scholarly journals Preverbs in Russian: situation or viewpoint aspect?

2015 ◽  
pp. 97-122
Author(s):  
Eric Corre
Keyword(s):  
2012 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-70
Author(s):  
Björn Lundquist

It is well known that the aktionsart/lexical aspect of a predicate influences the temporal interpretation and the aspectual marking of a sentence, and also that languages differ with respect to which aktionsart properties feed into the tense-aspect system (see e.g. Bohnemeyer & Swift 2004). In this paper, I try to pin down the exact locus of variation between languages where the stative–dynamic distinction is mainly grammaticized (e.g. English, Saamáka) and languages where the telic–atelic distinction is mainly grammaticized (e.g. Swedish, Chinese and Russian). The focus will be on the differences between English and Swedish, and I will argue that these two languages crucially differ in the nature of Assertion Time (or Topic/Reference Time, Klein 1994, Demirdache & Uribe-Etxebarria 2000): whereas the assertion time in English is always punctual in imperfective contexts, assertion time in Swedish can extend to include minimal stages of events. The Assertion Time is introduced by a (viewpoint) aspect head that is present in both languages, but not phonologically realized. The difference can thus not be ascribed to the presence or absence of overt tense, aspect or verb morphology, or to a special tense value, as argued in one way or other by, for example, Giorgi & Pianesi (1997), Demirdache & Uribe-Etxebarria (2000) and Ramchand (2012). Once this factor (i.e. the nature of Assertion Time) has been isolated, it becomes evident that all verbs in English and Swedish, regardless of telicity or dynamicity, can be assigned either a perfective or an imperfective value. Moreover, I will argue that the English progressive–non-progressive (or ‘simple’) distinction is independent of viewpoint aspect (i.e. the perfective– imperfective distinction) made in, for example, the Romance languages.


MANUSYA ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 54-79
Author(s):  
Kachen Tansiri

This paper aims at analyzing an internal temporal constituency of situations denoted by alternating intransitive constructions (AIC) in Thai in order to subclassify them, and investigating interactions between two viewpoint-aspect markers, namely kamlaƞ and jùu, and each subtype of AICs. According to the scope of a profile on the causal chain, the AICs in Thai are arranged into two main groups, i.e., the AICs denoting a simplex causal situation and the AICs denoting a complex causal situation. In each group, they are further subclassified according to the situation aspect of the denoted situations. In analyzing the interactions between viewpoint aspect and situation aspect, I show that kamlaƞ and jùu both function as imperfective viewpoint-aspect markers because they interact with situation aspect at the phase of the situation without any reference to the boundaries. However, they are distinguished in terms of the semantics of the forms themselves and the semantics of the phase they profile. On the one hand, kamlaƞ functions as a dynamic imperfective viewpoint-aspect marker in that it profiles the dynamic phase of the situations and construes them as on-going processes. On the other hand, jùu functions as a stative imperfective aspect marker. Unlike kamlaƞ , jùu can profile either a static or a dynamic phase. If jùu co-occurs with a static situation, the situation will be construed as a persistent state. If jùu co-occurs with a dynamic one, it refers to the progressive situation, which is viewed as stative. Since the grammatical aspect marker jùu is grammaticalized from the lexical verb meaning ‘to exist,’ there is a remnant of that meaning when jùu functions as a grammatical aspect marker. Consequently, the grammaticalized viewpoint-aspect marker jùu conveys the meaning that there exists a static or dynamic situation on the time line at the reference time or the speech-act time.


2004 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 325-363 ◽  
Author(s):  
ZHONGHUA XIAO ◽  
ANTHONY McENERY

In this paper we will extend Smith's (1997) two-component aspect theory to develop a two-level model of situation aspect in which situation aspect is modelled as verb classes at the lexical level and as situation types at the sentential level. Situation types are the composite result of the rule-based interaction between verb classes and complements, arguments, peripheral adjuncts and viewpoint aspect at the nucleus, core and clause levels. With a framework consisting of a lexicon, a layered clause structure and a set of rules mapping verb classes onto situation types, the model is developed and tested using an English corpus and a Chinese corpus.


Author(s):  
Katalin É. Kiss

This chapter reconstructs how and why complex tenses appeared in Hungarian grammar in the late Proto-Hungarian period, and how and why they disappeared 1000 years later. It claims that the evolution of complex tenses started with a micro-change: the reanalysis of the feature content of a verbal suffix. This step initiated further processes of reanalysis, analogical extension, and abstraction, as a consequence of which the tense system inherited from Uralic, distinguishing only past and nonpast, developed into a complex system marking both tense and viewpoint aspect. The chapter argues that both the appearance of complex tenses, and their disappearance, i.e., the replacement of morphological viewpoint aspect marking by situation aspect marking via verbal particles, was triggered by language contact. In both cases, a translinguistic reanalysis took place: Hungarian speakers assigned to the Hungarian construction the structural–functional properties of the construction of the contact language.


Author(s):  
Éric Mathieu ◽  
Robert Truswell

This introduction discusses current trends in diachronic linguistics with a focus on syntactic change and reviews the fifteen other chapters included in the volume. In the spirit of modern diachronic syntax, the selected articles show that very general patterns of change, emergent, multigenerational diachronic phenomena, interact with small, discrete, local, intergenerational changes in the lexical specification of grammatical features. General topics include acquisition biases, cross-categorial word order generalizations, typological particularities and universals, language contact, and transitional changes, while specific linguistic topics include tense and viewpoint aspect, directional/aspectual affixes, V2, V3, Stylistic Fronting, directional/aspectual prefixes, negation, accusative and dative marking, analytic passives, complementizer agreement, and control and raising verbs.


2021 ◽  
Vol 87 ◽  
pp. 7-16
Author(s):  
M. Rafael Salaberry

In part due to the significant influence of Andersen's Lexical Aspect Hypothesis, research on the L2 acquisition of tense and aspect has focused primarily on the construct of aspect representative of the beginning and intermediate stages of acquisition. In the present article, I review the significance of two recent developments in the study of aspectual knowledge: the expansive view of recent research proposals (e.g., shifted effect of lexical aspect toward intermediate and advanced stages), and the focus on specific sub-constructs that provide a more precise target to assess ultimate attainment (e.g., iterativity versus habituality). I argue that the relevance of advanced stages of development of aspect is central to the analysis of L2 aspectual knowledge. To that effect, the objective of future studies needs to incorporate the explicit description of the connection between lexical aspect and viewpoint aspect


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