Telicity and Durativity: A Study of Aspect in Dëne Suliné (Chipewyan) and German

ISBN-13: 9780415976459 / Angielski / Twarda / 2007 / 356 str.

Andrea Wilhelm

Opis

This book studies the linguistic representation of events by examining the relevance of two salient event characteristics-- telicity and durativity-- to the grammatical system of natural language. The study of events, and of event characteristics, is an important testing ground for theories on the boundary between extralinguistic and linguistic knowledge, and on the relation between semantics and syntax. Telicity and durativity are notions which have become increasingly influential in both the semantic and the syntactic, i.e., grammaticalized, representation of events. The book furthers the understanding of events through the comparison of two genetically and typologically distinct languages, German and Dene Suline (Chipewyan/Athapaskan), an indigenous language of Northwestern Canada. It contains the first in-depth documentation of the aspectual system of Dene Suline, and a careful analysis of the aspectual behaviour of German particle verbs. A stringent methodology considers semantic, pragmatic, and grammatical factors in both languages. The data reveal that telicity and durativity belong to profoundly different semantic and grammatical domains, and that neither notion is grammaticalized universally. While both notions are represented semantically in German as well as in Dene Suline, telicity is grammaticalized only in the former and durativity is grammaticalized only in the latter.

Spis treści

Table of Contents

List of tables

List of maps

List of abbreviations

Acknowledgments

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

PART I: DËNE SULINÉ

CHAPTER TWO: Viewpoint aspect and its influence on situation type in Dëne

CHAPTER THREE: TELICITY IS NOT GRAMMATIZED IN DËNE

PART II: GERMAN

CHAPTER FOUR: TELICITY IN GERMAN

CHAPTER 5: Viewpoint Aspect and Durativity in German

CHAPTER SIX: The grammatization of aspectual notions

APPENDIX 1: Dëne verbs and tests

APPENDIX 2: German verbs and tests

APPENDIX 3: The Dëne Progressive

End Notes

Bibliography

Index

O autorze

Andrea Luise Wilhelm