Seminar 3

I. Correct and/ or complete: 1. The aspectual meaning of a sentence is a composite of.. . 2. Aspect is a deictic category. 3. The Imperfective is expressed by Progressive and ............. grammatical markers in natural languages. 4. Perfective viewpoints focus on the situation as. 5. Imperfective viewpoints focus on 6. Viewpoint Aspect is signalled by a constellation of lexical morphemes and refers to the inherent temporal structuring of a situation. 7. Situation-type Aspect is established at the level of the ...... Define and discuss: VIEWPOINT ASPECT, PERFECTIVE, IMPERFECTIVE, SITUATION TYPE ASPECT. Explain why the linguistic unit which realizes situation-types is the verb constellation. Give two examples. Characterize States, Activities, Accomplishments, Achievements and Semelfactives along the semantic features stative, telic, duration. What is the temporal schema for each type? Identify the situation type the following verb phrases belong to. Mention at least two tests to determine their status: eat a piece of cake, eat cheese, find a coin, flap, lie in Asia, love music, play the violin, sing a ballad, kick the ball, stand in the doorway, drink beer, hammer the metal flat, wink at someone, make a sweater, arrive in London, laugh oneself silly, dance oneself into the room. Discuss the Subinterval Property, part-whole relations, the analogy with types of nouns with respect to States, Activities, Accomplishments, Achievements and Semelfactives. Define and illustrate: individual level predicate; stage-level predicate. Provide an example of an Achievement which is ungrammatical with the Progressive and an example of an Achievement which allows the Progressive. What is the relevant distinction? Describe the conditions under which an event qualifies as a change of state, referring to the basic abstract verb in the lexical makeup of change-of-state predicates. Discuss the difference between John died and John coughed. Explain why the sentences on the left are odd and the ones on the right are not: *He is knowing English very well. He is sitting in the bedroom. *He knew Greek three times. John hated liars three times in his life. *She is recognizing the one with the moustache. They were slowly reaching the top. *He deliberately recognized his long-lost brother. John carefully landed. *Be tall! Be calm! *What John did was know English. What John did was swim. 1

II.

III.

IV.

V.

VI.

VII. VIII.

IX.

X. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

7. * New Orleans is lying at the mouth of the Mississippi river. 8. *John forced Mary to own the car. 9. *John persuaded/forced the refrigerator to run. 10. *The bomb exploded for 2 minutes. 11. *John discovered the treasure in his garden all summer. XI. What are the entailment relations between type? 1. He was writing a letter. 2. He was pushing a cart. 3. Our team was winning. 4. John was walking in the park. 5. Mary stopped drawing a circle. 6. Mary stopped walking the dog. 7. Mary stopped walking to the park. 8. They stopped building the house. 9. They finished building the house.

After the forest fire, only two trees were still standing. John forced Mary to bake a cake. John persuaded/ forced Mary to run. The firecracker exploded for 2 minutes. John discovered treasures in his garden all summer.

the following sentences? What is the situation ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? He wrote a letter. He pushed a cart. Our team won. John walked in the park. Mary drew a circle. Mary walked the dog. Mary walked to the park. They built the house. They built the house.

XII.

Discuss the aspectual value of the following examples. Point out the elements that are involved: 1. I see very well; I dont need glasses. 2. At that moment, I saw him. 3. He thinks that John is a rascal. 4. He is thinking about Jane. 5. They walked up to the professor. 6. Jane was walking towards him. 7. John walked the dog. 8. They walked the prisoner to the electric chair. 9. She spotted the lie in the blink of an eye. 10. I disliked the newcomer in an instant. 11. John kept sneezing. 12. We all thought John was dying. 13. John writes novels for a living. 14. The guests/ *The guest arrived all afternoon. 15. The batallion/??The soldier crossed the border for twenty minutes. 16. John read a novel for an hour. 17. She combed her hair in a minute. 18. She combed her hair for a minute. 19. The bird was flapping its wings. 20. He knocked at the door for five minutes. 21. Mother was making a cake when I got home. 22. At last, I understood what it was all about.