Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T03:19:04.608Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Structure of Aspect

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2016

Jan Van Voorst
Jan Van Voorst*
Affiliation:
Calgary Institute for the Humanities
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

This article gives a formalized description of aspect within the context of Reichenbach’s (1947) model of tense structures. Reichenbach’s primitive for the event, E, is further analyzed as consisting of a beginning, an end or both. This configuration is called Aspectual Structure. Its interaction with Tense Structure is used to verify this structure independently. Aspectual Structure distinguishes clearly between perfective and imperfective constructions on the one hand and progressive and stative constructions on the other. The former exhibit aspectual structure; the latter do not. My analysis presents independent evidence for or against various insights present in purely descriptive approaches to aspect that can be found in many places in the literature.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique , Volume 32 , Issue 3 , September 1987 , pp. 261 - 275
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Linguistic Association 1987

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bouchard, Denis 1984 Having a Tense Time in Grammar. Cahiers linguistiques d’Ottawa 12:39–115.Google Scholar
Comrie, Bernard 1976 Aspect. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Dowty, David R. 1979 Word Meaning and Montague Grammar. Dordrecht: Reidel.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldsmith, John, and Woisetschlaeger, Erich 1982 The Logic of the English Progressive. Linguistic Inquiry 13:79–89.Google Scholar
Hirtle, Walter 1967 The Simple and Progressive Forms, an Analytical Approach. Québec: Les Presses de l’Université Laval.Google Scholar
Hornstein, Norbert 1981 The Study of Meaning in Natural Language. Three Approaches to Tense. Pp. 116–152 in Explanation in Linguistics; The Logical Problem of Language Acquisition. Hornstein, Norbert and Lightfoot, David, eds. New York: Longman.Google Scholar
Leech, Geoffrey N. 1969 Towards a Semantic Description of English. London: Longmans.Google Scholar
McArthur, John D. 1971 Tense Logic. Dordrecht: Reidel.Google Scholar
McCawley, James D. 1977 Acquisition Models as Models of Acquisition. Pp. 51–64 in Studies in Language Variation. Fasold, Ralph and Shuy, Roger W., eds. Washington: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
Reichenbach, Hans 1947 Elements of Symbolic Logic. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Smith, Carlota S. 1983 A Theory of Aspectual Choice. Language 59:479–501.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vendler, Zeno 1967 Linguistics in Philosophy. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Voorst, Jan G. van 1988 Event Structure. Amsterdam: John Benjamins [forthcoming].CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woisetschlaeger, Erich F. 1976 A Semantic Theory of the English Auxiliary System. New York: Garland.Google Scholar