Irma Widyawati

1917404046

5 TBI A

CH Report Meeting 13

Generic and Spesific Predications, Stative Predicates & Dynamic

Predicates, Durative & Punctual

1. Generic and Spesific Predications

We can distinguish generic and non-generic aspect. We can
compare with this sentence below:

1a Two and two make four.

1b Rabbits are rodents.

1c The Atlantic Ocean separates Africa and South America.

1d A stitch in time saves nine.

2a Gregory is here.

2b I have a headache.

2c The company manufactures silicon chips.

2d Stella seems happy.

Sentences 1a–d are ‘eternal truths,’ statements about things that we

do not expect to change. They report unbounded situations, or states.
Sentences 2a–d, on the other hand, are about temporary states; they are
bounded. There is nothing in the two groups of sentences, as they are, that
indicates this difference, but the difference shows up in the fact that we
can add certain aspectual modifiers, affirmative and negative, to the
second group which would seem out of place in sentences 1a–d.
 2a1 Gregory is already here.

2b1 I still have a headache.

2c1 The company does not yet manufacture silicon chips. 2d1 Stella
doesn’t seem happy any more./…no longer seems happy.

Sentences 2a–d state that certain situations exist at the present

time. Sentences 2a1–d1 contain the same information but the aspectual
modifiers call attention to boundaries, the beginning or the end of these
states, changes from one state to another. Let’s take one of these
sentences, 2a, make it affirmative and negative, and add the four
modifications to it. Gregory is here. Gregory is already here. Gregory is
still here. Gregory isn’t here. Gregory isn’t here yet./…is still not here
Gregory isn’t here any more./…is no longer here.

The modifiers already and not yet call attention to the beginning of
astate, Gregory’s being here: already indicates that the state has begun;
there has been a change from Gregory’s not being here to being here; not
yet (or still not) indicates that the state has not begun. Still and not any
more call attention to the end of this state but with a reversal of polarity:
still informs us that the state—‘being here’—has not ended, and not any
more (or no longer) says that the state of ‘being here’ has ended. To
summarize:

Because these aspectual modifiers express something about change

from one state to another, they may carry some implication or nuance
about a speaker’s expectation. “Gregory is already here” may suggest that
the speaker did not expect Gregory so soon and “Gregory is still here” that
the speaker thought Gregory might have left. The questions “Is Gregory
here already?” and “Is Gregory still here?” request the same information
about Gregory’s presence but differ in the questioner’s attitude or
expectation.

2. Stative Predicates & Dynamic Predicates

 The predicates in these sentences are stative predicates. Other
sentences report activities and have dynamic predicates. The change from
one state to another is a dynamic event. The following report such changes
3a Gregory arrived here.
3b I recovered from my headache.
3c The company started manufacturing silicon chips.
3d Stella lost her tired look.

A stative predicate, according to Comrie (1976:49), reports a state

that requires no expenditure of energy and that continues until energy is
expended to change that state; a dynamic predicate reports a situation that
will only continue if there is a continual input of energy, but it ceases
when energy is no longer expended. Thus the following sentences are
stative and have stative predicates:
4a We waited.
4b The children were hungry.
4c Snow lay on the ground.
4d Ellen needed a dictionary.

The following are activity sentences and have dynamic predicates.

5a Something moved.
5b The sun came up.
5c The boat drifted along.
5d They discussed the plan.

A stative predicate is typically durative in aspect. For each of the

sentences 4a–d we can ask ‘How long?’, ‘How long did we wait?’ ‘How
long were the children hungry?,’ and so on. And we can add expressions
that tell the length of time: for an hour, all day, from Christmas till New
Year’s Day, all during the parade, as long as she was studying.
A stative predication relates a situation that does not change during
the time when the predication is valid. Thus, if the sentence Jesse had a
 headache all morning is true, then at every instant during that morning the
sentence Jesse has a headache was true. To say this in another way, a
stative predication relates a situation that consists of homogeneous parts.
Dynamic verbs include those that express some form of physical
movement: come, drift, float, go, hop, jump, pound, rotate, run, swim,
turn, vibrate, walk.
Verbs of communication: argue, complain, discuss, explain, invite,
question, report, say, shout, talk, translate, whisper, write. Verbs of
perception that involve doing something: feel, listen, look at, look for,
smell, sniff, taste, watch.
Consider these sentences:
6a Fred and Ethel argue from morning till night.
6b The basketball team practiced from September till November.

Does Sentence 6a tell us that Fred and Ethel argue at every

moment from morning till night? In Sentence 6b, if it is true that the
basketball team practiced from September till November, does that mean
that the sentence “The basketball team is practicing” was true at every
moment from the first of September until the end of November? Certainly
not. ‘Duration’ is not the same for an activity as for a state. Actionis
constant but not necessarily continuous.
Some dynamic verbs designate a change occurring over a period of
time: change deteriorate dwindle improve worsen In Grandmother’s health
deteriorated during the next few months, the verb indicates a constant
change but not necessarily a continuous change nor a constant rate of
change.

3. Durative & Punctual

Albert kicked a ball and the ball struck a post.
This sentence contains two verbs that have a punctual aspect.
Kicking and striking normally designate actions that are momentary.
 These actions have essentially no duration. A sentence like Albert
kicked a ball for ten minutes has a repetitive, or iterative, meaning. Other
punctual verbs, such as arrive, tell of a change from one status to another,
not likely to be repetitive when only one person is involved, as in Diane
arrived at the office a few minutes after nine. A number of punctual verbs
of this type can be used in the present tense to express an event planned
for a future time.
8a They leave/arrive tomorrow.
8b The plane lands at 8:40.
8c The shop opens next week.
8d Mr Edwards retires in May.
But unplanned acts cannot be expressed this way. He falls
tomorrow. She dies next week. It vanishes soon.
A number of verbs, sometimes referred to as verbs of mental
activity, occur in both punctual and durative uses:
9a I (suddenly) remembered that I had an appointment at two.
9b I remembered (all along) what she had told me.
10a He felt a sharp pain in the shoulder.
10b He felt miserable about what he had seen,
11a Suddenly she knew just what she had to do.
11b She knew the answer yesterday but today she can’t think of it.
The ‘a’ sentences express an event, the act of coming into a state of
remembering, feeling, knowing. The ‘b’ sentences tell of a state in
existence. The ‘a’ sentences express ingressive aspect (also called
inchoative or inceptive aspect), the action of entering into a state.
12a Harry reminded me of the appointment.
12b Harry reminded me so much of a fellow I used to know.
This pair of sentences also contrasts a single event that initiates a
state (12a) and a state that can continue over a period of time (12b).
But while the verbs in sentences 9–11 are one-argument predicates,
remind is a two-argument predicate. Here Harry causes me to remember
the appointment. The verb remind in 12a is causative, and Harry names the
agent that causes the new state.
In English a verb in the past tense can have a punctual or a durative
interpretation. “They sat in the last row” can be the equivalent of what is
more precisely expressed as They sat down in the last row (punctual) or of
They were sitting in the last row (durative). It can also have a distributed
sense, as in They sat in the last row every time they went to the theatre.
This sentence expresses habitual aspect, customary occurrence distributed
over various occasions. However, a simple past tense verb can only
express habitual aspect if there is some expression of frequency, that is,
some expression of how the event is distributed in time (every time…,
every Saturday, twice a month, seldom, often, etc.). English has a more
specific way of expressing habitual aspect, one which is used only for
customary events in the past: They used to sit in the last row. With used to
the predication is specified as ‘habitual’ whether there is an expression of
frequency or not.
Habitual aspect in the present can be expressed with the simple
present tense form of a verb.
13 He smokes cigarillos, drinks tea, sleeps eight hours every night,
and curses like a trooper.