Ce travail offre une nouvelle perspective sur l’analyse de l’imperfectivité dans la presse espagnole. Le point de départ pour cette analyse est la catégorie sémantico-fonctionnelle de l’aspectualité qui peut être exprimée en espagnol par l’aspect, aktionsart, des adverbes, des périphrases verbales, etc. Sur la base de l’imperfectivité comme une catégorie sémantico-fonctionnelle, qui comprend tous les moyens possibles pour exprimer l’indétermination sémantique comme l’imparfait(cantaba), le présent (canta), ESTAR+GERUNDIO, etc., il est possible d’établir un lien sémantique avec d’autres catégories sémantiques comme la temporalité, la modalité et l’évidentialité où le point central de ce chevauchement est constitué par la perspective du locuteur, à partir de laquelle il formule son énoncé, ce qui est associé à sa subjectivité dans le choix, par exemple, d’une forme verbale imperfective(cantaba) dans des contextes où devrait apparaître une forme verbale perfective(cantó) : El valor total […] ascendía a unos 5.950 euros.Bien que, dans certains contextes, cette décision puisse être expliquée de façon grammaticale, dans d’autres contextes (textes journalistiques) cela ne semble pas être le cas parce que le locuteur se sert de l’indétermination sémantique exprimée par le pretérito imperfecto pour exprimer ses énoncés avec une intention,par exemple, pour signaler une distanciation, une reprise d’énoncés, etc.À cause de son indétermination sémantique, l’imperfectivité se rapproche d’autres fonctions sémantiques comme la modalité épistémique et l’évidentialité indirecte qui permettent de donner à une situation un caractère ‘ouvert’ ou ‘indéterminé’ pour exprimer par exemple une supposition, la reprise d’une citation ou la distanciation du locuteur face à ce qui a dit. / The aim of this study is to analyse the use of imperfectivity in the Spanishpress. The point of departure for this analysis is the semantic-functional category ofaspectuality which can be expressed in Spanish by diverse linguistic means likegrammatical aspect, Aktionsarten, adverbs, verbal periphrases, etc. By consideringimperfectivity as a semantic-functional category, which comprises all the possiblelinguistic means to express semantic indeterminacy like the Spanish imperfecto(cantaba), presente (canta), ESTAR+GERUNDIO, etc., a semantic relation to othercategories such as temporality, modality and evidentiality can be made. Thesecategories interplay with the speaker’s stance in expressing an utterance, which isassociated with subjectivity. For example, an imperfective verb form (cantaba) maybe chosen in contexts where the perfective verb form (cantó) is expected to appear:El valor total […] ascendía a unos 5.950 euros (‘The total value […] rose (imperfecto)to some 5.950 euros’).Although in some contexts the use of the imperfective verb form isgrammatically motivated, there are other contexts where this is not the case, e.g. injournalistic texts. The speaker takes advantage of the semantic indeterminacy of theSpanish imperfecto cantaba with a specific intention like showing distance from theutterance or reproducing an utterance made by third parties, etc.Thus imperfectivity, due to its semantic indeterminacy, relates to othersemantic functions like epistemic modality and indirect evidentiality by which asituation is presented as open and undetermined, e.g. the expression of asupposition, or a quotation, or a speaker’s distance from his utterance.

(på engelska): This thesis aims to investigate what the verbal aspect as a grammatical verb category entails, how it is formed and expressed in Slavic languages, namely in Czech and Ukrainian. In addition to verbal aspect, aktionsart is also examined. Initially, the focus is on the definition of the most relevant terms, while specific examples of aktionsart and usage of perfective and imperfective aspect are emphasized later in the study. In addition, the various aspectual means available in languages that lack aspect as a grammatical category are analyzed, with Swedish as an example. Special attention is given to phrasal verbs as an aspect marker. Furthermore, the thesis contains a corpus-driven research that focuses on the translation of Czech and Ukrainian perfective verbs into Swedish (27 verbs in total) and aims to see to what extent verbal particles are used when translating perfective aspect. The analysis shows that phrasal verbs are a relatively frequent means to translate perfective aspect, even though there seems to be a high degree of a translator's subjective judgement about whether or not phrasal verbs are appropriate in certain situations. Nevertheless, it is clear that phrasal verbs contribute to a more bounded and thus perfective meaning. The exact number of the results with phrasal...

This thesis investigates three different so-called “past tense forms” in Tulu, a Dravidian language spoken in the south-western Indian states of Karnataka and Kerala. Through fieldwork material collected by the author, this thesis provides a comprehensive analysis of the usage and functions of the three forms in Tulu. It expands upon previous research, which has acknowledged the forms’ existence but not described their functions or provided examples of their usage. Previous research has also often referred to the forms with contradictory names; for example, one form has been called both “immediate past” by one source (Bhat, 1998:166) and “distant past” by another (Krishnamurti, 2003:334), with little explanation of the choice of these labels. In this thesis, they are called Past1, Past2 and Past3 as they all refer to events that have already happened, but the study shows that the distinction between them is one of aspect and validity of results and not of remoteness in tense. The investigation also shows that the three forms have differentiating and contrasting functions and can, in most cases, not be replaced by the others. Past1 is favoured to express perfectivity, event-focused actions, and consecutiveness. Past2 is used for continuous statives, states resulting from past events and events that have happened at least once, as well as introducing a new topic in a narrative. Past3 refers to both punctual or completed events and states that can hold for some time with other events happening in between, and it is commonly used to mark a situation or result not holding anymore. When events in the past are within the same scope, or an event is elaborated upon, the Past3 is also used, as well as when referring to events completed or started before a time reference in the past. The description of these forms' functions will fill a knowledge gap in the description of Tulu, providing a comprehensive understanding of the tense and aspect system in the language. Furthermore, the analysis and data can advance future Tulu and general typological studies about tense and aspect systems. Tulu has several unique features compared to other Dravidian languages. The so-called past tense forms have been claimed as one of them (Subrahmanyam, 1971; Krishnamurti, 2003). By describing them and including a brief comparison with other Dravidian languages, this thesis contributes to understanding the Dravidian language family. It provides material for the study of language change and the family's genealogy. In addition, the data released with the thesis includes sentences from Tulu and basic vocabulary lists from various Dravidian languages that can likewise be used in historical research of the family.