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Article published In: Current Visions of TAML2: Tense, Aspect and Modality in Second Languages
Edited by Paz González and Tim Diaubalick
[Dutch Journal of Applied Linguistics 8:1] 2019
► pp. 5–23

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Naive physics vs compositionality in evaluating the Lexical Aspect Hypothesis

ORCiD logo with link | Utrecht University
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Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Published online: 11 March 2020
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https://doi.org/10.1075/dujal.19004.ver
Abstract
It will be argued that the LAH suffers from being based on the naive physics originating from ordinary language philosophers, who practiced ontology rather than doing semantics. Their metaphysics turns out to be incompatible with the principle of compositionality. Due to them a verb has been taken as a predicate rather than as a linguistic unit with its own lexical meaning. Therefore the leniency of a verb in the sense of being available for a wide variety of arguments has been underestimated.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.At the bottom of a predication
  • 3.Verb classes
  • 4.Connecting tense and aspect
  • 5.Vendler and the Imperfective Paradox
  • 6.Some conclusive remarks
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (27)
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