Aspect

the functional domain of the verb = inflection

inflection = an umbrella term for Tense, Agreement,

Aspect, Mood, Voice
John read a book.

John was reading a book.

-same tense, different aspect

 Tense
deictic category: oriented towards the time of the
speaker, it relates situations to Speech Time and orders
them by the relations of:

simultaneity, anteriority, posteriority

represents the chronological order of events in time as

perceived by the speaker
 Aspect
not a deictic category

informs about the size of the situation, about its

internal stages, about the quality of the situation
 Aspect

viewpoint aspect (Smith 1991) / grammatical aspect (de

Swart 1998)

situation-type aspect / lexical aspect (Smith 1991)

 situation-type aspect / lexical aspect (Smith 1991)

STATIVE DURATIVE TELIC

STATES
+ + -
ACTIVITIES
- + -
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
- + +
ACHIEVEMENTS
- - +
SEMELFACTIVES
- - -
 situation-type aspect / lexical aspect (Smith 1991)

STATES John loves chocolate.

ACTIVITIES John strolled in the park.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS John made a chocolate cake.
ACHIEVEMENTS John remembered something.
SEMELFACTIVES John coughed.
 viewpoint aspect: grammatical morphemes overt category

be-ing

have-en

situation-type aspect: a constellation of lexical morphemes

the verb and its arguments covert category (lacks explicit
morphological markers)
 aspectual meaning holds for sentences rather than verbs:

a. John never eats chocolate.

b. John ate chocolate noisily throughout the lesson.

c. John ate a bar of chocolate in fifteen seconds.

 The Principle of Compositionality = The meaning of a
complex expression is fully determined by the meaning of its
constituents and by its structure: that is the rules we used to
combine the constituents.

+ the lexical conceptual structure of the verb, that is the verb

together with its arguments

+ the functional categories on the verb

+ time adverbials
 similarity: uncountable things (mass nouns, bare plurals)
atelic events:

some chocolate = chocolate

some water a lake

John walked. vs. John walked to school.

 States
e.g. believe in ghosts, know the answer, be tall, own

unbounded

abstract atemporal quality

homogeneous

true at all subintervals

 Stativity tests:
Incompatible with:
imperatives :

*Be tall!
Ag-oriented Av: willingly, deliberately :

*He is deliberately tall.

force and persuade:

*He forced her to be tall.

 Stativity tests:
Incompatible with:

*What she did was be tall.

temporal and spatial coordinates

*When and where was he tall?

progressive:

*He was being tall.

 States = uncountable , mass properties :

*He knew Greek three times.

nominalizations of state predicates (hatred, love,

knowledge, etc.) : uncountable (There was little love lost
among themselves).
 States:
u individual-level predicates object-level and kind-level
individuals : stable properties

u stage-level predicates : transitory properties

(Carlson 1977)

a. John is Russian.

b. John is in the garden.

c. John is scared.
 predicates that only occur with kind-level subjects: die
out, be widespread, be in short supply, be common, be
indigenous to, come in all sizes

kind-referring expressions: bare plurals, definite

singular NPs, mass nouns

Dinosaurs are extinct.

The dinosaur is extinct.

*A dinosaur is extinct.
A mammoth is woolly.

basic stage level predicate recategorized as individual level

predicate

describe property which holds for most members: exceptions!

generalize over properties

 Basic level states
abstract and concrete properties (be altruistic, be tall, be
intelligent, be widespread, be extinct)

belief and other mental states (believe, know, think (give

opinion), hope, fear)

verbs of physical perception (see, hear, taste, feel, etc.

emotive predicates (love, hate, like, dislike, rejoice, despise,

want, desire)

LCS: BE (in the state of)

 Derived statives
not stative at the basic level of classification

generics: Tigers eat meat.

habituals: My cat eats a mouse every day.

hold of classes, kinds, patterns of events

ascribe a property to the class

Verbs of position and location (sit, crouch, lie, perch, sprawl)
interval statives: their truth condition requires an interval
longer than a moment

The picture hangs on the wall.

The picture is hanging on the wall. -> resultative, temporary

The socks are lying / *lie under the bed.

New Orleans lies / *is lying on the Mississippi.
-> volitional control, moveable object
 Multiple classification
perception verbs: states + events

I have tasted the fish and it tastes funny.

I have measured the fish and it measures 1m.

I have weighed the fish and it weighs 1kg.

I have smelled the fish and it smells bad.

 Progressive: stage level interpretation

dynamism, temporary quality:

I was being a nuisance. The cake is looking done.

gradual change:

These examples are seeming less and less unacceptable.

some basic-level states: incompatible with progressive:

*He is owning a car. *He is knowing the answer. *He is

being tall.
Im not seeing anything.

Are you hearing me?

cf. I cant see anything.

Can you hear me?

 Activities/Processes
He swam/ran/slept/strolled in the park/ate for an hour.

The ball rolled/moved.

It rained for hours.

The jewels glittered.

LCS: DO
 Activities/Processes
He swam for an hour.

durative

dynamic: What he did was swim for an hour.

atelic -> no natural final point: cessation of activity

processes stop, do not finish

He stopped swimming.

*He finished swimming. ????

 Activities/Processes
He swam for an hour.

interval longer than a moment

homogeneous

the subinterval property

 Activities/Processes
He swam for an hour/ all day.

He spent an hour swimming

period adverbials
multiple event processes:

eat cherries, write letters, cough for five minutes, revolve

He was coughing.

He found sand in his shoes all morning.

 Compare:
read the book vs. read at the book

paint the fence vs. paint away at the fence

 Accomplishments
telic

change of state

durative, bounded interval

He built a house. He wrote a poem. He baked a cake.

 Accomplishments
adverbials of completion:

He built his house in a year/in a month/in several weeks.

It took him several years to build his house.

 temporally complex: do not have the subinterval
property
false at all subintervals
heterogeneous, complex events

Si activity Sf

LCS: (DO (CAUSE ( BECOME)))

 progressive: recategorization -> activity

He was building a house.

Si activity Sf

LCS: (DO (CAUSE ( BECOME)))

 outcome entails process but not viceversa:

John built a house. => John was building a house.

John was building a house > John built a house.

cf. activities: John was walking. <=> John walked.

 complex events: bipartite nature

a. John almost opened the door.

 complex events: bipartite nature

a. John almost opened the door.

almost (John opened the door)

John DO (BECOME (door almost open))

 complex events: bipartite nature

b. John built a kite for two hours.

c. John finished building a kite.

d. John stopped building a kite.

They walked to school at noon.

ingressive
a. Jane walked down the beach.

b. Jane walked down the beach. She stopped to pick up a

starfish.

c. Every afternoon Jane walked down the beach.

 Achievements
telic

change of state

instantaneous

process (cause) omitted or backgrounded

LCS: BECOME

die, reach the top, win the race, arrive, leave, recognize, notice,
find a penny, miss the target, lose the watch, remember
 preliminary stages: conceptually detached from the event as
such

He died. > He was dying.

He was winning the race. > He won the race.

existence of preliminary stages accounts for ability to occur in

progressive

The plane was landing when the storm started.

 lucky achievements:

John found a penny (*deliberately).

*John was finding a penny.

vs. : John deliberately missed the target.

He noticed the mistake. He spotted the red car.

 ingressive interpretation with completive Av:

We reached the top in 5 minutes.

The bomb exploded in a minute.

*The bomb finished exploding.

incompatible with period Av:

*The bomb exploded for five minutes.

The firecracker exploded for five minutes.

 degree predicates - telic/atelic

John melted the ice for/in an hour.

The ice melted for/in an hour.

The balloon rose (to the ceiling).

Alice fell down the rabbit hole.

Mary dried the cocoa beans (dry).

The soup cooled.

cool, warm, widen, harden, rise, fall, descend, roll, cool, melt, dry,
etc.
 resultatives: telic predicates
The sheriff shot the man dead.

The wind shaped the hills into cones.

The maid swept the floor clean.

The elevator wheezed to the seventh floor.

*The frogs croaked to the pond.

throw away, aside, down, up

monomorphemic: drown, electrocute, strangle, hang, poison

The sheriff of Nottingham jailed Robin Hood for four
years.
The sheriff of Nottingham jailed Robin Hood for four
years.

1. multiple event process

DO Av (Robin Hood go to jail)

2. DO (Robin Hood go to jail Av)

 Semelfactives
atelic

instantaneous

knock, cough, hit flap, hiccup, slam, bang, kick

 Semelfactives
no preliminary or resultant stages

with period Av, progressive: iterative

John coughed for five minutes.

John was coughing.
ingressive:

Mary slowly knocked.

John coughed quickly.