Borealis: An International Journal of Hispanic Linguistics (May 2018)

Psychological verbs and their arguments

  • Daria Seres,
  • M.Teresa Espinal

DOI
https://doi.org/10.7557/1.7.1.4404
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 7, no. 1

Abstract

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In this paper it is argued that objects of subject experiencer psychological verbs do not have kind reference, but rather refer to individual object entities: specific individuals, generic plurals, and even entity correlates of a property. We argue that objects of transitive subject experiencer psychological verbs must refer to atoms or sums of atoms, because they presuppose the existence of the Target-of-Emotion. Focusing mainly on data from various Romance languages and Russian, we also argue that the Target-of-emotion of psychological verbs such as odiar ‘hate’ cannot refer to a kind entity, conceived as an abstract individual or an abstract sortal concept, but instead can refer to a maximal sum of individual entities, instantiated through a generic plural.

Keywords