Evidential Coercion: Using Individual-Level Predicates in Stage-Level Environments

Scholars frequently appeal to coercion in their analyses of the distinction between individual- & stage-level predicates (ILPs & SLPS) & yet they rarely follow up on the consequences of this claim. This article identifies the kinds of changes in interpretation that can arise when an ILP appears in a position that needs a SLP. Evidential coercion derives a SLP from an ILP & yields, in the terms of Kratzer (1988), a predicate that denotes a function from spatiotemporal locations to individuals such that the individual displays behavioral evidence of having the property denoted by the ILP at the location. The analysis is formalized within the frameworks of Carlson (1977) & Kratzer (1988). Adapted from the source document