Aspectual Ambiguity and the Dissolving of the Imperfective Paradox

doi:10.13438/j.cnki.jdxb.2024.06.014

Abstract

Abstract: Imperfective paradox refers to the logical paradox resulted from the co-occurrence of accomplishment phrases and the progressive.From the perspective of accomplishment phrases' aspectual semantics,this study reviews the co-occurrence of accomplishment phrases and the progressive and finds that some accomplishment phrases can co-occur with the progressive while some others cannot.We prove that the type of accomplishment phrases which can co-occur with the progressive can actually denote accomplishment situations as well as activity situations.Based on this finding,we propose that this type of accomplishment phrases denote activity situations when co-occurring with the progressive aspect.Therefore,phrases denoting accomplishment situations do not co-occur with the progressive and the imperfective aspect doesn't really exist.Accomplishment-denoting phrases in Chinese are also found not to be able to co-occur with the progressive aspect,which provides cross-linguistic support for the above proposal.

Key words: 〗imperfective paradox, accomplishment phrases, aspectual semantics, ambiguity

BAI Lan, YANG Jiahui. Aspectual Ambiguity and the Dissolving of the Imperfective Paradox[J]. Journal of Jishou University(Social Sciences Edition), 2024, 45(6): 135-142.

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