Spanish verbs display two past-tense forms, the pret´rito and the imperfecto. We offer an account of the semantics of these forms within a situation semantics, addressing a number of theoretically interesting questions about how to realize a semantics for tense and events in that type of framework. We argue that each of these forms is unambiguous, and that the apparent variety of readings attested for them derives from interaction with other factors in the course of interpretation. The meaning of the (...) imperfecto is constrained to always reflect atelic aktionsart. In addition, it contains a modal element, and a contextually-given accessibility relation over situations constrains the interpretation of the modal in ways that give rise to all the attested readings. The pret´rito is indeterminate with respect to aktionsart, neither telic nor atelic. One or the other aktionsart may be forced by other factors in the clause in which the pret´rito occurs, as well as by pragmatic contrast with the possibility of using the imperfecto. (shrink)

The paper has two related aims. One is to outline a proposal for a spatially motivated model of discourse, called Discourse Space Theory. The other is to use this framework to explore, in a relatively formalised way, the spatial basis of the conceptual complexities arising in the uses of the English progressive verb form. The theory utilises an abstract space in three dimensions. Verb stems are associated with Aktionsart schemas; aspectual forms like the progressive are viewed as operations on (...) these schemas. The proposal is that geometric concepts, specifically coordinate systems and vectors, can provide a motivated formalism for investigating conceptual structures generated by a human discourse processor. (shrink)

Journal Name: Cognitive Linguistics Issue: Ahead of print.

It is argued that two different types of concept are often intermingled in discussions of Aktionsart. The most common type of classification is one of situation types, relating to the potential actualisation of a situation, although some of the definitions have to do with the actual realization of the situation. This distinction, adequately captured by the notions (a)telicity and (un)boundedness (Declerck 1989), is explored and it is shown how NPs, PPs and tense influence a sentence''s classification as (un)bounded.

Ryle (1949, Chapter V) discusses a range of predicates which in different ways exemplify a property I shall call quasi-duality - they appear to report two actions or events in one predicate. Quasi-duality is the key property of predicates Ryle classed as achievements. Ryle's criteria for classification were not temporal or aspectual, and Vendler's subsequent adoption of the term achievement for the aktionsart of momentary events changes the term - Rylean achievements and Vendlerian achievements are in principle different classes. (...) Nevertheless, I shall argue in this paper that certain kinds of quasi-duality do have aspectual significance. This paper examines a number of quasi-dual predicates which are not generally discussed in the aktionsart literature, including break a promise, miscount, and cure the patient. Two types of quasi-dual predicates are identified and dubbed criterion predicates and causative upshot predicates. It is shown that both types of quasi-dual predicate lack process progressives, despite being durative, and it is argued that the lack of process progressives identifies these predicates as (aspectual) achievements. They are termed durative achievements to distinguish them from canonical, momentary achievements. It is argued that these predicates lack process progressives, and hence are achievements, because they express individual-level predicates on the event argument. A process progressive is stage-level for the event, and hence is incompatible with a predicate which is lexically individual-level for the event. (shrink)

The thesis is an attempt to give a precise formal semantics for various time-referential linguistic categories of English such as tense, perfect, progressive and Aktionsart or "action type", with the ultimate goal of explaining why with a verb phrase such as walk the inference from, for instance, John is walking to John has walked is intuitively valid, while with a verb phrase such as build a house the even weaker inference from John is building a house to John will (...) have built a house is intuitively invalid. The difference is seen as one of the Aktionsart of the sentences involved. ;Accordingly, a theory of Aktionsarten is developed in chapter 2. Four different Aktionsarten are formally distinguished. In chapter 3 a theory of the tenses and their interaction with temporal adverbials is worked out. Chapter 4 is about the perfect. The so-called "extended now" theory of the perfect is given a precise treatment. Finally, chapter 5 deals with some problems of the English progressive. Especially the so-called "imperfective paradox" is given a solution. ;The method I use is that of model-theoretic semantics applied to natural languages, as it was first developed by the logician, Richard Montague. (shrink)

This paper proposes a pragmatic solution to utterances where the various indicators of time and aspect (tenses, lexical-conceptual features of Aktionsart, adverb phrases and contextual cues) seem to have divergent temporal reference and aspectual properties. This type of cases is usually treated at the semantic level as ‘mismatches’ and resolved compositionally through logical operations of ‘aspectual coercion’. We suggest on the contrary that no such effect of ‘mismatch resolution’ or ‘coercion’ is at work: these utterances are worked out inferentially (...) according to the various pieces of evidence they provide for their relevance, in line of Deirdre Wilson’s and Dan Sperber’s (1995) relevance theory. Such utterances give rise to cognitive effects that are hardly attainable by apparently more literal formulations, while being cost-effective. Our analysis follows the work ofEscandell-Vidal and Leonetti (2011)about the rigidity and thus prevalence of computational linguistic expressions, called ‘procedural expressions’ byBlakemore (1987)withinSperber and Wilson’s (1995[1986])framework, relevance theory. (shrink)

This book looks at the relationship between the structure of the sentence and the organization of discourse. While a sentence obeys specific grammatical rules, the coherence of a discourse is instead dependent on the relations between the sentences it contains. In this volume, leading syntacticians, semanticists, and philosophers examine the nature of these relations, where they come from, and how they apply. Chapters in Part I address points of sentence grammar in different languages, including mood and tense in Spanish, definite (...) determiners in French and Bulgarian, and the influence of aktionsart on the acquisition of tense by English, French, and Chinese children. Part II looks at modes of discourse, showing for example how discourse relations create implicatures and how Indirect Discourse differs from Free Indirect Discourse. The studies conclude that the relations between sentences that make a discourse coherent are already encoded in sentence grammar and that, once established, these relations influence the meaning of individual sentences. (shrink)

Gain a deeper understanding of essential research on the semantics of noun phrases and verb phrases. Clear explanations of significant recent research bring complex issues to life, with expert guidance on topics of debate within the field. The book gives readers valuable insights into topics such as definiteness, specificity, genericity aspect, aktionsart and mood. It also discusses directions for future research. Written by a world-class team of authors, these highly cited articles are here in paperback for the first time (...) since their original publication. An essential reference for researchers in the area. (shrink)

El perfecto es un aspecto de perspectiva retrospectiva que codifica la vigencia en el momento de habla de una eventualidad anterior. El presente trabajo propone la existencia de una categoría semántica y gramatical de antiperfecto que, en contraste con el perfecto, codifica la no vigencia en el momento de habla de una eventualidad pasada. Debido a que, al igual que el perfecto, el antiperfecto es sensible a la vigencia de una eventualidad anterior en el momento de habla, proponemos que se (...) trata de un segundo tipo de aspecto de perspectiva retrospectiva. Tras revisar las nociones de perfecto en Comrie, Dik y Nishiyama y Koenig y la noción de pasado discontinuo en Plungian y Van der Auwera, se observa el modo en que la categoría propuesta se realiza, codificada gramaticalmente, en la lengua mapuche, mediante el morfema -fu, con especial énfasis en su caracterización semántico-pragmática, su relación con la aktionsart y el papel del contexto en su interpretación. The perfect aspect is a retrospective aspect that encodes the current relevance of a previous event. In this work, we propose a semantic and grammatical category labeled as antiperfect that, in contrast to the perfect aspect, encodes the non-validity of a previous eventuality in speech time. Given that, as the perfect aspect, the antiperfect is subject to the current relevance of a previous situation, we propose that this is a second type of retrospective aspect. After reviewing the descriptions of perfect by Comrie, Dik and Nishiyama & Koenig, and the description of discontinuous past by Plungian & van der Auwera, we analyze how the antiperfect is grammatically encoded in Mapudungun by means of the morpheme -fu. We focus the analysis of this category on its semantic-pragmatic description, its relation to aktionsart, and the role of context in its interpretation. (shrink)

An essential part of natural language understanding, and hence of formal semantics, is the interpretation of temporal expressions. But the very variety of temporal phenomena---such as tense, aspect, aktionsart, temporal adverbials, and the temporal structure of extended text---has tended to result in formal semantic analyses using a wide variety of formal tools, often of a complex nature. It seems important to try and find unifying perspectives on this work, and above all, to try and gain some insight into the (...) logical resources needed to deal with natural language temporal phenomena. (shrink)