Arche, Maria J. (2014) The construction of viewpoint aspect: the imperfective revisited. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory, 32 (3). pp. 791-831. ISSN 0167-806X (Print), 1573-0859 (Online) (doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s11049-013-9209-5)

Preview	PDF (Author's Pre-Print Manuscript) 9976_ARCHE_The_Construction_of_Viewpoint_Aspect_2014.pdf - Draft Version Download (526kB)
	PDF (Email of Acceptance) 9976_ARCHE_Acceptance_Email_2013.pdf - Additional Metadata Restricted to Repository staff only Download (187kB)

Abstract

This paper argues for a constructionist approach to viewpoint Aspect by exploring the idea that it does not exert any altering force on the situation-aspect properties of predicates. The proposal is developed by analyzing the syntax and semantics of the imperfective, which has been attributed a coercer role in the literature as a de-telicizer and de-stativizer in the progressive, and as a de-eventivizer in the so-called ability (or attitudinal) and habitual readings. This paper proposes a unified semantics for the imperfective, preserving the properties of eventualities throughout the derivation. The paper argues that the semantics of viewpoint aspect is encoded in a series of functional heads containing interval-ordering predicates and quantifiers. This richer structure allows us to account for a greater amount of phenomena, such as the perfective nature of the individual instantiations of the event within a habitual construction or the nonculminating reading of perfective accomplishments in Spanish. This paper hypothesizes that nonculminating accomplishments have an underlying structure corresponding to the perfective progressive. As a consequence, the progressive becomes disentangled from imperfectivity and is given a novel analysis. The proposed syntax is argued to have a corresponding explicit morphology in languages such as Spanish and a nondifferentiating one in languages such as English; however, the syntax-semantics underlying both of these languages is argued to be the same.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11049-013-9209-5
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Aspect; Imperfective; Perfective; Progressive; Coercion; Syntax–morphology mapping
Subjects:	P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group:	Faculty of Liberal Arts & Sciences Faculty of Liberal Arts & Sciences > School of Humanities & Social Sciences (HSS)
Related URLs:	Publisher Organisation
Last Modified:	22 May 2020 17:51
URI:	http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/9976

Actions (login required)

View Item

Downloads