Tense, Aspect and Relevance By Vladimir egarac Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of PhD University College London 1991 0 ABSTRACT The main aim of this thesis is to consider some consequences of the relevance theory of Sperber and Wilson (1986) for explaining a number of phenomena relating to verbal aspect. Chapter one introduces some basic notions relating to aspect and illustrates the interaction of aspect and tense and gives an outline of the main tenets of relevance theory. Chapter two considers the aspectual categories (simple-progressive) of English and (perfective-imperfective) of Serbo- Croat in relation to each other, and also in relation to the the classification of verbs according to the situation types they denote. Problems of defining the aspectual categories of these two languages are examined, and the suggestion is put forward that relevance theory provides the framework which makes it possible to maintain a fairly austere semantics of aspectual categories as well as to explain aspectual choice. Chapter three examines the treatment of aspectual categories in terms of subjectivity. It is argued that speakers' intuitions about the aspectual categories being expressive of subjectivity can be explained pragmatically, in terms of the notions of loose use and interpretive use. In Chapter four, I argue that in addition to the feature of completion, the semantics of aspectual categories of both English and Serbo-Croat needs to be characterised in terms of reference to particular events instantiating the property denoted by the predicate. I show how this assumption makes it possible to explain a number of uses of the English progressive. I then proceed to argue that the progressive of English and the perfective of Serbo-Croat differ with regard to completion but that they both point indexically, as it were, to a particular event instantiating the property denoted by the predicate. This assumption is shown to be crucial in explaining aspectual choice in the two languages. Although the data discussed are drawn solely from English and Serbo-Croat, the central ideas presented should carry over to Slavonic languages in general. Chapter five looks at situation type aspect in the light of Sperber and Wilson's (1986) view that conceptual information is stored in three types of entries. It is shown that the difference in the behaviour of verbs which intuitively seems to correlate with dynamicness and stativity, is best explained in terms of a three-way distinction determined by meaiiing postulate-like rules in the logical entries of concepts for individual verbs. I also give evidence in support of the view that accomplishment VPs fall into two classes depending on whether or not they grammaticalise completion, and I show that the grammaticalisation of completion in some predicates of this type is pragmatically explained. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Whatever merit this thesis might have it would not have but for the help of a number of people. I owe the greatest debt of gratitute to Neil Smith, whose sustained support over the years has gone far beyond his role of supervisor. Working in close connection with such a personality as his has been a precious and unique experience. I thank him for everything, and especially for believing in me when I did not believe in myself: Over the years during which this thesis was written I have shared my views and doubtø about many matters in life with Robyn Carston. On the pragmatics front, she was always ready for endless discussions. She has read many rough drafts of my papers, talks and chapters, and has also had the good will and the patience to proofread the fin1 version of this work. I thank her for all that, but most of all for the support and the encouragement that she gave me in my early days in London and the first days of my interest in pragmatics. I am not sure that this thesis could have been completed without her help, but I am sure it could never have been started without it. It was a privilege for me to be introduced to relevance theory at its source and to attend a number of talks and seminars given by its authors, Dan Sperber and Deirdre Wilson. I feel particularly grateful to Deirdre Wilson for her lectures, and for her many discussions and comments, which have helped me gain a better grasp of relevance theory than would otherwise have been possible. A number of other people have given me support and encouragement. I cannot mention them alL Many thanks to Ruth Kempson, Dick Hudson, and Diane Blakemore. I thank Dugan Puvaié, a friend and a colleague, who was always a patient informant for Serbo- Croat. A number of friends, fellow students who were, or still are, doing their PhDs at UCL, have created together an enjoyable and supportive working environment. In this regard I would especially like to thrnk Billy Clark, Maijolein Groefsema, Reiko Itani, Adrian Pilkington, and Vffly Rouchota. In the past two years I have worked at the Survey of English Usage at UCL My thanks go to Baa Aarts, Sidney Greenbauin, And Rosta, and Laura Tollfree. Special thnk to me Mortelmans for her lively companionship at the Survey, for her persistence in urging me to be more efficient in my work, and for helping me to produce a much nicer looking copy of the present thesis than I could possibly have managed, if left to my own devices. I thrnk Valerie Hazan whose last minute computational help saved me from a nervous breakdown. Finally, I would like to th2nk my family and in particular my parents for everything that they have done for me. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT 1 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 2 Chapter One 7 INTRODUCTION 7 1.1. ASPECFUAL CATEGORIES 8 1.2 ASPECT AND AXTIONSART 14 1.3. TENSE AND ASPECT 18 1.3.1 Jespersen's analysis of tense 19 1.3.2 Reichenbach's analysis of tense 21 1.4 THE UNDERDETERMINACY THESIS - T) KINDS OF SEMANTICS 27 Chapter Two 41 TWO APPROACHES TO ASPECT 41 2.1 PERFECTIVITY AND IMPEEFECTIVFI'Y 41 2.2 SITUATION TYPES 44 2.2.1 States and state verbs 45 2.2.2 Processes and process verbs 45 2.2.3 Accomplishments and accompilishinent VPs 47 2.2.4 Achievements and achievement verbs 48 2.3 THE PERFECTIVE-IMPERFECTWE DISTINCTION AND SITUATION TYPES 49 2.3.1 Valeur 51 3 2.3.2 The aspectual categories of English and Serbo-Croat compared 66 2.3.3 Viewpoint aspect 70 2.4 CONCLUDING REMARKS 75 Chapter Three 78 SUBJECTiVITY, ASPECT AND RELEVANCE 78 3.1 EVIDENCE FOR SUBJECflVITY 80 3.1.1. Overview of Banfield's analysis 80 3.1.1.1 Syntactic evidence for subjectivity 80 3.1.1.2 Embeddable subjective expressions 81 3.1.1.3 The progressive: simultaneity and subjectivity 84 3.1.2 Lyons' account of subjectivity 86 3.1.2.1 Non-paraphrasabiity as evidence for subjectivity 87 3.1.2.2 The quotative of French and subjectivity 88 3.1.2.3 Aspectuol choice, modes of discourse and subjectivity 90 3.2 THE USES OF TENSE-ASPECT FORMS 92 3.3 SUBJECrIVrFY AND RELEVANCE 104 3.3.1 Absence of SPEAKER 105 3.3.2 'The descriptive fallacy' 107 3.3.3 Descriptive and interpretive use 110 3.3.3.1 Free indirect style 111 4 3.3.3.2 Exciarnative interfections and higher level explicatures 113 3.3.3.3 Subjectivity, evidential ity and literalness 118 3.3.3.4 Loose Use 124 3.3.3.5 The progressive loose use and iaterpretive use 126 Chapter Four 134 PRAGMATIC S ANT) VIEWPOINT ASPECT 134 134 4.1 THE PROGRESSIVE 135 4.1.1 The meaning of the progressive 136 4.1.2. Properties and instantiations of properties 138 4.2 SOME CHARACFEBJSATIONS OF THE MEANING OF THE PROGRESSWE 139 4.3 RELEVANCE THEORY AND THE OVERTONES OF MILD REPROOF, iNSINCERITY AND TEMPORARThIESS 144 4.3.1 The overtone of mild reproof 144 4.3.2 The overtone of insiiwerity 147 4.3.3 The overtone of temporariness 150 4.4 MARKEDNESS 152 4.5 THE PROGRESSIVE AND CONSTRAINTS ON RELEVANCE 164 4.6 THE PROGRESSIVE AND THE PERFECTWE 177 4.7 THE IMPEEFECTIVE AND THE PROGRESSIVE - THE MORPHEME -IVA- 183 4.8 THE PERFECTIVE AND THE SThPLE 187 5 Chapter Five 193 PRAGMATIC S AND SITUATION TYPE ASPECT 193 5.1 VERBS OF STATE 194 5.2 PROCESS VERBS AND ELIMINATION RULES 197 5.3 RELEVANCE THEORY AND TESTS FOR STATE VERBS 199 5.4 EvENT VERBS AND DELIMITEDNESS 208 Chapter Six 221 CONCLUSION 221 NOTES 224 BIBLIOGRAPHY 228 6 Chapter One INTRODUCTION Putting it in the most general terms, the main aim of this study is to examine some issues pertRining to the category of aspect in the light of the relevance theory of Sperber and Wilson (1986) (S&W hereafter). This chapter addresses some preliminary questions. Which linguistic phenomena does the term aspect (or verbal aspect) refer to? What distinguishes aspectual categories from the closely related category of tense? The term aspect, or verbal aspect, was originally used rather narrowly in relation to the linguistic expression of semantic distinctions presumed peculiar to Slavonic languages (cf. Forsyth (1970)), or as a descriptive cover term for a number of language particular categories characterised by partial semantic overlap and defined in terms of the grammaticalisation or lexicalisation of certain features of rneining or the combinations of these features. Only more recently has aspect been considered from the point of view of general and theoretical linguistics, although it should be mentioned that a well established tradition which looks at aspectual distinctions as universal was, for a long time, associated with philosophy.