Pluractionality, which refers to the occurrence of multiple sub-events within a single situation

or the repetition of an event in multiple situations, was initially introduced by Newman (1980)
and has been studied by Dressler (1968), Cusic (1981), Xrakovskij (1997), and others. This
encompasses various phenomena, including event-internal pluractionality (referred to as
"multiplicative" by Shluinsky, 2009), where a single event consists of multiple sub-events
occurring in the same situation (e.g., "Yesterday at 5 o'clock, John knocked insistently at the
door"), and event-external pluractionality, where the same event occurs repeatedly in
different situations (e.g., "John swam daily in the lake").
Various linguistic devices can be used to express pluractionality, such as reduplication,
affixes, free morphemes, and lexical tools like adverbials and verbal periphrases. These
methods are not mutually exclusive, which means that they can coexist within a single
language or even within a single sentence. For example, a language can use both affixes and
periphrases to indicate pluractionality, and a sentence can contain dedicated affixes as well as
frequency adverbials. Additionally, the morphological markers used to indicate pluractionality
can be dedicated morphemes or morphemes that convey pluractionality alongside other
meanings.
Xrakovsky (1997) noted that plurality and duration are closely related. For instance, a
sentence like "John addressed incessant questions to the policeman" conveys both the idea
that there were many questions and that the event took place over a certain period of time.
Van Geenhoven (2004) used this observation to develop a unified analysis of "for X time"
expressions, which can have two different readings depending on the type of predicate used
(durative or non-durative). Additionally, by taking intensity into account, one can further
distinguish between different types of pluractionality, such as "intensive," "attenuative,"
"accelerative," "exaggerative," and others. This demonstrates the broad range of phenomena
that fall under the umbrella of pluractionality, even though the list provided is not exhaustive.

Summary:
 Pluractionality refers to the occurrence of multiple sub-events within a single situation
or the repetition of an event in multiple situations
 Newman (1980) introduced the concept, which has been studied by various linguists
 Event-internal pluractionality involves multiple sub-events within the same situation
(e.g., "John knocked insistently at the door")
 Event-external pluractionality involves the same event occurring repeatedly in
different situations (e.g., "John swam daily in the lake")
 Linguistic devices used to express pluractionality include reduplication, affixes, free
morphemes, and lexical tools like adverbials and verbal periphrases
 These methods are not mutually exclusive and can coexist within a single language or
sentence
 Plurality and duration are closely related, with pluractional sentences often conveying
both the idea of many sub-events and a certain period of time
 "For X time" expressions can have two different readings depending on the type of
predicate used (durative or non-durative)
 Different types of pluractionality, such as "intensive," "attenuative," "accelerative,"
and "exaggerative," can be distinguished by taking intensity into account
Habituality vs. Iterativity
a. In the past few years, Franck has often taken the 8 o’clock train.
b. When he lived in the countryside, Franck would usually take the 8 o’clock train.
Sentence (a) states that Franck has taken the 8 o'clock train on multiple occasions in the past
few years, whereas sentence (b) characterizes Franck as someone who usually takes the 8
o'clock train when he lived in the countryside. The difference between the two sentences lies
in their aspect, which is reflected in various features, including the reiteration specifiability.
While languages such as English and Dutch do not impose any restriction on the simple past
tense, which can be interpreted as either perfective or imperfective, Romance languages and
Bulgarian, which have explicit aspectual contrasts in the past domain, are affected by this
restriction. This suggests a strong link between habituality and imperfectivity since dedicated
imperfective morphology often does not differentiate between general imperfective,
progressive, and habitual readings.
Example:
(2) a. Last year, John visited his mother eleven times.

b. Pendant l’année passée, Jean a visité [PF] sa mère onze fois.

c. *Pendant l’année passée, Jean visitait [IPF] sa mère onze fois.

“Last year, Jean visited [PF = (b) /IPF = (c)] his mother eleven times.”

Native speakers tend to reject or consider sentence (2c) as stylistically marked because it
specifies the number of micro-events, which is equivalent to specifying the duration of the
macro-event. This is because it closes the interval corresponding to the event-time, which is
also known as the "temporal trace."
On the other hand, sentence (3)
(3) Pendant l’année passée, Jean visitait [IPF] sa mère rarement/souvent.

is considered acceptable because the adverbs "rarement" meaning "seldom" and "souvent"
meaning "often" do not refer to the number of micro-events, but instead to the frequency of
their occurrence.
The distinction between the types of pluractionality expressed in (2) versus (3) is referred to
as "Iterativity" and "Habituality" respectively.

Habituality can occur in various temporal domains, including the past, present, and future-
in-the-past, as noted by Binnick (2005):
a. Dans le passé, les membres de ce club mettaient [IPF] une cravate rouge dans les
occasions officielles.
“In the past, the members of this club wore [IPF] a red tie on official occasions.”
 b. Les membres de ce club mettent une cravate rouge dans les occasions officielles.
“The members of this club wear a red tie on official occasions.”
c. Les membres de ce club mettront une cravate rouge dans les occasions officielles.
“The members of this club will wear a red tie on official occasions.”

On the other hand, iterativity is not possible in the present domain, as shown in following
example:

a. L’année dernière, Luc a perdu [PF] son parapluie trois fois.

“Last year, Luc lost [PF] his umbrella three times.”
b. *Luc perd son parapluie trois fois.
“Luc loses his umbrella three times.”
c. Je prévois que Luc va perdre son parapluie trois fois l’année prochaine.
“I foresee that Luc will lose his umbrella three times in the next year.”

Summary:
 Habituality and iterativity are two aspects of event structure that are relevant to the
study of natural language semantics.
 Habituality is characterized by the repeated or habitual nature of an event or action,
whereas iterativity refers to the occurrence of multiple individual instances of an event
or action.
 Languages with explicit aspectual contrasts, such as Romance languages, tend to have
restrictions on the use of simple past tense in the habitual domain
 For example, in French, the imperfective aspect is often used to indicate habituality,
while the perfective aspect is used for iterativity.
 The sentence "In the past few years, Franck has often taken the 8 o'clock train" is an
example of habituality, while "When he lived in the countryside, Franck would usually
take the 8 o'clock train" is an example of iterativity.
 In French, the sentence "Pendant l’année passée, Jean a visité [PF] sa mère onze fois"
indicates iterativity, while "Pendant l’année passée, Jean visitait [IPF] sa mère
rarement/souvent" indicates habituality.
 Habituality can occur in various temporal domains, including the past, present, and
future-in-the-past, while iterativity is not possible in the present domain.