Aspectual Embedding

In this paper a new approach to the determination of aspectual class on a sentential level is proposed. It turns out that the composition of a new aspectual class can be understood as an embedding of the class introduced by the verb into a new more complex situation. The VP to bake apple pies, for instance, can therefore be presented as an iteration of several baking an apple pie-events which, however, doesn't have to be necessarily sequential. Assuming this, the embedding process can be described in a monotonic way as embedding the verb's aspectual class as the basic type into a new eventuality which is triggered by a limited set of constructions (e.g. bare plurals or time adverbials). It should be stressed that the embedding takes place only when necessary and consequently an underspeciied representation is required which can be resolved when more speciic information is added. Hence a formalisation of the embedding process is described by the newly introduced underspeciied semantics formalism Minimal Recursion Semantics ?]. The aspectual interpretation can therefore be postponed until the end of the parse and the semantic content of the whole sentence is interpreted according to the aspectual rules in a second processing step.