Theoretical and Crosslinguistic Approaches to the Semantics of Aspect
1st Edition
Published on 20. March 2008
VIII, 453 pages
978-90-272-9158-5 (ISBN)
Description
The papers in this volume investigate the semantics of aspect from both a theoretical and a crosslinguistic point of view, in a wide range of languages from a number of different language families. The papers are all informed by the belief that a thorough exposure to the expression of aspect crosslinguistically is crucial for progress in understanding how the semantics of aspect works and what the semantic basis of aspectual distinctions is. The languages discussed include Russian, English, Dutch, Hebrew, Mandarin, Japanese and Kalaallisut. The issues discussed in this volume include the centrality of measuring and counting in an understanding of telicity; the importance of the singular/plural distinction in the study of aspect; the importance of homogeneity as a property of event types; the flexibility of lexical classes; and the interaction between expressions of aspect and the particular morphosyntactic structure of a language.
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Content
- Theoretical and Crosslinguistic Approaches to the Semantics of Aspect
- Editorial page
- Title page
- LCC data
- Dedication
- Table of contents
- Introduction
- Theoretical and crosslinguistic approaches to the semantics of aspect
- 1. Theoretical issues
- 2. The papers in this volume
- 3. Acknowledgements
- 4. Dedication
- References
- Part I. Tense, aspect and Vendler classes
- Lexicalized meaning and the internal temporal structure of events
- 1. Background
- 2. Aspectually relevant lexical properties of verbs
- 3. Grammatical reflexes of lexical aspectual properties
- 3.1 Scalar verbs vs. nonscalar verbs
- 3.2 Two point scale verbs vs. multi-point scale verbs
- 3.3 Temporal relations between events
- 3.3.1 The interpretation of the prepositionTO
- 3.3.2 Icelanding case marking
- 3.3.3 The distribution of fake reflexives
- 3.4 Interim summary
- 4. Against a uniform temporal analysis for accomplishments
- 4.1 Not all accomplishments involve a BECOME event
- 4.2 Complex events
- 4.3 Other sources of incremental structure
- 5. Conclusion
- Acknowledgements
- References
- Telicity, atomicity and the Vendler classification of verbs
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Vendler classes, Vendler features and natural atomicity
- 3. Telicity
- 4. Atoms
- 5. Atomicity in the verbal domain
- 6. Vendler classes, atomicity and telicity
- 7. Atomicity, telic modifiers, and plurality
- 8. Atelic modifiers
- 9. Conclusion
- Acknowledgements
- References
- Aspects of a typology of direction
- Introduction
- 1. Paths and prepositions
- 2. Towards a typology of directional prepositions
- 2.1 The role of connections
- 2.2 The role of reversals
- 2.3 The role of cumulativity
- 2.4 Types of simple directional prepositions
- 2.5 Types of complex directional prepositions
- 3. The aspect of directions and paths
- 4. The relation between path types and path operations
- 5. The expression of directions and paths
- 6. Event shape
- Conclusion
- Acknowledgements
- References
- 1066
- On the differences between the tense-perspective-aspect systems of English and Dutch
- Introduction
- 1. Segmental and incremental homogeneity
- 1.1 Intervals
- 1.2 Eventualities
- 1.3 Parts of events and cross-temporal identity
- 1.4 States and segmental homogeneity
- 1.5 Activities and incremental homogeneity
- 1.6 Pauses in states and pauses in events
- 1.7 The progressive and the projection operator
- 2. Tense, perspective, aspect and 1066
- 2.1 Starting from Reichenbach
- 2.2 The tense-perspective-aspect system of English and Dutch
- 2.3 The semantic operations of the English and Dutch TPA-system
- 2.4 Lexical systems and markedness systems
- 2.5 The English and Dutch TPA-systems
- 2.6 1066
- 2.7 Getting a feel of the system
- 3. Deriving differences between English and Dutch
- 3.1 The simple present
- 3.2 The simple past and overlapping WHEN
- 3.3 Continuous SINCE
- 3.3.1 A continuity operator
- 3.3.2 The predicate that continuous SINCE clause applies to
- 3.3.3 Satisfying the perspective linking constraint
- 3.3.4 A type shifting account of perspective linking
- 3.3.4.1 Type shifting principles.
- 3.3.4.2 Resolving perspective linking in Dutch.
- 3.3.4.3 Resolving perspective linking in English.
- 3.3.5 Continuity and the perfect
- 3.4 Stage level statives in the progressive
- Conclusion
- Acknowledgements
- References
- Tenses for the living and the dead
- Lifetime inferences reconsidered
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Question I: What are lifetime effects due to?
- Lifetime inference from the present tense
- Lifetime inference from the past tense
- 3. Question II: Two-place i-level predicates
- 3.1 Expanding the data base
- 3.2 Discussion
- References
- Acknowledgements
- Part II. Issues in Slavic aspect
- Formal and informal semantics of telicity
- 1. Terminativity and telicity
- 1.1 First digression into semantics of the Russian aspect
- 1.2 Second digression into semantics of the Russian aspect
- 1.3 A digression into semantics of temporal adverbials
- 2. Model-theoretic semantics of telicity
- 3. Quantization and terminativity
- 4. From verbs to VPs: accomplishments and incrementality
- 5. *Ja p'ju stakan vody.
- 6. Degree achievements
- 7. Delimitatives
- 8. Conclusion
- Acknowledgements
- References
- Events and maximalization
- The case of telicity and perfectivity
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Proposal: Telicity via maximalization on events
- 3. Germanic languages
- 3.1 Telicity and underived verbs
- 3.2 Telic VP's
- 3.2.1 The interaction of MAXE with (Strictly) Incremental and Scalar Verbs
- 3.2.2 On the link between direct object and telicity
- 3.2.3 The domain of application of MAXE
- 4. Slavic languages
- 4.1 Maximalization and perfectivity
- 4.2 Telicity and monomorphemic verbs
- 4.3 Telicity of derived verbs
- 4.4 Telicity at the VP level
- 5. Conclusion
- Acknowledgements
- References
- Aspect and bounded quantity complements in Russian
- 1. Aspect and terminativity
- 1.1 Aspect and object-level predications
- 1.2 Aspect and stage-level predications
- 1.2.1 Terminatives
- 1.2.2 Aterminatives
- 1.2.3 Hybrid predications
- 2. Secondary homogenization of agentive absolute-terminative (telic) predications through temporal distributivity
- 3. The impf. aspect in its focalized-processual reading and bounded quantity complements
- 4. The impf. aspect in its durative-processual reading and bounded quantity complements
- 5. The perfectivization of predications with bounded quantit complements by means of delimitative procedural verbs
- Summary
- Acknowledgements
- References
- Negation, intensionality, and aspect
- Interaction with NP semantics
- 1. The puzzle of the relation between negation and intensionality
- 2. Background. Scope ambiguity, NP interpretations,and the semantics of operators
- 3. Natural language patterns - strategies of markingdifferent interpretations differently
- 3.1 Marking opacity with subjunctive
- 3.2 Negative polarity items
- 3.3 Russian Genitive of Negation and intensional verbs
- 4. Hypotheses
- 4.1 Scope differences
- 4.2 Possible non-uniform NP meanings
- 4.3 Property types and other "demotions" of NPs
- 4.4 Or coincidence?
- 4.5 Negation and implicitly intensional quantification
- 5. Partitivity and aspect in relation to negation and intensionality
- 5.1 Kiparsky (1998) on Finnish partitive and Russian imperfective
- 5.2 Levinson on imperfective in negated imperativesand genitive of negation
- 6. Conclusions and further research
- Acknowledgements
- References
- Part III. Aspect in non-Indoeuropean languages
- Habituality and the habitual aspect
- 1. Preliminaries
- 1.1 Introduction
- 1.2 Viewpoint aspect in Modern Hebrew
- 2. The syntax of habituality
- 3. Temporal properties of habituals
- 3.1 Restrictions on tense
- 3.2 Restrictions on aspect
- 3.2.1 Overlap with speech time
- 3.2.2 The relation between reference time and habit time
- 3.3 Interaction with temporal adverbials
- 4. The semantics of habituality
- 4.1 The adverb Hab
- 4.1.1 Length of the habit
- 4.1.2 Modality of Hab
- 4.2 The habitual aspect FHab
- 4.2.1 Length of the habit
- 4.2.2 Actualization of the habit
- 5. Diachronic discussion of the periphrastic form
- 6. Conclusion
- Acknowledgements
- References
- Aspectual universals of temporal anaphora
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Aspect-based temporality
- 3. Anaphora with atomic episodes
- 3.1 Topical periods and reality
- 3.2 Tense versus mood
- 3.3 Topical instants and other defaults
- 4. Anaphora with processes
- 4.1 Quantification as discourse reference
- 4.2 Stage anaphora
- 4.3 Temporal anaphora with processes
- 5. Anaphora with habits
- 5.1 Quantification as discourse reference
- 5.2 Instantiating anaphora
- 5.3 Temporal anaphora with habits
- 6. Conclusions
- Acknowledgements
- References
- The syntax and semantics of change/transition
- Evidence from Mandarin Chinese
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Interpretation and distribution of verbal -le and sentential -le
- 2.1 Verbal -le and sentential -le in sentences describing different situation types
- 2.1.1 States
- 2.1.2 Activities
- 2.1.3 Achievements
- 2.1.4 Accomplishments
- 2.1.5 Summary
- 2.2 Verbal -le and sentential -le with downward entailing quantifiers
- 3. Analysis
- 3.1 Sentential -le as a marker of P-transition5
- 3.2 Verbal -le as a marker of E-transition or V-transition
- 4. Conclusions and implications
- Acknowledgements
- References
- Bare nouns and telicity in Japanese*
- 1. Introduction
- 2. The nature of Japanese bare nouns (JBNs) and the telicity of the predicate
- 2.1 JBNs as indefinites
- 2.2 Existential closure and telicity
- 3. JBNs and atelic readings of accomplishment-headed VPs
- 3.1 Central data
- 3.2 Repetition and shifting of events
- 4. Telicity and JBNs as kinds
- 4.1 Mass nouns and the Derived Kind Predication(DKP)
- 4.2 See editor's introductory note]
- 5. Conclusion
- Acknowledgements
- References
- Index
- The series Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today
