Why objects exist but events occur

DOI10.1007/BF00370270MaRDI QIDQ1088977zbMATH OpenFDO

Authors M. J. Cresswell

Publication date 1986

Published in Studia Logica (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00370270

zbMATH Keywords

Eventsexistenceinterval semanticsobjectsoccurrencestatessubinterval property

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Philosophical and critical aspects of logic and foundations (03A05)

Review text

I distinguish between sentences like (1) Last Thursday we drove from Wellington to Waikanae and (2) Last Thursday my copy of Aspects of the Theory of Syntax remained on my bookshelf. Sentence (2) has the subinterval property. If it is true at an interval t it is true at every subinterval of t. (1) lacks this property. (1) reports an event. (2) reports a state. Events do not have the subinterval property but states do have it, and so do objects. If something is a linguist at an interval t then that person is a linguist at all subintervals of t. I argue that 'exists' applies to things which have the subinterval property, and 'occurs' applies to things which lack it.

Recommendations

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Cited in

(4)

• Existence predicates
• Truth predicates, truth bearers, and their variants
• The lower part of event ontology
• Abstract objects and the core-periphery distinction in the ontological and the conceptual domain of natural language

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