Aspectual classes and scales of change
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John Beavers
Abstract
Standard models of aspectual classes focus on event decompositional or featural distinctions. However, such classifications often over- or under-generate, and do not necessarily capture the temporal properties aspectual classifications are based on. I develop a predictive model of aspectual classes based on theories of scalar change, taking two independently motivated properties of scales as key: (a) how specific the predicate is about the theme's final state on the scale and (b) the scale's mereological complexity. The resultant classification accommodates the standard Vendler dynamic classes, plus additional classes that have proved difficult for prior approaches, and makes novel predictions about the relation of aspectual class and argument realization.
©[2013] by Walter de Gruyter Berlin Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Masthead
- Introduction: A multifaceted approach to verb classes
- Aspectual classes and scales of change
- Comparing and harmonizing different verb classifications in light of a semantic annotation task
- Verb classes in Adyghe: Derivational vs. nonderivational criteria
- Processing correlates of verb typologies: Investigating internal structure and argument realization
- Relevance verbs in English and French: Synonymy and its structural properties
- Mapping constructional spaces: A contrastive analysis of English and Dutch analytic causatives
Articles in the same Issue
- Masthead
- Introduction: A multifaceted approach to verb classes
- Aspectual classes and scales of change
- Comparing and harmonizing different verb classifications in light of a semantic annotation task
- Verb classes in Adyghe: Derivational vs. nonderivational criteria
- Processing correlates of verb typologies: Investigating internal structure and argument realization
- Relevance verbs in English and French: Synonymy and its structural properties
- Mapping constructional spaces: A contrastive analysis of English and Dutch analytic causatives
