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The Greek Perfect and the Categorization of Tense and Aspect: Toward a Descriptive Apparatus for Operators in Role and Reference Grammar

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The Greek Perfect and the Categorization of Tense and Aspect: Toward a Descriptive Apparatus for Operators in Role and Reference Grammar THE GREEK PERFECT AND THE CATEGORIZATION OF TENSE AND ASPECT: TOWARD A DESCRIPTIVE APPARATUS FOR OPERATORS IN ROLE AND REFERENCE GRAMMAR by Michael G. Aubrey A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES Master of Arts in Linguistics and Exegesis We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard ............................................................................... Dr. Sean Allison, Ph.D.; Thesis Supervisor ................................................................................ Dr. Steven Runge, D.Litt.; Second Reader ................................................................................ Dr. Michael Boutin, Ph.D.; Third Reader TRINITY WESTERN UNIVERSITY August 2014 © Michael G. Aubrey Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................. iv Abbreviations .......................................................................................................................... vi Chapter 1. Introduction ......................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 2. Role and Reference Grammar ............................................................................ 5 2.1 Overview of Role and Reference Grammar ............................................................. 5 2.1.1 Layered structure of the clause ........................................................................... 6 2.1.2 Semantic representation .................................................................................... 12 2.1.3 Logical Structure................................................................................................ 19 2.2 Observations about Grammatical Categories and Predicate Classes in RRG ...... 20 2.2.1 Operators and Discrete categories .................................................................... 22 2.2.2 The relationship between Predicate Classes and Aspectual Categories ......... 23 2.2.3 The challenge of complex categories ............................................................... 25 2.3 Conclusions .............................................................................................................. 26 Chapter 3. Toward a methodology for tense and aspect in RRG ..................................... 28 3.1 Methodological issues in the analysis of grammatical categories ........................ 28 3.1.1 Categories, labels, and conceptual structure .................................................... 30 3.1.2 Linguistic choice, example sentences, and grammatical categories ............... 33 3.2 Typological perspectives on tense and aspect ........................................................ 50 3.2.1 Typology and the perfect................................................................................... 53 3.2.2 Morphosyntactic and semantic tests ................................................................. 64 3.3 Conclusions .............................................................................................................. 77 Chapter 4. The Greek perfect: A test case ......................................................................... 78 4.1 Recent approaches to the Greek perfect: A methodological perspective ............. 78 4.2 Descriptive Analysis ................................................................................................ 80 4.2.1 Tests for grammatical prominence, tense & aspect ......................................... 82 4.2.2 Gram-specific tests part I: Adverbial modification ......................................... 92 4.2.3 Gram-specific tests part II: Predicate classes ................................................... 95 4.3 Summary & conclusions........................................................................................ 128 Chapter 5. A Cognitive & typological approach to complex categories in RRG.......... 135 Chapter 6. Epilogue ........................................................................................................... 145 6.1 Summary & conclusions........................................................................................ 145 6.2 Possibilities for future research ............................................................................. 150 Appendix A. Verb and their predicate classes ................................................................. 152 A.1 Atelic Predicate Types ........................................................................................... 152 A.1.1 State Predicates ............................................................................................... 153 A.1.2 Activity Predicates .......................................................................................... 159 A.1.3 Semelfactive Predicates .................................................................................. 164 A.2 Non-Causative Telic Predicate Types .................................................................. 165 A.2.1 Active Achievements ...................................................................................... 165 A.2.2 Achievements .................................................................................................. 169 A.2.3 Accomplishments............................................................................................ 173 A.3 Causative Predicates .............................................................................................. 175 A.3.1 Causative States .............................................................................................. 176 A.3.2 Causative Activities ........................................................................................ 181 A.3.3 Causative Semelfactives ................................................................................. 182 A.3.4 Causative Active Achievements .................................................................... 182 A.3.5 Causative Achievements ................................................................................ 182 A.3.6 Causative Accomplishments .......................................................................... 184 Appendix B. Overview of the Greek verbal system........................................................ 187 B.1 General Comments on Morphological Structure ................................................. 188 B.2 Tense & Aspect ...................................................................................................... 189 B.2.1 Morphology ..................................................................................................... 189 B.2.2 Morphophonological issues ............................................................................ 191 B.2.3 Aspect: Imperfective, perfective & perfect ................................................... 192 B.2.4 Tense: Past & non-past ................................................................................... 199 B.3 Grammatical voice ................................................................................................. 202 B.3.1 Morphology ..................................................................................................... 202 B.3.2 Voice semantics............................................................................................... 204 B.4 Modality and Illocutionary Force ......................................................................... 208 B.5 Non-finite verb-forms ............................................................................................ 211 Works Cited .......................................................................................................................... 214 ii Abstract This thesis attempts to expand the theoretical and methodological basis for operators within Role and Reference Grammar for purposes of language description, using the Greek perfect as a test case. This requires first examining the current theoretical and methodological approach to tense and aspect in RRG and its strengths and weaknesses. Here I demonstrate that while some areas of RRG have a well-developed and robust set of theoretical and descriptive tools for language description, operators such as tense and aspect are distinctly lacking in this regard. To that end, I propose a model for tense and aspect operators that attempts to fill in the gaps that exist in RRG while also maintaining the integrity and spirit of the linguistic theory. This involves three steps. I begin with a survey of the broader typological literature on tense and aspect in order to establish a set of morphosyntactic tests for the evaluation and categorization of operators. This is followed by an application of the proposed morphosyntactic tests to a particular grammatical problem: the Greek Perfect in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the tests. I then concluded with a synthetic model for tense and aspect operators that both satisfies the theoretical and typological claims of the broader literature and also validates the existing structure of the Role and Reference Grammar framework, thereby furthering the goals of RRG as a useful theoretical model for language description. iii Acknowledgements The completion of this thesis represents the culmination of many ideas I have had about tense and aspect
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