Il prefisso verbale ceco pro- in un modello semantico scalare

Based on data elicited from Czech Ten Ten 2017 corpus, this paper puts forward an analysis of the semantics of Czech verbal prefix pro-, formulated within the framework of degree semantics. Prefixes are analyzed as degree modifiers. The paper demonstrates how this analysis captures the properties of pro-, one of the most complex and challenging verbal prefixes in Czech. It is proposed that spatial, temporal, terminative as well as idiomatic uses of this prefix can all be unified under a scalar approach. The distinctions observed between these uses are restricted to the types of scale and comparative standard that are involved in the semantics of the verbal phrase. Special emphasis is placed on the role of the scalar properties of the nominal arguments in the composition of change of state predicates.