This new edition extends the scope of the first edition by providing additional material on formalization in a very accessible manner. Part of the studies in theoretical psycholinguistics book series sitp, volume 32. Such verbs have been assumed to select exclusively for eventive complements e. Speaking about verb classes does not exclusively mean a semantic similarity. Smith 1991s twocomponent theory of aspect, whereby situation aspect combines with viewpoint aspect to compute the aspectual composition of sentences, is used to highlight. The time schemata to distinguish his four classes relies on a combination of entailment patterns and behaviours of verbs in different structures. Over the past several decades, linguistic theorizing of tense, aspect, and mood tam, along with a strongly growing body of crosslinguistic studies, has revealed complexity in the data that challenges traditional distinctions and treatments of these categories. Multiple incremental themes and figurepath relations john beavers the university of texas at austin 1. Verkuyl, aspectual classes and aspectual composition. Jan 01, 2014 the aspectual uml approach proposes new aspectual uml notations and relationships, so it is critical to identify and understand the effects of the semantic changes of these new notations and relationships on the existing uml notations in order to maintain the semantic correctness of both objectoriented oo uml and aspectoriented ao uml.
Aspectual composition in french, german and most turkic and nakhdaghestanian languages is similar to aspectual composition in english. It is the aspectual properties of sentences in natural languages which allow the user to express a temporal structure, and henk verkuyl presents a unified formal system to account for them. As a case study, four japanese aspectual verbs are analyzed. Lieber, following verkuyl 1993, assumes that telicity does not arise in the lexicon but at a higher level of syntacticsemantic composition. Aspect, evidentiality, and mirativity sciencedirect. A theory of aspectuality draws together into a coherent whole the authors thinking on the subject over the last twenty years, and will interest all those working on aspect and the semantics of noun phrases. Reanalyzing the complement coercion effect through a. Truly wideranging in coverage, no other introductory textbook discusses a comparable range of topics. However, formatting rules can vary widely between applications and fields of interest or study. He lent me the book until monday but i gave it back on. Introduction since vendler 1957 it has been well known that the aspectual properties of dynamic predicates are partly determined by the choice of head verb.
Thus, as liebers system is designed to capture lexical facets. The study of the linguistic reflexes of aspect has been an active field of research in various subdisciplines of linguistics, such as syntax, semantics including discourse theory and acquisition studies. Morphology and lexical semantics explores the meanings of morphemes and how they combine to form the meanings of complex words, including derived words writer, unionise, compounds dog bed, truck driver and words formed by conversion. Introduction since vendler 1957, it has been commonly assumed that verbal predicates fall into various sorts of lexical aspectual classes, based primarily on the inherent, internal temporal structure the predicates impose on the events they. Vendler kept his classes at the lexical level, whereas i wanted to get rid of the opposition between imperfective and perfective aspect as lexical properties. Topics covered include the relation of tense and aspect, the morphology and the semantics of aspect, and structuralist and philosophical approaches. The standard view holds that the composition of an entitydenoting expression with any coercion verb. Introduction in this paper, i would like to discuss in some detail the socalled vendler classes which play an important role in the linguistic and philosophical literature these days. Beyond the meaning of the verb, both semantic and syntactic factors, together with pragmatic ones, play a decisive role when establishing the aspectual.
Chapter 10 can semantic theories be tested experimentally. This paper addresses how these linguistic functions influence the acquisition of spanish aspectual past tenses preterito indefinido and preterito imperfecto by mandarin chinese. Tense and aspect in english infinitives linguistic. They may express duration, frequency, habituality, and many other forms of temporality. What evidence is there for determining a verbs aspectual class membership. Comprehensive aspectual uml approach to support aspectj. Oclcs webjunction has pulled together information and resources to assist library staff as they consider how to handle coronavirus. The formalization we adopt here differs from most other approaches to the decomposition of aspectual classes in that the notion of stage will play a key role. Verbs are not the only determinant of aspec tual meaning, as pointed. The aspectual uml approach proposes new aspectual uml notations and relationships, so it is critical to identify and understand the effects of the semantic changes of these new notations and relationships on the existing uml notations in order to maintain the semantic correctness of both objectoriented oo uml and aspectoriented ao uml.
I show that previous classifications of tense in infinitives are insufficient in that they do not cover the entire spectrum of infinitival constructions in english. Vendlers aspectual classification based on the semantics of verb types will be briefly outlined. In the compositional framework it is argued that this changing takes place because of the difference between quantificational features of internal objects in 1a and 1b. The aspectual classes can therefore be analyzed in terms of stages. A theory of aspectuality brings together the fruit of his thinking on the subject over the past 20 years, and will interest all those working on aspect and the semantics of noun phrases. Aspectual classes and aspectual composition article pdf available in linguistics and philosophy 121. Aspectual classes and aspectual composition springerlink. Csli publications stanford university cordura hall 210 panama street stanford, ca 943054101 650 7231839. May 11, 2011 semantics is the study of the literal meaning of words and the meaning of the way words are combined. Morphology and lexical semantics by rochelle lieber. Acquisition of tenseaspect morphology by english learners.
And in order for someone to browse through a book she must at least have turned more than one page. An introduction to the general linguistic study of aspect. This article investigates the temporal and aspectual composition of infinitival complementation structures in english. The classification of predicates according to their aspectual properties has a long history, dating back to aristotle. Aspectual class shifts also called eventtype shifts. Ramchand 2006 plays a crucial role in the aspectual composition of dynamic nonmotion verbs. The development of dynamicity in the acquisition of. In estonian, transitive verbs fall into aspectual classes based on the type of casemarking of objects and adjuncts.
This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages. Aspectual coercion of telic verbs and atelic adverbials in. Pdf aspectual classes and aspectual composition researchgate. Jun 12, 2012 a novel analysis of aspectual verbs is proposed according to which aspectual verbs are heads of functional projections rather than main verbs taking clausal complements. Vendler classes in grammar and utteranceinterpretation. Verb classes and aspectual classification blackwell publishing. The acquisition of aspect in l2 is influenced by the properties of the lexicalaspectual class, coercion at the syntacticpragmatic interface and grounding information foreground and background in discourse. I a dp must be merged into spec, aspqp a syntactic position that gives rise to an incremental theme reading borer 2005, ii. Perhaps the most influential classification can be attributed to vendler 1967.
A novel analysis of aspectual verbs is proposed according to which aspectual verbs are heads of functional projections rather than main verbs taking clausal complements. Kearns book provides a lively and engaging introduction to formal semantics. Aspectual verbs like begin, start and finish form a subset of the class of coercion verbs implicated in the phenomenon of complement coercion. The development of dynamicity in the acquisition of spanish. The idea of aspectual composition has been widely accepted nowadays. Mary read the book three chapters books in three days. Other readers will always be interested in your opinion of the books youve read. Dr comrie draws his examples particularly from english and the slavonic and romance languages, but also from arabic, chinese, welsh, greek and a variety of others. The oxford handbook of event structure robert truswell. J 1988, aspectual asymmetry and quantification, in v. It is argued that it not classes that play a role in the explanation of aspectual phenomena but rather some specific semantic factors from which aspectual classes can be constructed, in particular factors inherent. Of or belonging to an aspect as an aspect of the verb classified under.
Aspectual inquiries is a highly coherent edited volume that contains important contributions to our understanding of aspectual distinctions in the lexicon, in the grammar, in i expect the book to be widely read in the generative linguistic community because of its relevance to the discussion on functional categories. Krifkas 1989, 1998 mereological treatment, with input from dowty 1991 on incremental themes. Jean amange les pommes pendant 3 heures en 3 heures. Verbbased aspectual classes inherent lexical aspect, central to the aspect hypothesis, has as its basis vendlers 1967 classification of verbs into states, activities, accomplishments and. This handbook deals with research into the nature of events, and how we use language to describe events.
Vendler breathed new life into an old aristotelian tripartition of situational types by proposing a quadripar. Layers of aspect studies in constraintbased lexicalism. Layers of aspect studies in constraintbased lexicalism 9781575865973. Lexical aspect and multiple incremental themes john beavers the university of texas at austin 1. Aspectuality composition terminativity drt aspectual classes state event. At the core of aspectual composition lies the idea that the part structure associated with the. This paper is a critical examination of vendlers wellknown aspectual classes states, activities, accomplishments, achievements. And dowtys 22e raises a problem if she stopped after one or two steps. Verb classes and aspectual classification structuring. The invariant be is a form characteristic of africanamerican vernacular english aave that is used to indicate a habitual and repeatable action. It tests theories of linguistic form and meaning, arguments and thematic roles, using estonian data. Nowadays there are two the most elaborate theories.
Aspectual classes provide another perspective on the mannerresult verb. This engaging introduction to formal semantics assumes no prior knowledge, providing a solid understanding of a range of semantic phenomena. This chapter is an empirical investigation into the expression of bounded single situations across four languages, based on a parallel corpus camuss the stranger and translations into english, russian, hungarian. Henk verkuyl presents here a theory about aspectual properties of sentences in natural languages. Articulated vps and the computation of aspectual classes. Pdf aspectual classes and aspectual composition henk. Specifically, for a telic interpretation to emerge two conditions must be met. It is argued that it not classes that play a role in the explanation of aspectual phenomena but rather some specific semantic factors from which aspectual classes can be constructed, in particular factors inherent to the lexical verb and to the determiners of. Sentences may pertain to states or processes or events.
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. For example, the following verbs tend to head predicates of different aspectual. Is aspectual coercion a phenomenon that must be assumed as an option in the dynamics of the language comprehension process, or can ndings that seemingly support coercion be explained in other ways. Multiple incremental themes and figurepath relations. Introduction aspectual classes of verbs can verbs, as opposed to vps, be aspectually categorizedw verb classes and aspectual classification structuring events wiley online library. Compositions of a verb and a delimiting object or xp. The analyses help to understand the aspectual structure of estonian. Numerous and frequentlyupdated resource results are available from this search. However, communication and dissemination of results across these various subfields has often. Linguistics and philosophy, volume 12, issue 1 springer. Aspectual article about aspectual by the free dictionary. Astrology any of several specific angular distances between two planets or a planet and the ascendant or midheaven measured, from the earth, in degrees along the.
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