Aspect

A framework for
analysis
So far...
Tense locates events in time
Temporal location: ST = central tense =
deictic
Temporal interpretation :
(i) tense morphemes (/z/. /d/, ?will)
(ii) time adverbials
So far...
Temporal interpretation is COMPOSITIONAL.
= the relations which obtain between three time
intervals: ST/RT/ET
ST/RT = tense
ET/RT = aspect
RT/ST = existential status
TP
2
T
2
T AspP
RT/ST 2
Asp
2
Asp VP
ET/RT 4
=
ST/ ET
So far...
Time adverbials: aspectual information
ET/RT = aspect
ASPECT?
Today
Defining aspect
Lexical aspect/situation-type aspect
Grammatical/viewpoint aspect
Aspect
aspect as a functional category
grammatical markers of aspect
a functional projection headed by Asp
aspect < the temporal characteristics of the situation
denoted by the predicate (i.e. lexical meaning)
Aspect
(1)
He is dancing.
He has fixed the car.
He is knocking at the door.
He noticed her at once.
Aspect
[+/-perfective] [+/-progressive] [+/iterative]
[+/- durative] [+/- resultative] .
information about the internal structure of the
situation and about the way in which the speaker
perceives this situation
Aspect
"the semantic domain of the temporal structure of
situations (events and states) and their
presentation." (Smith 1991)
Situation-type aspect
Situation types classify events/states in terms of
clusters of semantic features
The linguistic unit which realizes situation type is
"the verb constellation"
Aspect
situation-type aspect represents an interaction
of:
(i) the lexical meaning of the verb
(ii) the internal and external arguments of the verb
(iii) certain adjuncts
Aspect
John ate an apple. = [+telic]
John ate popcorn. = [-telic]
the type of DO is relevant for the aspectual
value of the predicate
Aspect
Students have been discovering this library for
ages.
??John has been discovering this library for
ages.
The subject is relevant for the aspectual
value of the predicate
Aspect
John ran in the park. [-telic]
John ran to the park. [+telic]
Certain adjuncts are relevant for the aspectual
value of the predicate
Aspect
Situation-types:
states
activities
definite change of state predicates
semelfactives
Aspect
John is tall.
John is running.
[+/- stative]
A stative situation = no internal change
= no dynamics
Aspect
John dances beautifully.
John made a chair.
[+/- telic] // [+/- resultative]
A telic event = has a natural endpoint at which the
event is finished.
Aspect
John built a house. [+durative]
John noticed a mistake. [-durative]
[+/- durative]
Aspect
build a
house, draw
a horse
+ + -
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
notice, spot + - -
ACHIEVEMENTS
run, dance,
rain
- + -
ACTIVITIES
be tall;
stand, sit
- + +
STATES
Examples +/-telic +/-
durative
+/-
stative
Situation-type
Aspect
John sneezed.
They hiccupped.
She knocked on the door.
The child jumped up and down.
+/- durative?
+/- stative?
+/- telic?
Aspect
The simplest possible situation:
[-stative]
[-durative]
[-telic]
= semelfactives (Smith 1991)
< Latin semel (once, a single time)
< Latin factum (event, occurrence)
Aspect
Vs. Comrie (1976)
Semelfactives:
[-stative]
[-durative]
[+telic]/ perfective
Aspect
= semantic classes of predicates
an idealization of types of situations
characterized by a bundle of semantic features
each class: unique interpretive properties and
unique distributional properties

indirect syntactic correlates of semantic concepts

Aspect
STATES / Stative verb constellations
John loves Mary.
Mary is a linguist.
Mary believes linguistics is fun.
Aspect
lack dynamics
hold for a moment or an interval, with an
arbitrary final point
are homogeneous: when they hold for an
interval they also hold for every sub-
interval of that interval
Aspect
States normally resist the progressive:
*John is being tall.
*John is knowing English.
* John is owning a farm.
Aspect
BUT
John is lying in the grass.
John is standing in the doorway.
You are being rude!
These statives allow a stage-level
interpretation , they refer to a momentary
situation they can occur in the progressive.
Aspect
a distinction which is relevant:
(i) stage-level predicates (SLPs)
= temporary or accidental properties
tired, angry, run
(ii) individual-level predicates (ILPs)
= (more or less) permanent or inherent properties
blond, intelligent, tall
Aspect
States:
(i) which allow a stage-level interpretation
(ii) which do not allow a stage-level interpretation,
which are exclusively ILPs
TASK:
John is polite.
(i) or (ii) ?
Aspect
John is polite.
John is being polite.
The statue stands in the middle of the square.
Your box is standing in the middle of the room.
Aspect
My coat has a big zip.
*My coat is having a big zip.
The moat surrounds the castle.
*The moat is surrounding the castle.
Aspect
States which cannot be interpreted as stage-
level predicates resist the progressive.
States which can be interpreted as stage-
level predicates can be used in the
progressive
Aspect
John is tall.
*John is being tall.
John is rude.
John is being rude.
Aspect
States usually resist the imperative:
*Know the answer!
*Be tall!
Vs. Be polite!
< [+/- control] (on the part of the subject )
Aspect
ACTIVITIES
dynamic
durative
they lack a natural endpoint [atelic]
run in the park, dance with John, rain, eat
cherries, laugh, make noise, roll, rain, snow,
play the piano.
Aspect
They consist entirely in the process
They are homogeneous
Aspect
Activities differ from change of state
predicates
(i) Does x was V-ing (pragmatically) entail x
has V-ed?
John was dancing. John has danced.
John was making a cake. John has made
a cake.
Aspect
(ii) =the entailment of stop +V-ing
John stopped running.
John stopped painting a picture.
= ?
Aspect
(iii) =the adverb ALMOST : different effects on
activities and change of state predicates:
He almost ran.
He almost painted a picture.
He almost killed her.
Aspect
Accomplishment: Activity (Process) + Result
He painted a picture
[he did something] which caused [a picture to
exist]
Aspect
ALMOST can modify one of the two parts:
(i) ALMOST [he did something] which caused
[a picture to exist]
(ii) [he did something] which caused ALMOST
[a picture to exist]
Aspect
Vs. activities:
He almost ran.
Aspect
=IN Phrases
*He ran in an hour.
He made a chair in an hour.
He noticed the mistake in a second.
Last week....
Situation-type aspect situation-types
states
activities
Task 1
Be tall
Be polite
Sit
Stand
Lie
Love
Task 2
Dance
Rain
Snow
Play chess
Play the piano
Run
Walk
Work
Task 3
Know Chinese
Speak Chinese to a friend
Like red wine
Drink wine
Work
Understand
Listen
Today
situation-types cont.
achievements
accomplishments
semelfactives
Class shift/recategorization
Viewpoint aspect
Aspect
ACHIEVEMENTS
instantaneous changes of state
with an outcome of a new state entail the
existence of a result
the event consists of a single stage which is
the very change of state they refer to.
+ dynamic, +telic, +instantaneous
Aspect
reach the top, win a race, arrive, find,
notice, recognize, break
A. Ach. which have no preliminary stages
B. Ach. which allow preliminary stages
+/- progressive
Aspect
*John is noticing a mistake.
* I am finding the book.
John is winning the race.
She is recovering slowly.
Aspect
In vs. for
John noticed her in a second.
*John noticed her for a second.
John recovered in a week.
*John recovered for a week.
Aspect
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
build a house, build a bridge, make a cake, draw
a circle.
[+dynamic]
[+durative]
[+telic]
Aspect
complex events made up of a series of
successive stages and a natural end
point
= a process + an outcome
Aspect
they do not refer to homogeneous
situations. Their internal stages are
successive. But these stages and the
final point are seen as a single event.
Aspect
Compatible with adverbials of completion:
IN
He made a chair in an hour.
They built the house in ten years.
Aspect
ambiguous with ALMOST
They almost killed her.
He almost fixed the computer.
TASK:
(i) ?
(ii) ?
Aspect
SEMELFACTIVES
knock, hiccup, flap a wing, hiccup, sneeze,
belch, burp, cough, jump
+ Instantaneous:
Their initial and final points are simultaneous/
they take place over the shortest possible
interval
Aspect
+ the imperfective viewpoint or durative
adverbials
He was jumping up and down.
He was sneezing.
He coughed for 5 minutes.
Reinterpreted as activities
The floating nature of situation types
= the interpretation of the contour of the whole
situation: a SHIFT from one class to another/
class shift//recategorization
The floating nature of situation types
John ate. = activity
John ate sandwiches. = activity
John ate sandwiches for hours on
end.
The floating nature of situation types
BUT:
John ate two sandwiches.

= a delimiter accomplishment
The floating nature of situation types
John wrote letters. activity
John wrote letters for two hours.
John wrote ten letters. accomplishment
John wrote ten letters in 30 minutes/ *for two
hours.
The floating nature of situation types
Two tourists have discovered the beautiful forest.
Achievement
*Two tourists have been discovering the
beautiful forest.
Tourists have been discovering that beautiful forest
for years.
activity/iterativity < TOURISTS = bare
plural/indefinite
The floating nature of situation types
An idea occurred to her. achievement
?? An idea occurred to her for weeks.
Strange ideas occurred to her for weeks.
activity/iterativity < STRANGE IDEAS
The floating nature of situation types
The nature of the arguments of the verb can
cause a type shift/recategorization:
(i) the internal argument of V
(ii) the external argument of V
The floating nature of situation types
John ran. activity
John ran for an hour.
John ran a mile.

an adverbial of extent [a delimiter]

accomplishment
John ran a mile *for an hour.
John ran a mile in an hour.
The floating nature of situation types
The child swam. activity
The child swam for two hours.
The child swam to the shore.

a delimiter
Accomplishment
Aspect
The child swam to the shore in 10
minutes.
The floating nature of situation types
She knocked at the door. (single? Repeated?)
She REPEATEDLY knocked at the door. an
event of the multiple type
The wheel revolved.
The wheel revolved all day.
The floating nature of situation types
Adverbials
can cause type shift/recategorization.
The floating nature of situation types
John made a chair. accomplishment
John was making a chair. activity
They reached the top. achievement
They were reaching the top. activity
The floating nature of situation types
PROG can cause type shift/recategorization
Conclusions so far
Aspect: the internal structure of situations
situation-type aspect (lexical aspect)
States
Activities
Accomplishments
Achievements
semelfactives
Task 4
Notice a mistake
Discover
Find
Recover
Task 5
Build a house
Draw a horse
Bake a cake
Break a window
Kill a cockroach
Task 6
Jump
Knock
Sneeze
Hiccup
Task 7
The glass broke.
John broke a glass.
The snow melted.
The sun melted the snow.
Task 7
The soup cooled.
John cooled the soup.
Play chess
Play a game of chess
Task 7
Know English
Speak English
Learn English
Play the piano
Play a concert
Reach the top of the mountain
Win a game
Task 7
They swept the floor clean.
He hammered the metal flat.
He shot them dead.
Aspect
So far... situation-type aspect
Aspect
He was dancing.
He was knocking at the door.
aspectual information is rendered both
morphologically and lexically.
Aspect
"the semantic domain of the temporal
structure of situations (events and states)
and their presentation." (Smith 1991)
Aspect
Lexical aspect / situation-type aspect
Grammatical aspect/ viewpoint aspect
Aspect
He was dancing.
He has fixed the car.
He was knocking at the door.
He noticed her at once.
= a way of viewing the internal temporal
constituency of a situation. (Comrie 1976).
Aspect
The internal structure of situations takes up
intervals of time in different ways:
(i) Presented as a whole
(ii)Focus on one stage
(iii)Focus on their iterativity
etc.
Aspect. Viewpoint
aspect : encodes information with respect to
the way in which the speaker chooses to
present/to view the situation
as a whole [ +perfective]
only incompletely, with a focus on one stage
of the situation. [+progressive]
= viewpoint aspect
Aspect
The perfective viewpoint
The progressive viewpoint
Aspect
John is reading.
John was reading.
John has read this book.
John had read the book.
John will read this book.
John will be reading this book when...
Aspect
Aspect = non-deictic
< it does not locate the event in time. Its
interpretation is not related to ST.
tense = the situation external time
aspect =the situation-internal time
Aspect
Viewpoint aspect is grammaticized, i.e. it has
grammatical markers:
a. [be + ing] = the imperfective// progressive
viewpoint.
b. [have + en] = the perfective viewpoint
Aspect
It was Franks bad leg that woke him; it was
paining him worse than ever in his old age.
Something was slithering towards him along
the dark corridor floor.
Americas anti-hunting movement is tiny by
British standards. But it is gathering
momentum.
Aspect
stages of an event
focus on an internal stage/ on internal stages
which lack both the initial and the final boundary
the situation is perceived as open/ going on/
incomplete
Aspect
= the predicate denotes only a time-space
slice of an open situation whose limits are
indefinite.
=the event does not end, it does not culminate,
it is simply going on. It holds at RT.
Aspect
the imperfective viewpoint presents
situations as open, focussing on the internal
stages of an event in progress.
It has grammatical markers in English
(i) [be ing]
(ii) -ing
Aspect
John is dancing.

present 3
rd
sg , i.e. Tense and Agr.
They were dancing.

past 3
rd
pl.
Aspect
be= an auxiliary which carries tense and
agreement information
-ing = the grammatical marker of the
imperfective viewpoint (the progressive)
Aspect
TP
2
Spec T
2
T AspP
is 2
Asp
2
Asp VP
ing
Aspect
-ing: locates an event at/around RT
John is dancing.
ST=now
RT = ST [present]
ET at/around RT [imperfective viewpoint]
ET at/around ST [open situation]
Aspect
John was dancing.
ST=
RT ST
ET RT
ET ST
Aspect
John was dancing.
ST= now
RT before ST [PAST]
ET at/around RT [imperfective viewpoint]
ET at/around ST [open situation/on-going]
Aspect :the perfective viewpoint
THE PERFECTIVE VIEWPOINT:
the situation is presented as a WHOLE , it is
over:
They have already washed the dishes.
John has fixed the computer.
Aspect
there are grammatical markers for the perfective
viewpoint:
(i) [have en]
(ii) en
Aspect
Whenever [have en] is present, ET presented
as a whole and it is interpreted as instantiated
before RT. Whether the situation is complete or
not at RT depends on the lexical meaning of the
verb.
Aspect
(i) Have en
(ii) en
en = the marker of perfectivity. The auxiliary
have: a mere carrier of Tense and Agreement
Aspect
TP
2
Spec T
2
T AspP
have 2
Asp
2
Asp VP
-en
Aspect
John has left.
ST= now
RT = ST [Present]
ET before RT [Perfective]
ET before ST [historical existential status]
Aspect
John had left ten days before.
ST= now
RT before ST [ Past]
ET before RT [Perfective]
ET before ST [ historical existential status]
Aspect
At 5.00 tomorrow I will have already sent the
letter.
ST = now
RT after ST [future]
ET before RT [perfective]
ET after ST [non-historical ES]
Aspect
So far:
the perfective viewpoint (-en) : ET prior to RT
the imperfective viewpoint (-ing): ET spans RT (or
ET at/around RT)
neutral viewpoint (0 marker): ET=RT.
Aspect
Aspectual interpretation:
< situation-type aspect + viewpoint aspect