Reference, Telicity, and Information Structure
Hannah Rohde, Ward Gregory · 2011
report variation in referential biases based on telicity in transfer contexts with canonical word order: Telic contexts realized with perfectives trigger a goal bias; atelic contexts realized with imperfectives trigger a source bias. 1. Joel deliveredPERFECTIVE/was deliveringIMPERFECTIVE flowers to Mark. Such variation has been captured with a coherence-driven account based on telicity: The goal argument (Mark in (1)) is more likely to be re-mentioned when the event is described as completed, particularly in continuations providing subsequent/consequential information, whereas the source argument (Joel in (1)) is more likely to be re-mentioned when the event is described as ongoing, particularly in continuations providing explanatory/elaborative information (Kehler et al. 2008). The present study investigates the status of these referential biases when the telic/atelic distinction is neutralized, i.e. in the context of VP inversion, a noncanonical word order with a marked information structure: 2. After the corporate take-over, everyone was eager to please the new bosses, with some going so far as to buy them presents. Delivering flowers to the CFO Mark Johnson was the Head of Accounting Joel Sherman.