Pure Event Semantics

Abstract

In a pure event semantics for natural language, the domain of quantification and predication is limited to events and states. I offerpure event semantic analyses of several phenomena, some of which have not been treated before in formal semantics. In the pureevent semantics sketched in the second section, nouns are state predicates, and this provides the starting point for the analyses.The phenomena involve grammatical number, the mass-count distinction, adjectival modification, count adjectives, diminutives,lexical plurals, duals, and mass gender. In the conclusion, there is a brief discussion of potential metaphysical or psychologicalramifications of doing semantics this way.