Re-thinking the Agent Control Hypothesis: inanimate subjects without a change of state

Abstract This squib presents evidence against a proposed agenthood constraint on non-culminating construals of accomplishment predicates (Demirdache and Martin 2015). This constraint on the agenthood properties of the causer subject has been argued to result in two types of languages with non-culmination construals: (i) languages in which any form of non-culmination requires agent control, and (ii) languages that require agent control only if non-culmination manifests itself in a lack of change of state entirely. New data from the Interior Salish language nɬeʔkepmxcín challenge the necessity of an agenthood constraint and show that there are languages in which agent control is not required for non-culmination, even when there is no change of state.