The aim of this study is to investigate the interaction between viewpoint aspect and argument realization. More specifically, we examine the correlation of +/ perfective verb forms in Greek and null objects with indefinite, non-specific interpretation. It is argued that although null objects are possible with both perfective and imperfective verbs, imperfective verbs favour object omission more...

Linguistic analyses of Mandarin Chinese and English have detailed the differences between the two languages in terms of the devices each makes available for expressing distinctions in the temporal contouring of events — verb aspect and Aktionsart. In this study, adult native speakers of each language were shown a cartoon, a movie, or a series of short action sequences and then videotaped talkin...

Sphere semantics is based on Tarski’s geometry of solids. It is evoked here to provide semantics for natural-language aspect, in particular the English progressive. Three virtues are argued for: (i) The approach extends interval semantics and omits its pitfalls, (ii) the semantics solves the imperfective puzzle, and (iii) the solution does not appeal to the strategy of eventual outcomes.

One main problem for NLP applications is that natural language expressions are underspecified and require enrichments of different sorts to get a truthconditional interpretaton in context. Underspecification applies on two levels: what is said underdetermines what is meant, and linguistic meaning underspecifies what is said. One instance of this phenomenon is aspect in Russian, especially the i...

In many of the world's languages grammatical aspect is used to indicate how events unfold over time. In English, activities that are ongoing can be distinguished from those that are completed using the morphological marker -ing. Using naturalistic observations of two children in their third year of life, we quantify the availability and reliability of the imperfective form in the communicative ...

The vast majority of prefixed roots fall into the perfective class, although there are some perfectives that are not prefixed. Imperfective verb forms are either unprefixed altogether, or possess a suffixal marker of imperfectivity (generally called the ‘secondary’ imperfective). The analytical problem is this: despite this apparently uniform effect on the interpretation of the tense morphology...

The distinction between perfective and imperfective aspect has been identified in many languages across the world. This paper shows that even do not have a dedicated perfective—imperfective may endow verbal construction is specifically aspectual with value. crucial diagnostic for identifying perfectivity given non-aspectual difference temporal interpretation of clauses involving construction, l...

It has been widely observed that in the L2 acquisition of aspect, progressive/imperfective marking is acquired earlier with activity verbs than with achievement verbs (the Aspect Hypothesis; Andersen & Shirai, 1994). This pattern has been seen repeatedly in Japanese -te i(e.g., Shirai & Kurono, 1998), and in -ko issand -a issin L2 Korean (e.g., Lee & Kim, 2007). However, Ishida (2004) found her...

Natural language expressions are generally underspecified and need specification of different kinds to get a contextually relevant interpretation. One instance of underspecification is the imperfective aspect in Russian, which gives rise to a considerable variety of readings. This poses certain problems for an account in purley semantic terms: What is the common denominator of all these interpr...

Mandarin Chinese as an aspect language (Norman, 1988:163) has a rich inventory of aspect markers, including perfective -le, -guo and imperfective -zhe, zai. Of these -le is the most studied marker because of its mysterious behaviors. For example, is it necessary to differentiate between the perfective -le and the COS le? Does -le indicate completion or termination? Are there any constraints on ...