On the relationship between the properties of atelicity and partitivity. The case of Romanian

Abstract

The aim of the paper is that of analyzing the induced atelic property on Romanian verb phrases with classes of verbs that may select theme arguments preceded by partitive prepositions (e.g., din/lit. from, la/lit. at, and prin/lit. through/across). The paper identifies the classes of verbs that may occur with partitive noun phrases and also discusses three possible means of achieving atelicity in Romanian. The two possible partitive constructions in Romanian (i.e., the bare partitive construction and the full partitive construction) are unambiguously two distinct structures in point of their VP aspectuality: in the bare partitive construction the VP is atelic while in the full partitive construction the VP is telic. An attempt at explaining this aspectual contrast is offered.

Keywords

• partitivity
• (a)telicity
• partitive prepositions
• “measured” direct objects
• incrementally homogeneous direct objects