ‘rescued’ in different ways, epistemic modality imposes a ‘strong’ or non-discursively negotiable restriction. We propose to derive this asymmetry from the different conditions of temporal anchoring for the present simple and epistemic modality. Although both anchorings take place in the C layer, we advance the hypothesis that only epistemic modality constructions have a C layer occupied by a (non veridical) epistemic state (Giannakidou y Mari, 2017), which works as a punctual temporal reference. In contrast, present simple leave unoccupied the C layer, which can therefore be filled by either a (veridical) epistemic state or an event, typically a perception one, which allows temporal coincidence with events. Independent evidence for this analysis comes from the temporal relationship between, on the one hand, verbs expressing epistemic states and perception events and, on the other, the non-finite verbal forms they combine with.