L'aspect perfectif comme hypercatégorie. Approche cognitive

Abstract

The Slavonic Languages’ Perfective Aspect as a Hypercategory : A Cognitive Approach In our approach, the following parameters are used to describe the aspectual value of a verb in a given context: — Semantic types of situations (state, event, ordinary process and refined process), — Selection of the whole situation or one of its parts: moment or stage, — Selection of a control operator: iteration, intensity modification, flow modification, sequential or parallel composition of situations. These concepts were used to describe a sample of Polish verbs (in context) as well as they allowed us (Wlodarczyk A. et H. 2003) to compare different aspectual meanings in various languages (not only Slavonic). The cognitive approach makes it possible to bring together the two categories of aspect and Aktionsart into one Hypercategory of Perfective Aspect in which verbal prefixes inherit several aspectual features. Following this hypothesis, no verbal prefix саn be viewed as semantically void but different configurations of features are possible. As a matter of fact, since the Perfective Aspect may be expressed by more than one verb derived from a single verbal root, none of them саn be considered as a 'pure' synonym of the root verb. Prefixed verbs that are traditionally described as Aktionsart verbs should be described as different realizations (specializations) of one perfective hyper-category.