Chapter 13
The different grammars of event singularisation
A cross-linguistic corpus study
Eric Corre | Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3
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
Asher, Nicholas & Lascarides, Alex
2003 Logics of Conversation. Cambridge: CUP.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Avilova, Natalia
1976 Vid glagola i semantika glagol’nogo slova (Verb Aspect and the Semantics of the Verbal Word). Moskva: Nauka.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Babko-Malaya, Olga
1999 Zero Morphology: A Study of Aspect, Argument Structure and Case.
PhD dissertation, Rutgers University.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bende-Farkas, Agnès
2002 Verb Object Dependencies in Hungarian and English: A DRT-based Account. PhD dissertation, Universität Stuttgart.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Benveniste, Emile
1966 Problèmes de linguistique générale. Paris: Gallimard.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
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](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bondarko, Alexander
1971 Grammatičeskaja kategorija i kontekst [Grammatical Category and Context]. Leningrad: Nauka.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Borer, Hagit
2005 The Normal Course of Events. Oxford: OUP.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Borik, Olga
2002 Aspect and Reference Time. PhD dissertation, Utrecht University.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bybee, Joan & Dahl, Östen
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](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
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](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Caudal, Patrick
2015 The passé composé in Old French and Modern French. In
Sentence and Discourse,
Jacqueline Guéron (ed.), 178–205. Oxford: OUP.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Comrie, Bernard
1976 Aspect. Cambridge: CUP.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
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.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Depraetere, Ilse
1995 On the necessity of distinguishing between (un)boundedness and (a) telicity.
Linguistics and Philosophy 18: 1–19.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
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.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Dickey, Stephen M.
2006 Aspectual pairs, goal orientation and po-delimitatives in Russian.
Glossos Issue 7: 1–37.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Dik, Simon
1989 The Theory of Functional Grammar, Part I:
The Structure of the Clause. Dordrecht: Foris.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Farkas, Donka & de Swart, Henriëtte
2003 The Semantics of Incorporation: From Argument Structure to Discourse Transparency. Stanford CA: CSLI.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Forsyth, John
1970 A Grammar of Aspect. Cambridge: CUP.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Furkó, Péter
2014 Perspectives on the translation of discourse markers.
Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Philologica 6(2): 181–196.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Gehrke, Berit
2003 Aspectual affixes in Russian and Czech. Ms, Utrecht University.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Glovinskaja, Marina
1982 Semantičeskie tipy vidovyx protivopostavlenij russkogo glagola (Semantic types of aspectual oppositions in the Russian verb). Nauka: Moscou.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
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](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Grønn, Atle
2004 The Semantics and Pragmatics of the Russian Factual Imperfective. PhD dissertation, Oslo University.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Guillemin-Flescher, Jacqueline
1981 Syntaxe comparée du français et de l’anglais: Problèmes de traduction. Paris: Ophrys.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Janda, Laura
2013 Why Russian Aspectual Prefixes Aren’t Empty: Prefixes as Verb Classifiers. Bloomington IN: Slavica.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Kardos, Éva A.
2011 Toward a Scalar Semantic Analysis of Telicity in Hungarian.
PhD dissertation, University of Debrecen.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
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.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Kiss, Katalina É.
1995 Discourse Configurational Languages [Oxford Studies in Comparative Syntax]. Oxford: OUP.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Kiss, Katalina É.
2002 The Syntax of Hungarian [Cambridge Syntax Guides]. Cambridge: CUP.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Kiss, Katalina É.
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.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Klein, Wolfgang
1994 Time and Language. London: Routledge.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Krifka, Manfred
1998 The origins of telicity. In
Events and Grammar,
Susan Rothstein (ed.), 197–236. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Leinonen, Marja
1982 Russian Aspect, ‘temporal’naja lokalizacija’, and Definiteness/ Indefiniteness.
PhD dissertation, Helsinki University.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
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](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
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](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Michaelis, Laura A.
2004 Type shifting in Construction Grammar: An integrated approach to aspectual coercion.
Cognitive Linguistics 15: 1–67.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Michaelis, Laura A.
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](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Padučeva, Elena V.
1996 Semantičeskie Issedovanija. Moscow: Škola ‘Jazyki russkoj kul’tury.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
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.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
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](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Ramchand, Gillian
2004 Time and the event: The semantics of Russian prefixes.
Nordlyd 32(2): 323–361.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Sartre, Jean-Paul
1947 Explication de l’étranger.
Situations I. Paris: Gallimard.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
van Schooneveld, Cornelis Hendrik
1978 Semantic Transmutations: Prolegomena to a Calculus of Meaning. Bloomington IN: Physsardt.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Smith, Carlota
1991 The Parameter of Aspect. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
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](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Svenonius, Peter
2004 Slavic prefixes inside and outside VP.
Nordlyd 32(2): 205–253.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
de Swart, Henriëtte
1998 Aspect shift and coercion.
Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 16: 347–385.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
de Swart, Henriëtte
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](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
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](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Talmy, Leonard
2000
Towards a Cognitive Semantics, Vol. 2: Typology and Process in Concept Structuring
. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Tenny, Carol
1994 Aspectual Roles and the Syntax-Semantics Interface. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Tixonov, Aleksandr N.
1998 Russkij glagol: problemy teorii i leksikografirovanija (The Russian Verb: Problems of Theory and Lexicography). Moskva: Izdatel’stvo Academia.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Surányi, Balázs
2009 Verbal particles inside and outside vP.
Acta Linguistica Hungarica 56, 201–249.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Smith, Sandra
2012 The Outsider. United Kingdom: Penguin Books.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Stuart, Gilbert
1946 The Stranger. New York: Vintage Books.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
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.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Verkuyl, Henk J.
1989 Aspectual classes and aspectual composition.
Linguistics and Philosophy 12: 39–94.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Vet, Co
1980 Temps, aspects et adverbes de temps en français contemporain. Genève: Droz.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Zaliznjak, Anna & Šmelev, Aleksej
1997 Lekcii po russkoj aspektologii (Lectures on Russian Aspectology). Munich: Otto Sagner.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cited by
Cited by 1 other publications
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 26 june 2024. 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.