Implications of the number semantics of NP objects for the interpretation of imperfective verbs in Polish

Languages differ in the range of readings of imperfective aspect but its single ongoing and plural event readings are cross-linguistically licensed. In this study we focus on the role of the number of NP objects on the disambiguation of Polish imperfective verbs. The crucial observation is that a singular object may block whereas a plural NP object creates a strong preference for the plural event reading of imperfective verbs. However, in the right context, the plural event reading of imperfective verbs is also available with singular NP objects. In order to account for these observations, we combine underspecification and number approaches to imperfective aspect and we propose that imperfective is underspecified for number and this information is specified via a coercion template mainly on the basis of the number semantics of nominal objects of imperfective verbs.