In the discussion of the relationship between aspect and Aktionsart, it is generally agreed that aspect is a feature of the tense-form and Aktionsart depends on tense-form together with other clausal and contextual features such as lexical meaning and adjuncts used with the verb. Recent works have tried to find predictable patterns of meaning that emerge when a certain set of clausal factors and lexical features combine with one of the aspects. Most of these works are theoretical in nature and heavily rely on Zeno Vendler's quadripartition of lexical classes as part of their theory. These works are confined to the Greek of the New Testament, and often produce different and even incompatible results. This study presents an empirical approach to verify these results. Following previous works on corpus linguistics to analyze Hellenistic Greek, this study attempts to look for empirical evidence regarding what role lexical semantics and other contextual factors contribute to the choice of aspect. Using a body of text that forms a representative sample of Hellenistic text, the goal is to investigate distribution of tense-forms and lexis in the literature. Lexis are tested in groups according to Vendler's classes and also individually, and other contextual factors will also be considered. To narrow down this study to a manageable scope, the semantic feature of telicity is chosen for examination. This feature is foundational in the formulation of Vendler's taxonomy and is often mentioned with or even conflated with the perfective aspect. It has not been adequately demonstrated whether or not aspectual choices in Koine Greek are dependent on Vendler's telicity distinction. It is argued that, based on empirical evidence, telicity and perfectivity are not related in a systematic manner in Koine Greek. As a corollary, Atkionsart should be considered as an interpretive category, meaning that the value cannot be systematized in a linguistic analysis but can only be determined in the process of interpretation. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This study aims to find out the culturally different conceptualizations of congratulation in British culture and tebrik and kutlama in Turkish culture using a corpus approach and to formulate cultural scripts for these three performative verbs using the Natural Semantic Metalanguage Approach. More specifically, the study aims to reveal the contexts where the target speech act is used and to uncover the kinds of strategies/components employed in these situations. To be able to collect the targeted data, the study begins with the monolingual and bilingual dictionary definitions of the performative verbs (i.e., congratulate, tebrik etmek and kutlamak) and then follows a corpus approach whereby the performative verbs and their various lexical forms are searched for in various corpora (i.e., BYU-BNC, MTC, Google). In total, 47 dictionaries are looked up and 442 contexts of congratulation, 339 contexts of tebrik and 348 contexts of kutlama are collected from the newspaper and blog genres in the three corpora. The analyses of the data aim to uncover the qualitative and quantitative features of congratulation, tebrik and kutlama in British and Turkish cultures. The results of the study show that there are some cultural differences as well as similarities in the conceptualization of the speech act of congratulation in terms of its contexts of use and strategies. The findings also demonstrate the usefulness of the corpus approach in studying speech acts and their conceptualisation. The thesis aims to contribute to the areas of foreign language education, intercultural/cross-cultural communication and pragmatics.