Achievements in Northern Paiute∗

Building on earlier work, Vendler (1957) identifies four aktionsart classes for predicates in English: states, activities, accomplishments, and achievements. These classes reflect predicates’ shared behavior in various grammatical constructions that are sensitive to certain components of their meaning. This raises a core question in the literature on aspect. “What exactly,” as Filip (2011:1192) puts it, “are the aspectually relevant meaning components, how are they related to each other and how do they uniquely determine the relevant Aristotelian [or aktionsart— MT] classes and no other?” Here, I begin to explore an answer to this question for Northern Paiute (Uto-Aztecan, Numic: Western United States).