An ontology of the aspectual classes of actions (original) (raw)

2007, ILCLI International Workshop on Logic and …

It is well known that verb phrases can be classified into lexical aspectual classes, the most popular ones being: activity (e.g., run), state (e.g., sit), accomplishment (e.g., climb a mountain) and achievement (e.g., reach the summit). Although existing formal theories and logics of actions only consider telic actions, that is, accomplishments and/or achievements, all four categories do contain verbs describing agentive and intentional eventualities, i.e., actions. In this paper, we show how these aspectual classes, seen as eventuality types can be incorporated into a formal ontology of action-OntoSTIT+. We also show how the famous imperfective paradox is solved in this theory, which illustrates its expressive power.