SEMANTIC AND PRAGMATICSGROUP 15

“ASPECT”

BYHERMAN

LECTURER:AINUL FAIZA, S. S

SEKOLAH TINGGI KEGURUAN DAN ILMU PENDIDIKAN

DHARMA BHAKTI LUBUK ALUNG2013

GENERIC AND SPECIFIC PREDICATIONSReference and aspect are similer in some ways.

Referring expressions are noun pharasy and aspect in expressed primily in the predicates af sentence, but there are certain similarities, just and we distinguish between generic and non generic reference for example.• Gregory is here• Stella seems happy

They report unbounded situations, or states sentences a-d, on the other hand are about temporary states, they arre bounded. There is nothing in the two groups of sentence, as they are, that indicates this different, but the difference shows up in the fact we bin add certain aspectual modifiers.

Aspectual modifiers express some thing about change from ane state to another, they manu carry some implication or nuance about a speakers expertation. “Gregory is already here”, may suggest that the speaker did not expect Gregory so soon and “Gregory is still here” that the speaker thought Gregory night have left. The questions “Is Gregory here already ?” and “Is Gregory still here ?” reguest the same information about gregory’s presence but differ in the guestioners’s expertation.

STATIVE PREDICATES AND DYNAMIC PREDICATES

According to comrie (1976 : 49), reports a state that reguires no expenditure of energy and that continues until energy is expended to change that state, a dynamic predicate reports a situation that will only continue if there is a continual input of energy, but it ceases when energy is no longer expended.

For example :

We waited

The children were hungry

A stative predicate is typically durative aspect for each of the sentencies a-d we can ask “How long ?” How long did we wait ? How long were the children hungry ?A stative predicate relates a situation that does not change during the time when the predication is valid

DYNAMIC PREDICATES

The sentence report activities and hove dynamic predicates the change from one state to another is dynamic event.

For example : - Gregory arrived here• - t recovered from my headache

Dynamic verbs include those that express some form of physical movement such as : come, go, jump, run, swim, walk, etc.

Some dynamic verbs designate a change occoring over a periode of time for example :

In Grandmother’s health deteriorate during the next few months.

The verb indicates a constant change but not necessarrly a con continuous change nor a constant rate of change.

Durative and Punctual

“Albert kicked a ball and the ball struck a post”This sentence contains two verbs that have a punctual

aspect.Kiking and striking normally designate actions that

are momentary.These actions have essentially no duration. A

sentence like “Albert kicked a ball forten minutes has a repetitive or I terative interpretation. “They sat in the last row” can be the eguivalent of what is more precisely expressed as they sat down in the last row (punctual) or of they were sitting I the last row (durative).

The sentence expressed habitual aspect, costumary o ccurrence distributed over various occasions. However, a simple past tense verb can only express habitual aspect if there is some expression of freguency like every night, twice a week, seldom, often, etc.Habitual aspect in the present 6m be expressed with the simple present tense form of a verb.

TELIC AND ATELIC

The actions and events that are designated by dynamic predicates may accur within a brief instant or may stretch out over a long period of time, and the different may be due to external circumstances or to the nature of the avtion it self.Vendler (1967) proposed a four-many classificasification of predicates as stative, activity, achievement, and accomplishment predicates.

Stative and activity predicates are ATELIC, and achievement predicates are TELIC.

An example :

(1-) George was waiting

(2-) Sandra was swimming

(1*) Geroge was leaving

(2*) Sandra was writing a letter.

The sentence in (1-) are stative and those in (2-) are activities. If it is true that George was waiting and Sandra sub. The predicates do not have an and or a goal : they are atelic.

In contrast (1*) contains achievement sentence and the sentence in (2*) are accomplishments. If George was leaving, he did not necessarily leave, Sandra night be dying for months and yet no die.

 

INGRESSIVE, CONTINUATIVE, EGRESSIVE ASPECT

Some predicates express simple states, other express the beginning, the continuance or the ending of states. Some predicates have gusative sense. They bring a bout, or maintain, or put an end to states that exist. We now examine such predicates in groups of common meaning.–24.a. The lamp is on the table–24.b. Some oranges are in that basket–24.c. Donald is at the door

The sentence on, in and at are two argument predicates.

Other locative prepositions such as above, beside, near, next to, and etc are also two argument predicates.

 

We show some example like that :–25.a. Donald gest to the door–25.b. Donald stay at the door–25.c. Donald leave from the door

Like the example above, Donald here are punctual verbs to express the beginning or Ingressive aspect (25.a). durative verbs that express the Continuative aspect (25.b), and punctual verbs which express the end or Egressive aspect (25.c) of being in a location.

Propective and Retrospective We start from an example to describe about prospective and

retrospective.– 39. a We asked Ronald to drive slower– 39.b Jessica is thinking of visiting her grand mother

In sentence 39.a dur asking hors to do with Ronald’s subsequent behavior. In sentence 39. B Jessica’s thinking obviously concerns something she many do later. We call such verbs as ask and think of PROSPECTIVE VERBS. They are oriented that is important, weather Ronald actually slows down or Jessica visits her grandmother is irrelevant. 

 

– New consider these sentences.– 40.a Edgar apologized for missing the meeting.– 40.b We denied seeing the report.

In both sentences the clause is about something that did or did not precede the apologizing and denying. Verbs like apologize and deny are retrospective verbs. The previous action to which the verb refers is expressed in a following clause. Always a gerund clause, and the preciousness can be emphasized by the use of the retrospective (or prefect) from of the gerund, having (missed).

SOME GRAMMATICAL EXPRESSIONS OF ASPECT

If I am aspectual meaning can be expressed with all or a significant number of predicates of a language, the expression is grammatical.

In this section we examine three aspects that are incorporated into the grammatical system of English, prospective, perfect, and progressive. 

The prospectiveThe illustration of prospective from.– 42.a They are to leave– 42. b You are not to war

This form be + to + Verb expresses “looking forward” it is not about the future but about present intentions regarding the future but about present intentions regarding the future.The perfect or retrogressive

They have left illustrates a verb structure which is traditionally called “Present Perfect”. The present perfect, or present retrosepective form in affirmative statement, refers to events that occurred in the past and situations that began in the past and which are seen as relevant “now” at the present time.

The progressive

The illustration of progressive form :– 49.a. We are watching television– 49.b. Syarif is smoking

 

The example above illustrate a verb form composed of the present participle + ing form. It is called present progressive, or the continuos.

Thank You