Full Description
This volume brings together insights from leading scholars in the field of grammatical aspect to examine the multifaceted nature of this pivotal linguistic resource used to express temporal meaning. The contributors explore the many ways in which linguistic research can move beyond canonical semantic analyses of aspect, which still focus to a great extent on objective temporal features of what can be called 'situation models', i.e. integrated cognitive representations of designated states of affairs. The chapters in this volume widen this outlook by concentrating on less typical contexts in which aspectual constructions are used, e.g. for affective purposes, to mark the epistemic status of situations, or to shape narrative structures. This focus on non-prototypicality is also reflected in the languages investigated, many of which are understudied with respect to their aspectual constructions, including several African languages and the sign language Kata Kolok. The volume adopts a multidisciplinary methodological approach, and introduces possible directions for future research based on experimental studies, fieldwork research, and translation mining.
Contents
1: Astrid De Wit, Frank Brisard, Carol Madden-Lombardi, Michael Meeuwis, and Adeline Patard: Beyond aspectual semantics: Explorations in the pragmatic and cognitive functions of aspect
2: Pier Marco Bertinetto: On the 'propulsive' Imperfect: Stylistic functions of abrupt aspectual switches in modern Italian narrative texts
3: Agnès Celle: Aspect, modality, interrogativity: A semantic study of aller and venir (de) + infinitive in an open interrogative
4: Adeline Patard: A counterfactual cycle: Evidence from the French imperfect
5: Astrid De Wit and Stephen M. Dickey: An epistemic approach to aspectual systems: English, Russian, and Beyond
6: Laura A. Michaelis: What is the Event Elaboration Constraint
7: Bert Le Bruyn, Martijn van der Klis, and Henriëtte de Swart: Variation and stability: the HAVE-perfect and the tense-aspect grammar of western European languages
8: Thera Marie Crane, Hilde Gunnink, Ponsiano Kanijo, and Tim Roth: Aspect and evidentiality in four Bantu languages
9: Stéphane Robert: The speaker's viewpoint on events: From tense to stance
10: Door Spruijt, Astrid De Wit, and Connie de Vos: The cognitive foundation of time: Evidence from the sign language Kata Kolok
11: Carol Madden-Lombardi and Monique Flecken: Empirical contributions to the study of aspect from the field of cognitive science
12: Aliyah Morgenstern, Christophe Parisse, and Sophie de Pontonx: Children's use of tenses beyond time: Constructing worlds through language
