Transcript Aspect

ASPECT
• PRELIMINARIES:
• The verb paradigm
• The set of inflectional forms of a variable lexeme
(together with their grammatical labels) is called its
paradigm. In some languages the verb paradigms are
extremely complex, but in English they are fairly
simple. The great majority of verbs in English have
paradigms consisting of six inflectional forms
(Huddleston and Pullum 30):
The Verb Paradigm
PARADIGM
Primary
forms
Preterite
talked
3d singular present talks
Plain present
talk
Secondary
forms
Plain form
talk
Gerund-participle talking
Past participle
talked
EX
A
M
PL
E
ASPECT
Compare:
• Tom reads books.
.
• Tom is reading a book
• TENSE?
• ASPECT?
TENSE and ASPECT
• TENSE
• ASPECT
• Tense: describes the
time of the event in the
sentence relative to the
moment of speaking.
(WHEN)
• Aspect: refers to how
the speaker envisages
an the internal
temporal constituency
of a situation (HOW),
informs about the
temporal contour of an
event, the flow of an
event.
Aspect is a composite between
grammatical morphemes and the
lexical meaning of a verb phrase.
•
• He read
• He was
(unanalysab reading (we
le whole).
can divide
this into
stages)
We can speak of two types concerning aspect.
Both types of refer to -beginning, end, duration
• Viewpoint
aspect grammatical
morphemes,
Perfective/imperfective
• Situation type
• (looks at the lexical
meaning of the VP) –
the properties of a
situation as denoted by
the predicate.
PERFECTIVE vs IMPERFECTIVE
SIMPLE vs CONTINUOUS
• Perfective
• Imperfective
John painted his house
last year.
(ACCOMPLISHED)
John was painting his
house last year. (NOT
ACCOMPLISHED)
Food for thought
• Discuss the difference between the sentences where the event expressed
took place in the past and is presented as accomplished and the sentences
where the event expressed is seen as taking place in the past but does not
have an end-point. Try to translate these sentences into
• Romanian. Does translation reflect the differences of meaning you
previously identified?
• a. Mary sang a song about a little lamb.
•
•
•
•
•
b. This morning at 5.00, Mary was singing a song.
c. Musette visited Paris.
d. This time last year we were visiting Paris.
e. Oh my God! They killed Kenny!
f. Last month he was killing cockroaches in his kitchen.
PERFECTIVE vs IMPERFECTIVE
• Perfective
• She wrote a novel.
• She spent last summer
with her parents.
• Imperfective
• She is writing a novel.
• She still lived with her
parents.
PERFECTIVE vs IMPERFECTIVE
• Perfective
• When a clause
describes a situation in
a way that considers it
as a whole, in its
totality, without
reference to any
internal temporal
structure or subdivision
it might have, we say
that the clause has a
perfective
interpretation.
• Imperfective
• When a clause
describes a situation in
a way that makes
reference to its internal
temporal structure or
subdivisions, we say
that the clause has an
imperfective
interpretation
(Huddleston and Pullum
42).
PERFECTIVE vs IMPERFECTIVE
• Perfective
• When a clause
describes a situation in
a way that considers it
as a whole, in its
totality, without
reference to any
internal temporal
structure or subdivision
it might have, we say
that the clause has a
perfective
interpretation.
• Imperfective
• When a clause
describes a situation in
a way that makes
reference to its internal
temporal structure or
subdivisions, we say
that the clause has an
imperfective
interpretation
(Huddleston and Pullum
42).
!PERFECTIVE IS NOT THE SAME
WITH PERFECT
• Perfect is the name of a grammatical category,
a type of past tense;
• Perfective applies, as far as English is
concerned, to a kind of semantic
interpretation.
!PERFECTIVE IS NOT THE SAME
WITH PERFECT
• I have broken my glasses.
• I have been a teacher for several years.
!FOOD FOR THOUGHT
PERFECTIVE, IMPERFECTIVE,
HABITUAL
• He went to his mother on Saturday.
• He went to see his mother every Saturday.
ROMANIAN TRANSLATION OF THE
PERFECTIVE/IMPERFECTIVE
CONTRAST
• NEW PERSPECTIVES ON ENGLISH GRAMMAR
(74 -76)
SITUATION TYPE ASPECT
• Situation type aspect- verbs are names for
extralinguistic entities- states, events,
processes
•
Conceptual features of situation types
STATES
ACTIVITIES ACCOMPLISMENTS ACHIEVEMENTS
SEMELFACTIVES
+stative
-stative
-stative
-stative
-stative
+durative +durative
+durative
-durative
-durative
-telic
+telic
+telic
-telic
-telic
STATES
• UNBOUNDED
• ABSTRACT TEMPORAL QUALITY
• PREDICATE A QUALITY/PROPERTY over an
individual
• Can’t be used in the imperative
STATES
BASIC-LEVEL STATES
• Individual-level predicates
(PERMANENT)
Know, desire, be tall
• Stage-level predicates
(TEMPORARY)
be available, be drunk, be in
the garden
• Individual-level/Stage-level
sit, lie, sprawl, stand perch
DERIVED STATES (Recategorized)
• GENERIC states
Cats have claws.
Tigers eat meat.
• DERIVED states
My cat eats only fish.
This tiger hunts every week.
ACTIVITIES (PROCESSES)
•
•
•
•
HUMAN AGENCY/NON-HUMAN AGENCY
DO NOT HAVE NATURAL ENDPOINTS (GOALS)
FOR x time
Often appear in the progressive
I stopped running in the park.
? I finished running in the park.
I finished running my laps/the race.
ACTIVITIES
Atelic verb (+ complements)
• Push a cart
• Play the piano
• Sleep
• Think about
• Walk in the park
• Run along the beach
Atelic verb+
cumulative/unaccountable N’s
Eat cherries
Write letters
Drink wine
Read books
Find pebbles on the beach all
afternoon
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
• Change of states
• Complex events
• Prepared by some activity
• The change: the completion of the process
• E1 (process) causes e2 (change of state)
drink a glass of wine, build a house, throw sthg
away/down/up/aside/in
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
• Atelic, durative verbs + countable objects
They ate a hearty dinner.
• Atelic, durative verbs + directional complements
They went to her house
• Atelic, durative verbs + certain prepositions
The boy ran out.
• Atelic verbs+ resultative phrase
The alarm clock ticked the baby awake.
ACHIEVEMENTS
• Instantaneous
• Single stage events
• Result in a change of state
• Leave out the causing activity
Die, reach the top, find, lose, notice, win a race
SEMELFACTIVES
• cough, knock, hit, flap a wing, hiccup,
slam/bang the door, kick the ball
SEMELFACTIVES
• Semelfactive verbs, also called momentary verbs
or punctual verbs, are verbs whose event occurs
once (in context) and last a short period of time,
so short that the present progressive aspect
cannot be used. By the time the event has
occurred it is over and the past tense is
necessary:
*Someone is knocking once on the door.
Someone just knocked once on the door.
Someone is knocking on the door
THE ASPECTAL RECATEGORIZATION
OF VERB PHRASES
= predicates shifting from their
prototypical class
1. subject
Indefinite plurals:
The tourists discovered this beautiful castle.
Tourists discovered that beautiful castle for
years.
2. Direct object
Bare plural NP
He wrote the essay.
He wrote essays for hours.
3. Adverbials
• Adverbials of extent
He walked in the woods for an hour.
He walked to the building in ten minutes.
4. Tense
• Habitual sentences (present simple)
He played chess for two hours.
He plays chess.
5. The progressive aspect
• Activities / ACTIVITIES
• Semelfactives > ACTIVITIES
Her lips were trembling.
He was knocking on the door.
• Accomplishments and achievements > ACTIVITES
They built a house.
They were building a house.
They won the race.
They were winning a race.
The progressive aspect
STATES > ACTIVITIES
1. To be + property designating adjectives
He is tall.
? He is being tall.
He is rude
He is being rude.
The progressive aspect
STATES > ACTIVITIES
2. Mental cognition verb phrases
Know, believe, hope, trust, think
I think he is wrong.
I am thinking of giving up smoking.
The progressive aspect
STATES > ACTIVITIES
3. Physical cognition verb phrases
See, hear, smell, taste, feel
You smell nice.
I’m smelling your perfume to find out what it is.
The progressive aspect
STATES > ACTIVITIES
4. Emotive verb phrases
love, hate, love, dislike, want, miss
I love her.
I’m loving this.
The progressive aspect
STATES > temporary states
5. Other property designating verbs
belong, contain, consist, weigh, measure
I belong here.
Are you belonging to the local library.
The progressive aspect
STATES > temporary states
6. Locative verb phrases
stand, sit, lie, rest, remain
Romania lies in Europe.
My socks are lying on the floor.