Cover not available

In:Tense, Aspect, Modality, and Evidentiality: Crosslinguistic perspectives
Edited by Dalila Ayoun, Agnès Celle and Laure Lansari
[Studies in Language Companion Series 197] 2018
► pp. 281–308

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload Book EPUB
authorization required

Chapter 13
The different grammars of event singularisation

A cross-linguistic corpus study

 | Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3
Published online: 2 August 2018
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.197.13cor
Abstract
This chapter is an empirical investigation into the expression of bounded single situations across four languages, based on a parallel corpus (Camus’s The Stranger and translations into English, Russian, Hungarian). Smith (1991)’s two-component theory of aspect, whereby situation aspect combines with viewpoint aspect to compute the aspectual composition of sentences, is used to highlight cross-linguistic differences. In the original, the French passé composé appears as perfective in the sense of Smith (1991) and Klein (1994) while the English simple past is aspectually ambiguous (perfective and imperfective). Russian relies on a morphosyntactic construction (prefix + bare verb) to create perfective verbs, while Hungarian has similar morphosyntactic resources, but no grammatical aspect.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.French vs. English
    • 2.1The French passé composé (PC)
    • 2.2The English simple past (SP): Neutral or shifter?
  • 3.Russian vs. Hungarian
    • 3.1The predominance of perfective verbs in Russian
    • 3.2 Sensitivity to the lexical nature of the predicate
    • 3.3Hungarian
      • 3.3.1 Sensitivity to Aktionsart
      • 3.3.2Different classes of verbs
      • 3.3.3Aspect in HU
  • 4.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
References (65)
References
Asher, Nicholas & Lascarides, Alex. 2003. Logics of Conversation. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Avilova, Natalia. 1976. Vid glagola i semantika glagol’nogo slova (Verb Aspect and the Semantics of the Verbal Word). Moskva: Nauka.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Babko-Malaya, Olga. 1999. Zero Morphology: A Study of Aspect, Argument Structure and Case. PhD dissertation, Rutgers University.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bende-Farkas, Agnès. 2002. Verb Object Dependencies in Hungarian and English: A DRT-based Account. PhD dissertation, Universität Stuttgart.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Benveniste, Emile. 1966. Problèmes de linguistique générale. Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bertinetto, Pier Marco. 2001. On a frequent misunderstanding in the temporal-aspectual domain: The ‘perfective-telic’ confusion. In Semantic Interfaces, Carlo Cecchetto, Genaro Chierchia & Maria T. Guasti (eds), 177–210. Stanford CA: CSLI.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bondarko, Alexander. 1971. Grammatičeskaja kategorija i kontekst [Grammatical Category and Context]. Leningrad: Nauka.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Borer, Hagit. 2005. The Normal Course of Events. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Borik, Olga. 2002. Aspect and Reference Time. PhD dissertation, Utrecht University.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bybee, Joan, Perkins, Revere & Pagliuca, William. 1994. The Evolution of Grammar: Tense, Aspect, and Modality in Languages of the World. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Camus, Albert. 1942. L’Etranger (Gallimard, Collection Folio); The Outsider (Penguin Books, 2012; translator: Sandra Smith); Postoronijj (Prometej, 1989; translator: N. Nemčinovoj); Közöny (Szépirodalmi, Budapest, 1989; translator: Gyergyai Albert).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Caudal, Patrick. 2015. The passé composé in Old French and Modern French. In Sentence and Discourse, Jacqueline Guéron (ed.), 178–205. Oxford: OUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Comrie, Bernard. 1976. Aspect. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Croft, William. 2016. The aspectual potential of verbs and lexical semantic typology. Paper presented at the Conference Tense, Aspect, Modality, Evidentiality: Comparative, Cognitive, Theoretical, Applied Perspectives, Université Paris Diderot.
Csirmaz, Aniko. 2006. Accusative case and aspect. In Event Structure and the Left Periphery – Studies on Hungarian, Katalina É. Kiss (ed.), 159–199. Dordrecht: Springer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Depraetere, Ilse. 1995. On the necessity of distinguishing between (un)boundedness and (a) telicity. Linguistics and Philosophy 18: 1–19. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Di Sciullo, Anna-Maria & Slabakova, Roumyana. 2005. Quantification and aspect. In Perspectives on Aspect, Angeliek van Hout, Henriëtte de Swart & Henk Verkuyl (eds), 61–80. Dordrecht: Springer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dickey, Stephen M. 2006. Aspectual pairs, goal orientation and po-delimitatives in Russian. Glossos Issue 7: 1–37.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dik, Simon. 1989. The Theory of Functional Grammar, Part I: The Structure of the Clause. Dordrecht: Foris.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Farkas, Donka & de Swart, Henriëtte. 2003. The Semantics of Incorporation: From Argument Structure to Discourse Transparency. Stanford CA: CSLI.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Forsyth, John. 1970. A Grammar of Aspect. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Furkó, Péter. 2014. Perspectives on the translation of discourse markers. Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Philologica 6(2): 181–196.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gehrke, Berit. 2003. Aspectual affixes in Russian and Czech. Ms, Utrecht University.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Glovinskaja, Marina. 1982. Semantičeskie tipy vidovyx protivopostavlenij russkogo glagola (Semantic types of aspectual oppositions in the Russian verb). Nauka: Moscou.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gosselin, Laurent. 1996. Sémantique de la temporalité en français: Un modèle calculatoire et cognitif du temps et de l’aspect. Louvain-la-Neuve: Duculot.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grønn, Atle. 2004. The Semantics and Pragmatics of the Russian Factual Imperfective. PhD dissertation, Oslo University.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Guillemin-Flescher, Jacqueline. 1981. Syntaxe comparée du français et de l’anglais: Problèmes de traduction. Paris: Ophrys.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hopper, Paul J. 1982. Aspect between discourse and grammar: An introductory essay for the volume. In Tense-Aspect – Between Semantics and Pragmatics [Typological Studies in Language 1], Paul J. Hopper (ed.), 3–18. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Janda, Laura. 2013. Why Russian Aspectual Prefixes Aren’t Empty: Prefixes as Verb Classifiers. Bloomington IN: Slavica.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kardos, Éva A. 2011. Toward a Scalar Semantic Analysis of Telicity in Hungarian. PhD dissertation, University of Debrecen.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kiefer, Ferenc. 1994. Some peculiarities of the aspectual system in Hungarian. In Tense, Aspect and Action – Empirical and Theoretical Contributions to Language Typology Carl Bache & Carl Basbøll (eds), 185–205. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kiss, Katalina É. 1995. Discourse Configurational Languages [Oxford Studies in Comparative Syntax]. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2002. The Syntax of Hungarian [Cambridge Syntax Guides]. Cambridge: CUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2006. The function and syntax of the verbal particle. In Event Structure and the Left Periphery – Studies on Hungarian, Katalina É. Kiss (ed.), 17–56. Dordrecht: Springer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Klein, Wolfgang. 1994. Time and Language. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Krifka, Manfred. 1998. The origins of telicity. In Events and Grammar, Susan Rothstein (ed.), 197–236. Dordrecht: Kluwer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Leinonen, Marja. 1982. Russian Aspect, ‘temporal’naja lokalizacija’, and Definiteness/ Indefiniteness. PhD dissertation, Helsinki University.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Maslov, Jurij. 1958. Rol’ tak nazyvaemoi perfektivacii i imperfektivacii v processe vozniknovenia glagol’nogo vida (The Role of So-called Perfectivisation and Imperfectivisation in the Process of Appearance of Verbal Aspect). Meždunarodny s”ezd slavistov. Doklady: 3–39. Moskva: Izdatel’stvo Akademii nauk SSSR.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McCawley, James. 1971. Tense and time reference in English. In Studies in Linguistic Semantics, Charles J. Fillmore & D. Terence Langendoen (eds), 97–114. New York NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Michaelis, Laura A. 2004. Type shifting in Construction Grammar: An integrated approach to aspectual coercion. Cognitive Linguistics 15: 1–67. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2016. Serving a slice of time: Unifying tense, aspect and modality with aspectual Constructions. Paper presented at the Conference Tense, Aspect, Modality, Evidentiality: Comparative, Cognitive, Theoretical, Applied Perspectives, Université Paris Diderot.
Moens, Marc & Steedman, Mark. 1988. Temporal ontology and temporal reference. In The Language of Time: A Reader [2005], Inderjeet Mani, James Pustejovsky & Robert Gaizauskas (eds), 93–114. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Padučeva, Elena V. 1996. Semantičeskie Issedovanija. Moscow: Škola ‘Jazyki russkoj kul’tury.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Piñon, Christopher. 2006. Weak and strong accomplishments. In Event Structure and the left periphery – Studies on Hungarian, Katalina É. Kiss (ed.), 91–106. Dordrecht: Springer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Plungian, Vladimir. 2012. Predislovie. Tipologija aspektual’nyx system i kategorij (Introduction. Typology of aspectual systems and categories). In Issledovanija po teorii grammatiki (Research into Theories of Gramma)], Nikolaj N. Kazanskij (ed.), 7–42. Sankt-Peterburg: Nauka.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ramchand, Gillian. 2004. Time and the event: The semantics of Russian prefixes. Nordlyd 32(2): 323–361.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sartre, Jean-Paul. 1947. Explication de l’étranger. Situations I. Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
van Schooneveld, Cornelis Hendrik. 1978. Semantic Transmutations: Prolegomena to a Calculus of Meaning. Bloomington IN: Physsardt.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Smith, Carlota. 1991. The Parameter of Aspect. Dordrecht: Kluwer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Squartini, Mario & Bertinetto, Pier Marco. 2000. The simple and compound past in Romance languages. In Tense and Aspect in the Languages of Europe, Östen Dahl (ed.), 403–439. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Svenonius, Peter. 2004. Slavic prefixes inside and outside VP. Nordlyd 32(2): 205–253.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
de Swart, Henriëtte. 1998. Aspect shift and coercion. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 16: 347–385. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2000. Tense, aspect and coercion in a cross-linguistic perspective. In Proceedings of the Berkeley Formal Grammar Conference, Miriam Butt & Tracy Holloway King (eds). Standford CA: CSLI.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
de Swart, Henriëtte & Molendijk, Arie. 2002. Le passé composé narratif: Une analyse discursive de L’Étranger de Camus. In Temps et aspect – De la morphologie à l’interprétation, Brenda Laca (ed.), 193–215. Saint Denis: Presses Universitaires de Vincennes.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Talmy, Leonard. 2000. Towards a Cognitive Semantics, Vol. 2: Typology and Process in Concept Structuring . Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tenny, Carol. 1994. Aspectual Roles and the Syntax-Semantics Interface. Dordrecht: Kluwer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tixonov, Aleksandr N. 1998. Russkij glagol: problemy teorii i leksikografirovanija (The Russian Verb: Problems of Theory and Lexicography). Moskva: Izdatel’stvo Academia.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Surányi, Balázs. 2009. Verbal particles inside and outside vP. Acta Linguistica Hungarica 56, 201–249.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Smith, Sandra. 2012. The Outsider. United Kingdom: Penguin Books.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stuart, Gilbert. 1946. The Stranger. New York: Vintage Books.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tournadre, Nicolas. 2004. Typologie des aspects verbaux et intégration à une théorie du TAM. Bulletin de la Société Linguistique de Paris XCIV(1): 7–68. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Verkuyl, Henk J. 1989. Aspectual classes and aspectual composition. Linguistics and Philosophy 12: 39–94. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vet, Co. 1980. Temps, aspects et adverbes de temps en français contemporain. Genève: Droz.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zaliznjak, Anna & Šmelev, Aleksej. 1997. Lekcii po russkoj aspektologii (Lectures on Russian Aspectology). Munich: Otto Sagner.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Treikelder, Anu
2020. Chapter 11. Les temps verbaux et l’ancrage énonciatif en français et en estonien. In The Expression of Tense, Aspect, Modality and Evidentiality in Albert Camus’sL'Étrangerand Its Translations /L'Étrangerde Camus et ses traductions : questions de temps, d'aspect, de modalité et d'évidentialité (TAME) [Lingvisticæ Investigationes Supplementa, 35], ► pp. 204 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 3 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue