Aspectual Composition: Surveying the Ingredients (original) (raw)

Aspectual classes and aspectual composition

Linguistics and Philosophy, 1989

This paper discusses some of the ways in which the notion of compositionality is understood in the literature. It will argued that on a strict (Fregean) view a verb has a constant meaning to make in the aspectual composition independently from the information contributed by its arguments, that the VP (verb+ internal argument/complement) forms a substantive aspectual unit that should be recognizable as such complex aspectual information; and finally, that aspectual composition forces Discourse Representation Theory into revising the way states and events are taken.

Conceptual inconsistencies and sidestepping compositional aspect may wreak havoc on aspectology

Godishnik na Shumenskiya universitet, 2022

This paper is a response to a publication in the 2022 Shumen University Yearbook which strives to explain aspect in several European languages, mainly English and Bulgarian but also French, Spanish, Italian. The attempt is generally unsuccessful despite the correct description of separate phenomena, e.g., Vendler's aspectual schemata. The major flaw is the total disregard for the theory of compositional aspect in its different versions and for the phenomenon of compositional aspect itselfdiscovered half a century ago, in 1972, by the Dutch linguist Henk Verkuyl. The theory of compositional aspect, although frequently misconceptualized in linguistics, is universally recognized as the only approach that can adequately describe the phenomenon in languages that lack verbal aspect.

Aspectuality

2021

This synchronic study presents a new onomasiological, frame-theoretical model for the description, classification and theoretical analysis of the cross-linguistic content category aspectuality. It deals specifically with those pieces of information, which, in their interplay, constitute the aspectual value of states of affairs. The focus is on Romance Languages, although the model can be applied just as well to other languages, in that it is underpinned by a principle grounded in a fundamental cognitive ability: the delimitation principle. Unlike traditional approaches, which generally have a semasiological orientation and strictly adhere to a semantic differentiation between grammatical aspect and lexical aspect (Aktionsart), this study makes no such differentiation and understands these as merely different formal realisations of one and the same content category: aspectuality

The mereological approach to aspectual composition

Perspectives on Aspect, Uil-OTS, University of …, 2001

Aristoteles (Metaphysic Θ 6, 1048b, 18-35), classification of actions into those that have limits (move towards a goal) and those that don't and hence are completed as soon as they begin (kineisis 'movements' vs. energeia 'actualities') E.g., at the same time we are seeing and have seen, are understanding and have understood […] while it is not true that at the same time we are learning and have learned, or are being cured and have been cured. Vendler (1957), partly based on Ryle (1949): Aspectual classes of Activities, Accomplishments, Achievements, States. Development of linguistic tests. Accomplishment and Activities go on in time, Achievements and States don't. Acc's und Act's differ in homogeneity: It appears, then, that running and its kind go on in time in a homogeneous way; any part of the process is of the same nature as the whole. Not so with running a mile or writing a letter; they also go on in time but, but they proceed toward a terminus which is logically necessary to their being what they are. (p. 101) Kenny (1963): Performance verbs (Acc's and Ach's), Activitiy verbs (Act's) and Static Verbs. Performance verbs always lead to a goal: Any performance is describable in the form 'bringing it about that p' 1.2 Formal Mereological and Decompositional Approaches First formal mereological approaches: Bennett & Partee (1972), "subinterval property" of expressions like run in interval semantics. If run is true at time interval t, then it is also true for every part t′ of t. Cf. also Taylor (1977). First formal decompositional approaches: Dowty (1972), Dowty (1979): Decomposition of Acc's into an action and a stative predicate. E.g., draw the circle: Act in such a way that the circle is drawn is true. Combination with interval semantics: x draw-the circle is true at the minimal interval t such that the circle is drawn is false at the beginning of t, and true at the end. Explanation of tests for acc's vs. act's in this framework, e.g. in an hour / for an hour and almost. 1.3 Aspectual Composition Observation: The aspectual class can depend on the nature of the arguments. Garey (1957), aspect in French, telic vs. atelic predicates.

The Aspectual Meaning of Non-Aspectual Constructions

Languages

The distinction between perfective and imperfective aspect has been identified in many languages across the world. This paper shows that even languages that do not have a dedicated perfective—imperfective distinction may endow a verbal construction that is not specifically aspectual with a perfective value. The crucial diagnostic for identifying perfectivity in a given non-aspectual construction is a difference in the temporal interpretation of clauses involving that construction, licensed by the actionality class of the main predicate: while stative verbs have a present interpretation, dynamic verbs yield a non-present (past or future) interpretation. This pattern of interaction is triggered by a phenomenon that has been referred to as the ‘present perfective paradox’, i.e., the impossibility of aligning dynamic situations with the time of speaking while at the same time conceptualizing them in their entirety. The latter type of construal is argued to be the main function of perfec...

Constraining Aspectual Composition

2006

In Modern Greek there is a rich aspectual system, which involves both morphologically expressed grammatical aspect and eventuality types, carried primarily by the meaning of the verbal predicate. Particular emphasis is paid to the interaction between grammatical aspect and eventuality types, since it is due to this interaction that the verbal predicate acquires distinct meanings. In order to explain potential changes in the meaning of the eventualities caused by the interaction with grammatical aspect, I propose a formal analysis within HPSG, using Minimal Recursion Semantics (MRS) for the semantic representations. Following the MRS architecture, I introduce a number of relations, which represent both grammatical aspect and eventuality types. The close interaction between grammatical aspect and eventuality types triggers special meanings which traditionally can be explained by inserting contextual information into the representations. In this paper, I argue against such an analysis, providing an alternative which is based on the introduction of subeventual templates formulated by . In this context, grammatical aspect combines with eventuality types and selects eventualities or subeventualities appropriate to its selection restrictions, using information that is already there in the denotation of the eventualities.