Coercion without Lexical Decomposition: Type-Shifting Effects Revisited

Abstract

AbstractRecently, there has been a surge of psycholinguistic research on the interpretation of type-shifting constructions. We evaluate some of the theoretical and empirical research in this area and propose a reassessment of the nature of type-shifting operations.We argue, in particular, for a structural gap in type-shifting constructions, motivated mainly by the restructuring nature of the verbs employed. We also argue that the putative underspecification (or indeterminacy) of type-shifting constructions is resolved via pragmatic inferences.