Theoretical and Crosslinguistic Approaches to the Semantics of Aspect

• Main Author: Rothstein, Susan D
• Format: eBook
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands John Benjamins Publishing Company 2008; John Benjamins
• Edition: 1
• Series: Linguistik aktuell/Linguistics today
• Subjects: Aspect; Grammar, Comparative and general; Language; Semantics; Typology (Linguistics)

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 crossli...

Table of Contents:

• 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
• 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
• 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
• 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 ΦHab -- 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