Modes of Occurrence Verbs, Adverbs, and Events

Starting from the position that a recursive theory of truth is central to a theory of meaning, this book investigates the problems adverbs pose for systematic semantics. Barry Taylor argues that the hitherto promising "predicate modifier" approach fails to accommodate the more subtle problems of adverbial structure and that Donald Davidson's alternative – to construe adverbs as adjectives on events – can only work within a metaphysical theory of the nature of events. The author goes on to suggest that this metaphysical theory can be extracted by conceiving of an event as a fact which registers a continuous change in an object. To make this more rigorous he carries out a precise set theoretic construction of "facts" and analyses the notion of change, employing a taxonomy that Aristotle used to classify verbs in terms of the properties they display in their continuous tenses. The result is an original and comprehensive account which demonstrates the importance of combining the theory of events with a semantic conception of adverbs as event predicates. Its affinities to previous accounts (such as Jaegwon Kim's) place it firmly within a growing body of literature: its original twists and richness of detail make it an important and innovative work.