Paths and the Language of Change Jean Mark Gawron San Diego State University September 2, 2007 1 Introduction 1 Consider the sentences in (1): (1) a. The fog extended (from the pier to the point). b. The crack widened (from the north tower to the gate.) c. The storm front zigzagged (through the entire state of Colorado) d. Snow covered the mountain (from the valley floor to the summit). Sentences like (1a)-(1d) have attracted the attention of a number of authors (Jackendoff 1990, Matsumoto 1996, Talmy 1996, Gawron 2005). Each has both an event reading and a stative reading. For example, on what I’ll call the event reading of sentence (1a), a body of fog beginning in the vicinity of the pier moves pointwards, and on the other, stative reading, which I’ll call an extent reading, the mass of fog sits over the entire region between pier and point. The event reading entails movement. The extent reading entails extension, the occupation of a region of space. Similarly, there is a reading of (1b) describing a crack-widening event, as well as a reading describing the dimensions of the crack, increasing in width along an axis extending from the north tower to the gate; and readings of (c) and (d) describing movement events as well as readings describing the configuration of the storm front and the snow respectively. 1 I am grateful to Farrell Ackerman, Chris Barker, Daniel Buring, Andy Kehler, and Rob Malouf for saying interesting things, sharing insights, asking good questions, and pointing out boners. This work also benefited from the questions and comments of audiences at UCSD and SALT who heard talks on early versions. Any remaining flaws are due to my own shortcomings. 1