The modern study of lexical aspect begins with Ryle (1947) and Vendler (1957). Lexical aspect, sometimes called “Aktionsart”, corresponds to Smith’s (1997) situation aspect, which covers distinctions between properties of event-types denoted by verbal expressions
(Rothstein 2003). Smith (1997) discusses the situation types at an abstract level holding across languages. She argues that situation types are semantic classes of idealized situations with distinctive temporal features.
Smith (1997) bases temporal features on the Vendlerian classification (Vendler 1957).
Vendler (1957) identifies temporal features among the verb classes. They are whether it is progressing or developing (whether it is dynamic or has stages), whether an event type has a natural stopping point (telicity), and whether it holds for an interval (continuous tense). Smith brings in Semelfactives to the existing four verb classes and she terms Vendler’s verb classes as ‘situation types’.
Smith (1997) uses the temporal features of dynamism, telicity, and duration to
distinguish the basic-level situation types. All of the situation types are distinguishable with three two-valued semantic properties, namely static/dynamic, telic/atelic, and
durative/instantaneous. Dynamism distinguishes events from States, telicity distinguishes
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Accomplishments and Achievements from Activities and Semelfactives, and duration is only found in Activities, Accomplishments and States.
Dynamism means that “events consist of successive stages which occur at different moments” (Smith 1997: 19). Due to the lack of such feature, a state consists of “a single, undifferentiated, static period” (Smith 1997: 19). In contrast, dynamic durative situation types own successive stages that take up time and are circumvented by the initial endpoint and the final endpoint, such as Activities and Accomplishments.
Telicity concerns whether an event results in a change of state which constitutes the outcome, or goal of the event. A telic event is said to have a natural final endpoint (Smith 1997: 19). Accomplishments and Achievements are telic events while States, Activities and Semelfactives are atelic.
Duration is a semantic feature that distinguishes the length of an event, from an instant to a perceptible interval of time. Activities and Accomplishments are grouped together as durative while Achievements and Semelfactives are instantaneous events. Duration also holds of States.
The three features, dynamism, telicity and duration, are mapped to situation types, as Table 3 shows.
Table 3 Temporal Features of the Situation Types (Smith 1997: 20)
Static Durative Telic
State + + -
Activity - + -
Accomplishment - + +
Semelfactive - - -
Achievement - - +
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As Smith (1997: 32) states, States consist of an undifferentiated period without internal structure. They have the features of static and durative. Possessing something like own the farm and physical features like height be tall are among the typical examples of States.
State predicates come in two levels, individual or stage. According to Carlson (1977), individual-level predicates denote relatively stable properties, such as be extinct while stage-level predicates denote transitory properties like be angry.
States include the concrete and abstract properties of all kinds, possession, location, mental states and habits, etc. (Smith 1997: 32). For example, habituals present stable properties, like (91), where a state of consuming mice holds consistently over an interval.
(91) My cat eats mice frequently. (Smith 1997: 34)
The habitual interpretation is not only found in present tense sentences. The information in the sentence can shift other types of situation or non-present tense to a habitual State. In (92) there is an individual nominal and a quantized object but the habitual adverbial every afternoon makes the Accomplishment a habitual. In (93) the habitual is caused by the interval of summer season. Moreover, world knowledge informs that getting up normally occurs every day.
(92) Every afternoon John ate an apple.
(93) Eva got up at noon last summer. (Smith 1997: 35)
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According to Smith, Activities consist entirely in the process; they terminate or stop but do not finish, thus lacking a natural final endpoint. The process is of considerable length, not a vanishingly small interval (Smith 1997: 23). Activities have the temporal features of
dynamic, atelic and durative. The strolling in stroll in the park has an arbitrary final endpoint, and the notion of completion is irrelevant to the process of strolling.
The homogenous nature of Activities is shown by the test of imperfective and perfective sentences (Smith 1997: 25). If (94a) is true during interval I, the corresponding perfective (5b) is true; (94a) entails (94b).
(94) a. The kitten was chasing its tail.
b. The kitten chased its tail. (Smith 1997: 25)
Multiple-event Activities are an important class of derived Activities. Their internal stages consist of sub-events. In (95), there is a single event consisting of a series of feeding.
(95) We fed the puppy for an hour. (Smith 1997: 24)
Accomplishments, in Smith’s definition, consist of a process and an outcome, or change of state. The outcome is the completion of the process (Smith 1997: 26). Accomplishments have the temporal features of dynamic, telic and durative. For example, in drink a glass of
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wine there are successive stages in which the process advances to its natural final endpoint, a new state coming out as a result, i.e. the glass is empty.
The notion of non-detachability is embodied in the relation between the process and the outcome (Smith 1997: 26). That is, if an outcome is reached, the process must have occurred.
Therefore the perfective Accomplishment entails its imperfective version. In (96), if (96a) is true then (96b) is true. This entailment pattern is not necessarily true the other way since not all Accomplishments are completed, i.e. (96b) may not entail (96a). For example, Smith remarks that in the middle of crossing the street Mary may decide to stroll down the center, or she may be hit by a truck and never complete the crossing. In this case, Mary was crossing the street but it was not true that Mary crossed the street.
(96) a. John built a cabin last summer.
b. John was building a cabin last summer. (Smith 1997: 29)
Semelfactivs are single-stage events with no result or outcome (Smith 1997: 29). They have the features of dynamic, atelic, and instantaneous. For example, in flap a wing the flapping is conceptualized as instantaneous occurrence.
Smith (1997) argues that Semelfactives include bodily events such as blink, cough, internal events like the light flicker, or actions tap, pound on the table. These situations often occur in repetitive sequences, leading to multiple-event Activities (Smith 1997: 30). This reading is triggered by the imperfective or durative adverbials. In (97) the imperfective suffix
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shifts the Semelfactive into an Activity; the same goes to (98) where the coughing is made durative because of the adverbial for an hour.
(97) Mary was coughing.
(98) Mary coughed for an hour. (Smith 1997: 30)
Achievements are instantaneous events that result in a change of state (Smith 1997: 30).
Achievements have the features of dynamic, telic, and instantaneous. In recognize Aunt Jane, the recognition is a single-state event, detached from any associated process. Preliminary or resultant stages may be associated but not considered part of it (Smith 1997: 30). For
example, arrive in Boston is an Achievement, which is likely to have preliminary stages like spending time flying to the city and likewise to have a resultant state, such as staying there for a few days.