Quantized Direct Objects Don’t Delimit After All: A revised account of the role of quantized direct objects in aspectual composition

Abstract

In the literature on aspectual composition, it is generally claimed that the combination of a verb of a certain class (Tenny’s “measuring-out” verbs, called here “measuring” verbs) and a quantized direct object yields a delimited expression. However, judgments of such expressions are in reality highly variable. In this paper I show that, with adequate context, all expressions with a verb of this class and a quantized direct object allow both non-delimited and delimited readings. I conclude that, while the direct object does establish a scale along which the event progresses, making delimitation possible, it does not itself delimit. In addition to accounting for the variable judgments of these expressions, the analysis presented here clarifies the distinction between the aspectual role of a direct object and that of true delimiting elements such as goal phrases, resultatives, and particles, elements that delimit obligatorily. This analysis requires us to reject the homomorphism usually posited between objects and events; however, it reveals instead a consistent parallel between the aspectual role of a quantized direct object of a measuring verb and that of a spatial path.