This thesis investigates verbal and prepositional representations of change under a non-localistic analysis based on the mereology of events, i.e., a system of aspect that uses event parts as primitives in lieu of path parts. Localistic analyses, developed from motional concepts (e.g., Verkuyl 1993, Asher & Sablayrolles 1994), do not extend to non-motional data (e.g., changes of state or possession) except via metaphor, thereby bypassing essential generalizations about change. / It is argued that, instead of modeling change after the tripartite source-route-goal divisions of a spatial path, the various combinations of two eventive primitives---distinguished point and distinguished process---are sufficient and necessary in accounting for abstract and concrete data, including the four aspectual verb classes of states, activities, achievements and accomplishments (Vendler 1967). The medial lexical specification, route, is shown to be unnecessary, being an epiphenomenon of two distinguished points interacting, or inferable through pragmatic considerations. This is shown by examples from English and French. / Event mereology unifies concrete with abstract change under a single system of features for verbs (e.g., arrive and inherit ), prepositions, and their associated phrases (in the house and in debt). Underspecification and complementation further economize the lexical representations while accounting for cases of semantic ambiguity. Such issues as homogeneity in states/processes, resultatives, aspectual verbs (continue, stop), agentivity, and the effects of aspectual coercion by English aspectual morphemes (-ed, -ing) are examined and re-formulated where necessary. / The event-mereological approach is demonstrated to be compatible with various current syntactic analyses, and one such analysis (Travis 1999) is investigated in detail. Event mereology is also shown to extend to more complex aspectual patterns observed of serial verb constructions in Edo (Stewart 1998).

No description available.

This study aimed to investigate English Aktionsart coercion, particularly novel coercion, through corpora-based research. Novel coercions are those which need some contextual support in order to make sense of or be grammatical. Due to the nature of the data, a necessary part of the study was the design of a program to help in the process of tagging corpora for Aktionsart. This thesis starts with a discussion of five commonly accepted Aktionsarten: state, activity, achievement, accomplishment, and semelfactive. One significant contribution of the thesis is that it offers a comprehensive review and discussion of various theories that have been proposed to account for Aktionsart or aspectual coercion, as there is no such synthesis available in the literature. Thus the thesis moves on to a review of many of the more prominent works in the area of Aktionsart coercion, including Moens and Steedman (1988), Pustejovsky (1995), and De Swart (1998). I also present a few theories drawn from less prominent studies by authors in the area who have different or interesting views on the topic, such as Bickel (1997), Krifka (1998), and Xiao and McEnery (2004). In order to study the Aktionsart coercion of verbs in large corpora, examples of Aktionsart coercion needed to be collected. I aimed to design a computer program that could ideally perform a large portion of this task automatically. I present the methods I used in designing the program, as well as the process involved in using it to collect data. Some major steps in my research were the tagging of corpora, counting of coercion 3 frequency by type, and the selection of representative examples of different types of coercion for analysis and discussion. All of the examples collected from the corpora, both by my Aktionsart-tagging program and manually, were conventional coercions. As such there was no opportunity for an analysis of novel coercions. I nevertheless discuss the examples of conventional coercion that I gathered from the corpora analysis, with particular reference to Moens and Steedman’s (1988) theory. Three dominant types of coercion were identified in the data: from activities into accomplishments, activities into states, and accomplishments into states. There were two main ways coercions taking place in the data: from activity to accomplishment through the addition of an endpoint, and from various Aktionsarten into state by coercing the event into being a property of someone/something. Many of the Aktionsart coercion theories are supported at least in part by the data found in natural language. One of the most prominent coercions that is underrepresented in the data is from achievement to accomplishment through the addition of a preparatory process. I conclude that while there are reasons for analysing Aktionsart at verb phrase or sentence level, this does not mean the possibility of analyses at the lexical level should be ignored.

Orientador: Wilmar da Rocha D'Angelis / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-19T03:04:56Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Goncalves_SolangeAparecida_D.pdf: 1311084 bytes, checksum: 1fd2551f7b41fadf2a0f101164da9141 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011 / Resumo: Neste trabalho busco descrever o funcionamento das categorias temporais, aspectuais, de modo e de modalidade na língua Kaingang Sul (Jê) principalmente a partir de observações de seu emprego em contextos discursivos orais e escritos. Tais categorias são, em sua maioria, gramaticalizadas e abertamente marcadas quando relevantes para o contexto linguístico. Para minha proposição, dividi a tese em 6 capítulos e uma conclusão. No capítulo 1 discorro brevemente sobre a motivação do trabalho e faço algumas observações introdutórias que ajudarão na leitura do restante do texto. Informações sobre quem são os Kaingang também podem ser encontradas. Um sub-item aborda questões de metodologia e trabalho de campo. O capítulo traz ainda uma síntese de informações sobre a língua que tornará mais fácil a leitura e a compreensão dos dados ao longo da tese. O capítulo 2 trata da perspectiva temporal no Kaingang Sul. No capítulo 3 apresento a questão de Aspectualidade, mostrando que há distinção entre as perspectivas Perfectiva e Imperfectiva na língua. O capítulo 4 traz considerações sobre operadores de Modo e de Modalidade. Em um 5º capítulo estão sendo mostrados os diferentes usos ou papéis que os verbos de 'posição' (ou Posicionais) podem exercer na língua Kaingang. Também se poderá observar que há marcadores que aparecem principalmente em narrativas e estarão no capítulo 6 (que faz referência às relações discursivas), onde além de mostrar alguns dos operadores discursivos, também faço uma apresentação e discussão sobre estratégias de evidencialidade utilizadas em diferentes contextos / Abstract: In this work I try describe the functioning of temporal, aspectual, of mood and modality categories in Southern Kaingang (Ge) mainly from observation of its use in oral and written discursive contexts. These categories are mostly grammaticalized and openly marked as relevant to the linguistic context. For my proposition, I divided this thesis in six chapters, and a conclusion. In Chapter 1, I briefly discuss the motivation of this research, and make some introductory remarks that will help in reading the further chapters. Information about who are the Kaingang can also be found. Another item deals with issues of methodology and field work. The chapter also contains summary information about the language that will make easier reading and understand the data along the thesis. The Chapter 2 deals with the Time perspective in Southern Kaingang. In Chapter 3, I present the question of aspectuality, showing that there is distinction between Perfective and Imperfect perspectives in the language. Chapter 4 presents considerations for operators of mood and modality. In 5th chapter are shown the different uses or roles that the Positional Verbs can play in Kaingang language. There are markers that appear primarily in narratives; and they are in Chapter 6 (which refers to the discursive relations), and also are showed some discursive operators. This last chapter brings a presentation and discussion about strategies of evidentiality used in different contexts / Doutorado / Linguistica / Doutor em Linguística

Dissertation (PhD)--University of Stellenbosch, 2003. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study deals with three interrelated types of information about sentences in Zulu, i.e. situation aspect or events, viewpoint aspect which includes i.a. the perfective and imperfective aspect and the contribution of the temporal location of a sentence focusing on the basic tenses. The semantic feature of temporal location has been integrated with the view of the two components in sentences i.e. aspectual situation type and viewpoint. Vendier's classification of aspectual classes formed a base from which the Zulu event structure has been discussed. The contribution of the two theories, i.e. the Two Component theory of Smith (1997) and the Event Structure of Pustejovsky (1995) which is situated within the Generative Lexicon theory of lexical semantics featured prominently in the analysis of events and states in Zulu. A conclusion has been reached that there are four situation types relevant to Zulu and distinguished from each other by different temporal features. These situation types feature basic-level and derived-level types (according to Smith (1997)). Three event types have been identified for Zulu, i.e. state, process and transition (according to Pustejovsky (1995)). Events are complex semantic objects resulting in an extended event structure. Event structure classification for Zulu is established with structured sub-event. These event structures are defined with respect to three different types of ordering relation between sub-event, i.e. temporally ordered subevents, simultaneous sub-event and temporal overlap. The event structure has been distinguished through event headedness which give rise to twelve possible constructions. The basic principles and the temporal structures underlying the Zulu tenses are viewed in relation to the moment of speech, time of the situation and the reference time in the structure of tenses as shown in the viewpoint of Reichenbach developed by Hornstein (1990). The role played by adverbs as modifiers of tense is highlighted. The behavior of bounded and unbounded sentences in relation to tense is mentioned. Regarding the expression of aspect in Zulu, a clear distinction has been established between perfective and imperfective in Zulu. The aspect appears as an inflectional category within syntax. These categories may have a maximal projection according to the X-bar theory. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie gee aandag aan drie onderling verbonde tipes inligting oor sinne in. Zulu, d.i. die situasie-aspek of die gebeure, gesigspunt-aspek wat, onder andere, die perfektiewe en imperfektiewe aspek insluit en die bydrae van die temporele lokasie van 'n sin, met die fokus op die basiese tye. Die semantiese verskynsel van temporele lokasie is geintegreer met die aanname van die twee komponente in sinne, d.i. aspektueie situasie tipe, en die gesigspunt. Vendier se klassifikasie van aspektueie klasse het die basis gevorm waarvan daan die Zulu gebeure struktuur bespreek is. Die bydrae van die twee teorië, d.i. die Twee Komponent teorie van Smith (1997) en die gebeurde struktuur van Pustejovsky (1995) wat binne die Generatiewe Leksikon teorie van leksikale semantiek geleis, is in die analise van gebeure en toestand gebruik. Daar is tot die gevolgtrekking gekom dat daar vier situasietipes relevant tot Zulu is, en daar word tussen hulle deur middel van temporele verskynsels onderskei. Hierdie situasietipes beeld die basiese-vlak en die afgeleide-vlak tipes uit (volgens Smith (1997)) Drie tipes gebeure is vir Zulu geidentifiseer, d.i. toestand, proses, en oorgang (volgens Pustejovsky (1995)). Gebeure is kompleks semantiese voorwerpe wat tot uitgebreide gebeurde struktuur lei. Die gebeurde-struktuur se klassifikasie in Zulu is met gestruktureerde sub-gebeure gevestig. Hierdie gebeure-strukture is met betrekking tot drie verskillende tipes van verhouding ordening tusen sub-gebeure omskryf, d.i. temporeel geordende sub-gebeure, gelyktydige sub-gebeure en temporele oorslag. Die gebeure-struktuur is deur kemgebeure onderskei, wat aanleiding tot twaalf moontlike konstruksies gee. Die basiese beginsels en die temporele strukture onderliggend aan die Zulu tye word met betrekking tot die spraakmoment, tyd van die situasie, en die verwysingstyd in die struktuur van tye soos in Reichenbach se gesigspunt wat deur Hornstein (1990) ontwikkel, is, beskou. Die rol wat bywoorde as modifiseerders van tye speel, word na vore gebring. Die gedrag van gebonde en ongebonde sinne in verband met tyd word genoem. Betreffende die uitdrukking van aspek in Zulu is 'n besondere onderskeiding tussen die perfektief en imperfektief in Zulu gevestig. Die aspek kom as 'n infleksionêre kategorie binne sintaksis voor. Hierdie kategorie mag 'n maksimale projeksie volgens die x-bar teorie hê.

No description available.

On the basis of an investigation of a corpus of 5.5 million words, this thesis analyses the use of the present perfect in modem American and British English. The investigation traces the development of the present perfect from its origins as a structure with adjectival meaning to its modern-day use as an aspectual verb form. A frequency analysis tests the claims of various writers that the present perfect is losing ground against the preterite and is less frequent in American than in British English. Neither claim is supported by the results of this analysis. A temporal specifier analysis investigates the co-occurrence of a large number of adverbials with the various verb forms. It finds that certain groups of specifiers which have hitherto been considered markers for the present perfect are in fact very poor indicators. Specifiers indicating a period of time lasting up to the moment of utterance, however, are found to be very reliable indicators. With one exception no significant difference was found between the British and American corpora in this respect. A functional-semantic analysis examines the various theories of the present perfect against the background of the results of the empirical investigation and finds them to be insufficient in one or more respects. In the final chapter the division between tense and aspect is shown to be artificial and a model of the present perfect is presented which is based on the idea of multilayered aspectual values. The model is centred on the unifying concept of phragmatisation - the closing of the event time-frame. According to this model, discourse topics involving the present perfect are perceived to describe an event which takes place in a time frame which is not closed to the deictic zero point at the moment of utterance. The final section describes which factors are operative in the phragmatisation or closing of event time frames.

The goal of this thesis is to present a detailed study of the second language acquisition (SLA) of English aspect by native speakers of Slavic languages. A parameterized distinction between English and Slavic aspect is proposed, in order to account for the subtle differences between English and Slavic telic and alelic sentences. Thus the thesis opens a new area of parameter research in SLA and studies in depth the mental representation of aspect in interlanguage. / It is proposed that, the four aspectual classes of verbs (Vendler 1967), viz. accomplishments, achievements, activities and states, can be represented in four different phrase structure templates, projecting from the verb's lexical semantical structure and making reference to the properties of the object. It is argued that the four templates are language universals, and the parameterized distinctions between languages involve the syntactic positions of meaning-based primitive predicates like CAUSE, BECOME and BE (Dowty 1979). It is at this level that the English-Slavic contrast receives an explanation. / Based on the syntax-theoretical treatment of Slavic and English aspect, the them investigates the process of SLA of aspect in Slavic speakers at three levels of proficiency in English: low intermediate, high intermediate and advanced. L2 learners are found to be capable of resetting the aspectual parameter value to the English setting, thus successfully acquiring a property of language almost never taught in language classrooms. / The thesis also studies the acquisition of a cluster of constructions, which syntactic research relates to the English value of the aspectual parameter, and which have been found to appear together in the speech of English children (Snyder & Stromswold 1997): Double Objects, Verb-Particles and Resultatives. Results indicate that every one of these constructions forms part of this aspect-related cluster and that knowledge of aspect and knowledge of the cluster co-occur. / The results of the experimental studies bring new evidence to bear on the theoretical choice between direct access to the L2 value (Epstein, Flynn Martohardjono 1996, Flynn 1996) or starting out the process of acquisition with the L1 value of a parameter (Schwartz & Sprouse 1994, 1996), supporting the latter view.

Thesis (DLitt)--Stellenbosch University, 2004. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: One of the questions that have challenged scholars of BH for many years is whether the language should be regarded as a tense, aspectual or modal language. In this thesis, I argue that the lack and application of a metacategory for describing any language in general, and BH in particular, has been the main problem of the debate. A sound methodology is needed in order to be able to make an argument that can be tested empirically. The present study presents such a viable methodological approach. Using Bhatian parameters for tense, aspect and modal prominent languages, crosslinguistic metacategories of tense, aspect and mood were developed. These were applied to BH and the outcome was the hypothesis that BH is an aspect-prominent language. After formulating the above-mentioned hypothesis for BH, a corpus had been selected in the light of which the hypothesis was tested. The result demonstrates that BH consistently maintains perfective and imperfective aspectual distinctions. It was found that even where aspectual distinctions are extended to modal categories, the distinction in meanings between the perfective and the imperfective forms of the BH verb are not neutralised. From these observations, it has been concluded that there is the need to revisit the semantics of Proto Semitic. A model like the one used in this study could be replicated in the study of Proto Semitic. Such a revisit, it is hypothesised, may give fresh insights into the verbal system of Proto Semitic in general and BH in particular / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Een van die vrae wat reeds vir baie jare vir kenners van Byblese Hebreeus (=BH) In uitdaging is, is of die taal 'n tempustaal, 'n aspektuele taal of 'n modale taal is. In hierdie tesis voer ek aan dat die gebrek aan die toepassing van 'n metakategorie vir die beskrywing van tale in die algemeen, en BH in die besonder, die hoof probleem in die debat is. 'n Deeglike begronde metodologie is nodig om 'n hipotese daar te stel wat empiries getoets kan word. Hierdie studie wil so 'n metodologie formuleer. Deur gebruik te maak van Bhat se parameters vir tale waarvan die tempus, aspek en modaliteit prominent is, is kruislinguistiese metakategorieë vir tempus, aspek en modaliteit ontwikkel. Hierdie metakategorieë is op BH toegepas en die resultaat daarvan was die hipotese dat BH 'n aspek-prominente taal is. Nadat die bogenoemde hipotese vir BH geformuleer is, is 'n korpus geselekteer in die lig waarvan hierdie hipotese getoets kon word. Die resultaat demonstreer dat BH konsekwent die perfektiewe en imperfektiewe aspektuele onderskeid handhaaf. Daar is gevind dat selfs wanneer aspektuele onderskeidings uitgebrei is na modale kategorieë, die onderskeid tussen die perfektiewe en die imperfektiewe vorme van die BH werkwoord nie geneutraliseer word me. Vanuit hierdie waarnemings is tot die gevolgtrekking gekom dat dit nodig is om weer te gaan kyk na die semantiek van Proto-Semities. 'n Model soos die een wat in hierdie studie gebruik is, kan ook in die studie van Proto-Semities bebruik word. Die hipotese is dat so 'n hernude ondersoek nuwe insigte kan gee in die werkwoordsisteem van Proto-Semities in die algemeen en BH in die besonder.

Orientador: Wilmar da Rocha D'Angelis / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-10T06:06:31Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Goncalves_SolangeAparecida_M.pdf: 1388910 bytes, checksum: 2e8b0bfca61ebb48975ad22d15e07c86 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007 / Resumo: A presente dissertação avalia a pertinência do emprego da noção de Aspecto para definir a função desempenhada por um conjunto de partículas oracionais finais na língua Kaingang (família Jê, tronco Macro-Jê). Essa língua indígena é falada no Brasil Meridional em uma população de cerca de 30 mil pessoas. Para tanto, apresenta-se uma revisão da abordagem teórica dos fatos lingüísticos comumente classificados na categoria de Aspecto, destacando as distintas visões do fenômeno, muitas vezes tomado em perspectivas divergentes em diferentes autores. Ressalta-se, por exemplo, a distinção - para alguns teóricos, clara e necessária; para outros, inexistente ou sem grande utilidade - entre Aspecto e Acionalidade ('Aktionsart'). Há resenhas da bibliografia sobre a língua Kaingang, destacando as obras em que o tema foi abordado ou mencionado de algum modo. Finalmente, analisa-se um 'corpus' produzido, em sua maior parte, por dados colhidos diretamente em campo em função dessa pesquisa (uma parte dele, no entanto, é constituído de dados emprestados de outros trabalhos de pesquisa). A partir desses dados, sugerem-se hipóteses sobre a função de tais partículas, apontando, em algumas, efetivas funções aspectuais, mas em outras, uma função modal ou uma perspectiva de evidenciar Acionalidade / Abstract: This dissertation evaluates the relevancy of using the notion of Aspect to define the function performed by a set of final phrasal particles in the Kaingang language (Jê family, Macro-Jê stock). This aboriginal language is spoken by a population of about thirty thousand people in Southern Brazil. For this, a revision of the theoretical approach of the linguistic facts usually classified as Aspect's category is presented, detaching the distinct viewpoints about the phenomenon, many times taken in divergent perspectives by different authors. It's standed out, for example, the distinction - for some theoreticians, clear and necessary; for others, inexistent or without much use - between Aspect and Actionality ('Aktionsart'). There are bibliography summaries on the Kaingang language, detaching the workmanships where the subject boarded or was mentioned in some way. Finally, it is analyzed a set of data that, in its bigger part, was produced in field investigation specially applied for this research (a part of it, however, is constituted of borrowed data of other works of research). From these data, hypotheses are suggested on the function of such particles, concluding, in some cases, that they have effective aspectual functions, but in others, they suggest a modal function or a perspective of evidencing Actionality / Mestrado / Mestre em Linguística