Aspect et/ou classes de verbes

Résumé En Fr

A somewhat narrow view of aspect is adopted, reducing it to the perfectivity / imperfectivity oposition. We consider it necessary to distinguish between the semantic and the formal plane. Formally, aspect is limited to a small number of languages, whereas considered from a semantic standpoint it becomes a more general category that can be realized morphologically, syntactically and lexically. Such an approach allows us to study how aspect is expressed at the level of discourse, where the convergence of meanings carried by the verb lexeme, grammatical morphemes, adverbs and determiners creates a variety of effets de sens. Moreover, this view of aspect imposes a tighter discipline on the characterisation of semantic verb classes based primarily on the concepts of state and event. Confronting the concept of aspect, understood as the perfectivity/ imperfectivity opposition, with the theory of generic sentences leads us to a conclusion that links generic interpretation with imperfectivity.

A somewhat narrow view of aspect is adopted, reducing it to the perfectivity / imperfectivity oposition. We consider it necessary to distinguish between the semantic and the formal plane. Formally, aspect is limited to a small number of languages, whereas considered from a semantic standpoint it becomes a more general category that can be realized morphologically, syntactically and lexically. Such an approach allows us to study how aspect is expressed at the level of discourse, where the convergence of meanings carried by the verb lexeme, grammatical morphemes, adverbs and determiners creates a variety of effets de sens. Moreover, this view of aspect imposes a tighter discipline on the characterisation of semantic verb classes based primarily on the concepts of state and event. Confronting the concept of aspect, understood as the perfectivity/ imperfectivity opposition, with the theory of generic sentences leads us to a conclusion that links generic interpretation with imperfectivity.