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This paper describes the aspectual classes in Abui, a Papuan language of the Timor-Alor-Pantar family. Abui innovated a system of aspectual stem pairing, realized by consonant mutation, vowel grading, and rime mutation. Although stem pairing is widespread (about 61% of the verbs alternate), about 38% of our 1,330 verb sample are unpaired and immutable. Abui verbal stems combine with aspectual affixes, adverbs and auxiliary verbs, whose distribution is used here together with the stem types to describe aspectual classes, which are understood as lexicalizations of transitional possibilities of lexical items (e.g. inchoative-stative vs. inchoative-gradual.inchoative-stative). The paper takes the bidimensional approach to aspect distinguishing between properties associated with the perfective-imperfective system and other aspectual marking (cf. Sasse, Hans-Jürgen. 2002. Recent activity in the theory of aspect: accomplishments, achievements, or just non-progressive state? Linguistic Typology 6(2). 199–271). Combining the features of both types of aspectual marking, we construct in a bottom-up fashion the aspectual classes in Abui and also show that these may be further refined if contextual features such as valency or degree of change (affectedness) were included. A characteristic feature of the Abui system is the elaborate system of stative-inchoative verbs sensitive to scalar and change properties (e.g. instant vs. gradual). Abui telic verbs show sensitivity to the properties of the resulting state and are formally associated with stem alternation.

This paper investigates the interpretations of caused change-of-state predicates in Korean, and in particular non-culmination readings in which the result state inherent to the meaning of the predicate fails to obtain either fully (zero result) or partially. We argue that zero result readings require that the subject intended the coming about of the result state, while readings in which some result obtains (partially or completely) lack this entailment. Yet zero result interpretations are not reducible to ‘try’-constructions since the former but not the latter require the direct causation. Furthermore, zero result readings arise only in active voice, a grammatical constraint not explicitly discussed for other languages. We argue that the full suite of possible readings arises from two factors: a sublexical modality over worlds conforming to the agent’s intentions for zero result readings that arises from a special active voice inflection in Korean and a scalar semantics for change-of-state verbs that derives partial result readings as a type of degree achievement interpretation. An interaction of these two factors produce the range of possible readings for Korean change-of-state predicates. Finally, we discuss our account in relation to the Agent Control Hypothesis of Demirdache and Martin (2015) that agentivity properties of the subject are necessary for certain non-culmination readings, and suggest that Korean exemplifies the ACH provided that what counts as “control” includes intentionality.

This study investigated the effects of learners’ first language (L1), lexical aspect of verbs, and proficiency levels on their use of the English progressive aspect. It analyzed spoken data from learners of three different L1s (Chinese, German, and Spanish) in an international learner corpus (LINSEI), in comparison with native speech in a comparable native speaker corpus (LOCNEC). The analysis reveals that regardless of learners’ L1 and proficiency levels, their use of progressive markings is predominantly associated with activity verbs (prototypes), supporting the association prediction of the Aspect Hypothesis (Andersen, Roger W. & Yasuhiro Shirai. 1994. Discourse motivations for some cognitive acquisition principles.Studies in Second Language Acquisition16(2). 133–156). Contrary to the fourth prediction of the Aspect Hypothesis, both intermediate and advanced learners use stative progressives, and especially intermediate L1 Spanish learners overuse stative progressives, indicating a complex interaction between L1 and proficiency on non-prototypical form-meaning associations. The results suggest that L1 effect, lexical aspect of verbs, and proficiency levels jointly drive tense-aspect acquisition.

The verbal root in Tima may be marked for one or several derivational functions, such as transitive, ventive, antipassive, middle voice, causative, instrumental, or pluractionality. Contrary to other derivational devices, pluractional marking can be achieved by various formal strategies, which are described in detail in the present contribution. Pluractional marking on Tima verbs indicates only repeated action or duration, depending on the lexical aspect of the verb; the number of the subject or object does not interfere with the marking. However, certain constructions force the speaker to use the pluractional as default form; the focus is on the action itself in such constructions.

The Aspect Hypothesis (AH) has been well attested in research on L1 and L2 acquisition of Indo-European languages such as English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish (e.g., Li & Shirai, 2000). However, studies to test the AH in the L2 acquisition of Chinese have been scarce (Jin & Hendriks, 2005). Among the studies done of L2 acquisition of Mandarin Chinese, previous research (e.g., Duff & Li, 2002; Jin & Hendriks, 2005) has confirmed the AH (Andersen & Shirai, 1994) in L2 acquisition of the aspects, including -zhe, -le, zai, -guo. Almost all previous studies used free production of the learners. The use of strictly controlled production is rare. The present study fills the gap. The present study investigates the acquisition of Mandarin aspect markers zai and -le by L2 learners of Mandarin Chinese. In two judgment tests, participants judged the use of progressive zai and perfective -le in three contexts (obligatory, incorrect, and optional). Both of the two predictions of the AH were tested: 1) Association Prediction (AP): for L2 learners, the association between progressive aspect marker zai with activity verbs is stronger than that between zai with accomplishment verbs, which in turn is stronger than that between zai and achievement verbs; the association between perfective aspect marker -le with accomplishment verbs and achievement verbs is stronger than that between -le and activity verbs, which in turn is stronger than that between -le and stative verbs. 2) Developmental Prediction (DP): learners of lower proficiency level would use progressive zai and perfective -le in a more prototypical way than learners of higher proficiency level, i.e. lower proficiency learners use progressive zai with activity verbs more than higher proficiency learners, and lower proficiency learners use perfective -le with accomplishment and achievement verbs more than higher proficiency learners. Meanwhile, higher-level students extend the use of progressive zai to accomplishment and achievement verbs, and extend the use of perfective -le to activity verbs. Although previous research has shown that L2 acquisition of Mandarin aspect markers confirm the two predictions of the Aspect Hypothesis, none of the conclusions were based on a controlled production.

This article aims to give a semantic study of the reflexes of one specific tense/aspect form, namely the so-called*-a-B-aconstruction, in a cluster of about 40-odd Kikongo language varieties spoken in a wide area around the mouth of the Congo River in Central Africa. We first present a detailed analysis of the multiple uses of these cognate constructions at sentence level, in order to arrive at a formal and semantic reconstruction for the most recent common ancestor of the Kikongo Language Cluster, namely Proto-Kikongo. The analysis departs from the overall aspectual meaning of the linguistic expression in which the tense-aspect construction is used. Therefore, we also take into consideration the contribution of different aspectual tiers, such as lexical and grammatical aspect, adverbials and taxis constructions. Through the discussion of the multiple uses of the-a-B-aconstruction, we argue that its overall meaning is complex, combining both temporal and aspectual semantics. It is furthermore shown that a lexical-aspect distinction between states-of-affairs with transitional versus non-transitional temporal structure is crucial in order to understand the various uses of the-a-B-aconstruction. Methodologically, the formal and semantic reconstruction to Proto-Kikongo are based on a thorough comparison of a multitude of existing data sources, some of which several centuries old, as well as original fieldwork. This bottom-up approach has rarely been pursued over the past half century in Bantu grammatical reconstructions.

Two empirical studies – a verb elicitation experiment and a collostructional analysis – were conducted to investigate the Mandarin LVS construction with respect to the lexical semantics of the verb and its collocation with grammatical aspect. Converging evidence from both studies indicates strong schematicity and productivity in the verb category of the LVS construction. Although most exemplars fall into a few major lexical semantic clusters, there are more low-frequency marginal exemplars than previously recognized, reinforcing the constructional schema in an essentially radial category. In addition to the lexical semantic regularity of the verb slot, both studies showed the existence of high-frequency tokens with prototype status. As far as grammatical aspect is concerned, the converging evidence indicates that the LVS category is compatible not only with the durative aspect, but also with the perfective as well as the resultative and directional lexical aspect. The attraction of grammatical aspect to the verb of LVS is graded rather than absolute, with some mutual selection patterns more typical than others. The two grammatical aspects as marked by the durative -zhe and the perfective -le are non-interchangeable.

This study investigates the production of perfective and imperfective aspect in Greek by Greek-German and Greek-English bilingual children. Participants produced retellings of narratives (ENNI, Schneider et al. 2006), which were then coded for the use of grammatical aspect, perfective and imperfective, as well as for lexical and grammatical aspect combinations. Ninety children, 8 to 12 years old, participated in the study: thirty Greek-German bilinguals, thirty Greek-English bilinguals and thirty Greek monolinguals. Although German and English differ in the linguistic expression of aspect in that German lacks morphological aspect, while English marks the +/-progressive distinction, our results reveal that the two bilingual groups did not differ in their preference for perfective aspect. Perfective aspect was also preferred by the Greek monolingual children. Nevertheless, monolingual and Greek-German bilingual children produced fewer perfective verbs compared to the Greek-English children. Finally, all three groups preferred to use perfective aspect with accomplishment/achievement predicates, whereas a difference between the three groups is found in the use of imperfective aspect with stative, activity and semelfactive predicates. This provides partial support to theories which argue for lexical aspect guiding morphological aspect marking in developing grammars.

Both children and adults tend to produce predicates with lexical aspect, grammatical aspect and tense in particular prototypical combinations. While it has been argued that these prototypes constitute the linguistic knowledge that children have of tense, others argue that they are independent dimensions of knowledge, even in child language, and that the prototypical groupings of these dimensions in child language fall together for non-linguistic cognitive reasons. Recent studies of child Spanish suggest non-adult-like use of verb finiteness. In light of these facts, we seek to determine whether Spanish-speaking children are also delayed in their comprehension of prototypical tense and aspect combinations. Twenty-three Spanish-speaking children (mean age = 3;10) from Mexico City were given a comprehension task and scored on their ability to select a picture corresponding to different tense-aspect combinations. Children were largely able to successfully interpret tense and aspect information as it was conveyed in the adult-like cues.

Most previous approaches to the acquisition of morphology have focused on the acquisition of inflectional morphology of some Indo-European language; there are fewer studies on the acquisition of languages with a rich morphological system, in-cluding the Finno-Ugric languages. Among the Finno-Ugric languages the acquisition of Estonian has been a largely neglected area. The article discusses the impact of the typological peculiarity of a language on the acquisition of the inflectional morphology of Estonian. At first some assumptions will be made concerning the impact of the general richness of the Estonian morphological system on the speed of the acquisition of inflectional morphology followed by the analyses of the acquisition of individual typologically relevant features. The article discusses the acquisition of inflectional and analytic means of expression, the acquisition of gradation as a typologically relevant feature of Estonian, the acquisition of the lexical aspect of Estonian, and the acquisition of the case of the object as the principal means of expressing the aspect. The conclusions are based on the data from the previous articles by the author and the Estonian subcorpus of Vija, Argus, and Triplets in CHILDES.

In this paper I outline a theory of aspectual classes based on theories of scalar change (Hay et al. 1999, Kennedy and Levin 2008). Standard models of aspectual classes focus on event decompositional or featural distinctions between predicates. However, such classifications often overor undergenerate, and also do not necessarily capture the temporal properties upon which aspectual classifications are usually based. I show that a predictive model of aspectual classes arises from two independently motivated properties of scale arguments: (a) how specific the predicate is about the final state of the patient on the scale (Beavers 2006), and (b) the mereological complexity of the scale (Beavers 2008). The resultant classification accommodates the standard Vendler dynamic classes, plus additional classes that have proved difficult for previous approaches, and also makes predictions about how argument realization and aspectual classes are related.

A robust finding from studies investigating the Aspect Hypothesis is that learners at the early stages of acquisition show a strong preference for using the progressive aspect as associated with activity verbs. As they advance in their acquisition of the second or foreign language, learners move from this prototypical association to associations traditionally considered to be more peripheral (e.g., -ing with accomplishments or achievements). Within this framework, the goal of this paper is to provide further evidence from groups of learners with different proficiency levels with regard to the acquisition of progressive aspect by tutored learners of English who are bilingual Catalan-Spanish. This is done by eliciting data by means of two different task types and by looking at both tokens and types. Our results are consistent with previous research according to which -ing morphology is closely associated with durative lexical aspect, although not necessarily with activity predicates. The study also shows that the type of task has an influence on the frequency and the distribution of learners’ progressive forms.

The purpose of this research was to discover how the aspectual properties of predicate structure influence the acquisition of agreement and tense morphology in Polish and English. We investigated the corpora of six children learning each language by tracking the emergence of their verb morphology within a set of predicates in each of three categories, i. e., stative, dynamic-atelic, and dynamic-telic. We used contrast as a measure of acquisition, e.g., past versus nonpast. In Polish, the age of the initial contrast in agreement and in tense was very similar for dynamic predicates, and agreement emerged before tense in stative predicates. In English, contrasts in tense preceded contrasts in agreement for dynamic predicates, but the pattern of acquisition was the same for stative predicates. The interaction of grammatical and lexical aspect permeated the pattern of the acquisition of the finite morphology. For stative predicates, finite contrasts occur exclusively in the imperfective aspect in Polish and exclusively in the nonprogressive aspect in English. In Polish, finite contrasts for atelic predicates were very likely to be found in the imperfective aspect and telic predicates in the perfective aspect. The related pattern in English was much less distinct. In Polish, when a contrast in agreement (e.g., 3rd versus 1st person singular) coincided with a contrast in tense (e.g., past versus future), all of the children demonstrated the capacity to immediately (i.e., without further development) produce the agreement contrast in both tenses. These findings indicate that the children are acquiring their knowledge of tense and agreement in a systematic manner driven by the acquisition of predicate-argument structure.

Two connectionist networks, DISLEX and DevLex-II, were used in this study to model the acquisition of lexical and grammatical aspect. Both models use multi-layered self-organizing feature maps, connected by associative links trained according to the Hebbian learning rule. Previous empirical research has identified a strong association between lexical aspect and grammatical aspect in child language, on the basis of which some researchers argue for innate semantic categories or prelinguistic predispositions. Our simulations indicate that such an association can emerge from dynamic self-organization and Hebbian learning in connectionist networks, without the need of a priori assumptions about the structure of innate knowledge. Our modeling results further attest to the utility of selforganizing neural networks in the study of language acquisition.

This article examines the use of the present perfect (PP) in Australian English using a corpus of stories told during radio chat-show programs and news reports. We find that the PP is used (i) as a narrative tense in spoken texts both with and without narrative present (NarPres); (ii) in sequences of clauses expressing temporal progression; and (iii) with some definite temporal adverbials denoting past time. Such uses are either unusual or unacceptable in other English varieties. A systematic comparison of contexts where NarPres and narrative PP are used in oral narratives reveals that the PP replaces the NarPres predominantly with verbs denoting events. Usage in news reports, where the narrative interpretation is not possible, suggests that a temporal ambiguity exists in the current interpretation of PP sentences. Analysis of lexical aspect shows that the majority of verbs used in the narrative PP are both durative and contain a process part, a fact that helps explain the sense of vividness achieved. At the discourse level, use of the PP enables the speaker to present situations as tightly connected. Such extensions in usage show a possible path for change for a category that is known to be historically unstable in its meaning.