Aspect

GENERIC AND SPECIFIC PREDICATIONS

STATIVE AND DYNAMIC PREDICATES
TELIC AND ATELIC
INGRESSIVE, CONTINUATIVE, EGRESSIVE ASPECT
PROSPECTIVE AND RETROSPECTIVE
SOME GRAMMATICAL EXPRESSIONS OF ASPECT
 GENERIC AND SPECIFIC PREDICATIONS

 Generic is the statements about things that we cannot change

For example :
a. Indonesia is located in Asia.
b. The Atlantic Ocean separates Africa and South America.
 Sentences above are eternal truths or statements about things that we do not
expect to change.
 Meanwhile, specific is the statements about things that we can change.
 They report unbounded situations or states. For example :
a. Alice seems sad.
b. James is here.
 Sentences above are about temporary states ; they are bounded.
 Telic and Atelic

instant - Hitting
- falling
ACTION
or
EVENTS

longer period - Talking

- walking
Vendler (1967) proposed a four-way classification of predicates

Stative

Atelic Achievement
Activity Telic
Accomplishment

Later research by Dowty (1977), Dahl (1981), Brinton (1988), Shi (1990),
Binnick (1991) and Smith (1991), among others, suggests that these
terms should be applied to whole sentences because what a sentence
expresses depends on more than the predicate alone.
 Stative

Example: Sandra was holding the baby.

Characters Explaination

Atelic not expressing any definite endpoint.

continue over some interval of time

Durative (we can assume that Sandra has hold the baby for more than an
hour)

A situation that does not change during the time.

Static (Sandra only holds the baby, and the sentence does not say that
Sandra hold the baby while she was doing something)
 Activities

Example: Sandra was swimming.

Characters Explaination

Atelic not expressing any definite endpoint.

continuous over some interval of time

Durative (swimming takes place over a measurable interval, and the
sentence does not state if Sandra stopped swimming.

specify some type of change to their participants

Dynamic (swimming activity is dynamic because Sandra had to exert some
force, and usually she is moving )
 Achievement

Example: Sandra was dying.

Characters Explaination

- result in a change or a difference of affairs.

- Specific
Telic
- the former are punctual, with the endpoint of the activity
occurring instantaneously

These sentences do not report events, happenings, but

processes moving towards events
Dynamic
(if Sandra died that occur instantly, but it has long process of
moving toward that event)

the events are instantaneous

Instan (if Sandra died that occur instantly we can ask “When did Sandra
die?”)
 Accomplishment

Example: Sandra was writing a letter.

Characters Explaination

- result in a change or a difference of affairs.

- Specific
Telic
- takes some period of time for an accomplishment to reach
its endpoint.

requires some interval of time

Durative (Sandra writing letters takes time, so we can ask "How long / do I
need Sandra to write letters?“)

also about processes moving toward completion

Dynamic (dynamic change because she could finish writing her letter,
from one sentence to 20 sentences)
 Activities and Accomplishment

Sentence Explaination

- Activities occur throughout a period of time, in English

15) Lucy wrote for half an hour/all most commonly introduced by the preposition “for”.
afternoon. - Indefinite about what Lucy wrote(no object)
- a sentence tells of an unbounded activity

- Accomplishments require expenditure of effort during

a period leading to the result accomplished, most often
16 ) Lucy wrote a letter in half an hour.
introduced by the preposition “in”.
- The object is specific.
- The duration is indefinite (like sentence 15)
17) Lucy wrote letters for an hour/all
- the activity takes place throughout a measurable
afternoon.
duration

18) Lucy wrote the letter/several

The object is specific (like sentence 16).
letters/three letters in an hour.
 Achievement and Accomplishment

All telic events—achievements and accomplishments—are specific. In the

following paired sentences note how a specific event (in the ‘a’
sentences) can be changed to a non-specific activity (the ‘b’ sentences).

SPECIFIC EVENT NON-SPECIFIC ACTIVITY

19a) Bert arrived at noon and left at 3 19b) People arrived and left throughout the
o’clock. afternoon.
20a) Tim watched a wrestling match. 20b) Tim watched wrestling matches.

21a) Sally baked bread last Saturday. 21b) Sally baked bread every Saturday.
The (a) sentences have a punctual
The (b) sentences have a distributed sense
interpretation
Ingressive, Continuative,
Egressive aspect
10.5.1 Predicates of Location
a. The lamp is on the table.
b. Some oranges are in that basket.
c. Donald is at the door.

In these sentences on, in and at are two argument predicates. Other locative
prepositions such as above, beside, near, next-to, and under are also two-
argument predicates
Ingressive is punctual verb to
express the beginning
Example: Donald gets to/arrives
at/reaches the door.
Causative locative verbs have a valency of
three.
Continuative is durative verb that 1.Someone puts/place the lamp on the
express table.
Example: Donald stays at the door 2. Someone leaves/keeps the lamp on the
table.
3. Someone removes/takes the lamp from
Egressive is punctual verb which the table.
express the end
Example: Donald leaves from the
door
10.5.2 Predicates of possession
Similar to locative expressions are expressions of possession.
Ex: Ella has/owns a car.
a Ella gets/acquires a car. [inception]
b Ella keeps the car. [duration]
c Ella loses/gives up the car. [termination]

Some 3-argument predicates express a change of possession.

• Someone gives/presents/awards/sells a car to Eleanor.
• Someone takes/receives/buys the car from Eleanor.
10.5.3 Predicates of cognition
A third group of stative verbs
expresses various aspects of knowing.
They are cognition predicates. Ex:
Jeffrey knows/is-aware-of the answer.
Again there are ways of telling the
beginning, middle and end of this
situation.
a Jeffrey learns/finds/gets the answer.
b Jeffrey remembers the answer.
c Jeffrey forgets the answer.
10.5.4 Event predicates
a. The meeting is at 2:00.
b. The game was on Sunday.
d. The ceremony takes place this
afternoon.
These sentences have the structure
Event+Locative Predicate+ Time. A time
phrase is an argument in sentences like
a–d. The noun in the subject is quite
restricted; it must be an event noun.
 10.5.5 Nouns and adjectives as predicates 10.5.6 Aspectual verbs
A predication may consist of be and a Instead there are aspectual verbs
noun phrase or adjective phrase,
indicating some role, condition or
(called aspectualizers by some
status. scholars) which express some
a. Phyllis is a physicist. aspect of an event. An event, by
b. We were awfully tired. definition, has duration. Example:
-The meeting is beginning now.
Causative verbs followed by noun -The game went on for hours.
phrases or adjective phrases are
illustrated next.
a Czar Peter made St Petersburg his
capital.
b We elected Albert the chairman.
10.6 Prospective and retrospective
Prospective verbs
They are oriented toward later
happenings. Ex:
1. Tata is thinking of visiting her
grandmother.
2. We asked Rizal to drive slower.
Retrospective verbs
Are Verbs like apologize and deny. Ex:
-Edgar apologized for missing the meeting.
(or,…for having missed the meeting)
-We denied seeing the report. (or,…having
seen the report)
The previous action to which the verb refers
is expressed in a following clause, always a
gerund clause, and the previousness can be
emphasized by the use of the retrospective
(or‘perfect’) form of the gerund, having
[missed].
Prospective and retrospective
 When a predicate is associated with a reduced clause, the verb of that
reduced clause is more limited in the range of times it can express. It
may express an event that is simultaneous with the main clause or one
that is earlier or later

• We asked Ronald to drive slower

• Jessica is thinking of visiting her grandmother

 Ronald’s subsequent behavior Verbs as ask and think-of are

 Jessica’s thinking obviously concerns prospective verbs; oriented toward
something she may do later later happenings
 o Edgar apologized for missing the meeting
o We denied seeing the report

• Retrospective verbs; the previous action to which the verb refers

is expressed in a following clause, always a gerund and the
previousness can be emphasized by the use of the retrospective form
of the gerund.
 Not all verbs are prospective or retrospective. Some verbs
indicate an action that goes on at the same time as whatever is
reported in the following clause

I helped Josie (to) bring in the groceries

The helping and the bringing-in must be simultaneous

Some grammatical expressions of
aspect
Three aspects that are
incorporated into the grammatical
system of English
The prospective
• They are to leave
• You are not to worry

The form be+to+verb expresses a ‘looking forward’: it isn’t about the future but
about present intentions regarding the future

The past tense form of be+to combined with a verb makes the past
prospective ‘They were to leave’, expressing a looking forward from some
point in the past.
The perfect or retrogressive
It consists of two parts; a form of have and the past participle of the verb.

In affirmative statements, refers to events that occurred in the past and

situations that began in the past and which are seen as relevant ‘now’, at
the present time.

Negative statements deny such events and situations;

interrogative sentences question them.
 Two uses for the present retrospective:

• The description of present situation when we want to measure

their duration from some point in the past
a. The house is empty now
b. It has been empty for over a year

The simple present sentence are about state, while the present retrospective
sentence tell the duration of these state.

• Used for past events or states which are presented as relevant to

the present
The progressive
 We’re watching television
 Jack is smoking
The simple present tense form of these
verbs (watch, smokes) is unbounded,
general; includes more than the ‘right
now’ and implies nothing about the
beginning or end of the activity.
 The present bounded form
is specific. It is also about the
present moment but calls
attention to the fact that the
activity is in process now and
implies that the activity will
end.
Achievement predicates

 Our guests are leaving

 The plane is landing

The act of leaving or of landing is momentary, and a momentary

act cannot be in progress. Thus the progressive with such verbs,
emphasizes the incompleteness of the act