Bulgarian stative predicates

Abstract

The paper offers a corpus-based analysis of stative verbs in Bulgarian depending on their representation of temporary or accidental properties and permanent or inherent properties. The terminology division is related to Carlson’s (1977) distinction between stage-level and individual-level predicates. We present a classification of verbal predicates based on event semantics (Davidsonian and Kimian predicates), the properties of the two main groups and the linguistic diagnostics for their differentiation (Maienborn 2005; 2007; 2019). We show that the morphological aspect in Bulgarian is also related to the distinction between the statives, on the one hand, and achievements and accomplishments, on the other hand, and statives can be only verbs in imperfective aspect. The study demonstrates that Davidsonian predicates and Kimian predicates can be effectively differentiated on the basis of a corpus study, which establishes the possibility or impossibility for the inclusion of such predicates in particular syntactic structures characterised by specific semantics: da-complements to perception verbs and compatibility with locative adverbial modifiers. The controversial results from the test with manner adverbial modifiers open questions for further investigation.