Formal semantics constitutes the framework of the research presented here, and the aim is to provide a solution to the imperfective paradox; i.e. explain why \Max was running" entails \Max ran", but \Max was running home" does not entail \Max ran home". This paper is divided into two parts. In Part I we evaluate what I will call the Eventual Outcome Strategy for solving the imperfective paradox...

In a story completion study involving transfer-of-possession passages (John handed a book to Bob. He _____), Stevenson et al. (1994) identified a pronoun interpretation preference that is compatible with two possible explanations: a superficial thematic role bias for Goals over Sources, and a deeper event structure bias toward focusing on the end state of such events. To distinguish these hypot...

In the aspectual linguistic literature, a connection between imperfective aspect and modality/subjectivity is quite often mentioned. This article investigates a possible counterargument to this connection by analyzing modal readings of tenses in Russian. Two types of uses of tenses are described: (1) temporal reading of the tense with a modal inference and (2) strictly modal reading of the tens...

Recent evidence suggests that grammatical aspect can bias how individuals perceive criminal intentionality during discourse comprehension. Given that criminal intentionality is a common criterion for legal definitions (e.g., first-degree murder), the present study explored whether grammatical aspect may also impact legal judgments. In a series of four experiments participants were provided with...

Machine translation between any two languages requires the generation of information that is implicit in the source language. In translating from Chinese to English, tense and other temporal information must be inferred from other grammatical and lexical cues. Moreover, Chinese multiple-clause sentences may contain inter-clausal relations (temporal or otherwise) that must be explicit in English...

This paper revisits four clitics of Pagu (a West-Papuan language spoken in North Halmahera, Indonesia) those that have been described as Tense and Aspect markers (Wimbish 1991): -oka, -ou -osi, -uli. The first one is considered a tense marker for ‘non-future’ time, while the other three are aspect ‘perfective’, ‘imperfective’, ‘repetitive’ respectively. Following metatypy approach (Ross 2006; 2...

In Section 2, we review (briefly and superficially) some of the basics of NP interpretations, the semantics of the relevant operator-like elements, and their interaction. Then we look at how some natural languages encode certain relations between NPs and certain operators, giving us a window on some aspects of the “logic of natural language”. There we find a puzzle in the Russian “genitive of n...

Abstract This article examines two types of lexical effects in the voice system Kanakanavu, an Austronesian language Taiwan. The first concerns a well-attested phenomenon literature: interactions between semantic transitivity verbs and their ability (or lack thereof) to undergo alternation. second that is typologically areally rare western context – differential agent marking. pronominal Kanaka...