Achievement Verbs Research Articles

Acquisition of tense-aspect morphology and the regular-irregular debate

This paper reviews research on English past-tense acquisition to test the validity of the single mechanism model and the dual mechanism model, focusing on regular-irregular dissociation and semantic bias. Based on the review, it is suggested that in L1 acquisition, both regular and irregular verbs are governed by semantics; that is, early use of past tense forms are restricted to achievement verbs—regular or irregular. In contrast, some L2 acquisition studies show stronger semantic bias for regular past tense forms (e.g., Housen, 2002, Rohde, 1996). It is argued that L1 acquisition of the past-tense morphology can be accounted for more adequately by the single-mechanism model.

As Time Goes by: Farsi and English Time References

This study compares and contrasts tense and inherent aspect in English and Persian from semantic and syntactic points of view. The aspectual verb systems in both English and Persian, are semantically interpreted alike. However, in Persian a group of stative verbs are grammaticalized by the imperfective obligatory morpheme mi -, while in English all stative verbs are perfective. Furthermore, while in Persian all accomplishment verbs can be shifted into activity verbs by deleting their direct object markers (i.e. by means of noun - incorporation), in English accomplishment verbs cannot be shifted into activity verbs. Finally, while English has six tense forms: present, present perfect, past, past perfect, future, and future perfect, Persian has five tense forms; it lacks future perfect tense with present perfect tense used instead.

How to End Without Ever Finishing: Thai Semi-perfectivity

Perfectivity is often assumed to entail the completion of the event described by eventdenoting stems and their arguments. Although some scholars have noted that perfective markers do not always entail completion, their formal definitions contradict their informal descriptions. We show that these traditional models of perfective aspect cannot account for the aspectual system of Thai. In Thai, perfective markers do not entail that the event was completed: the resulting state of sentences that are in appareance telic in their 'inner aspect' need not have been reached. We call these non-completive perfective markers semiperfectives. We propose a formal model of semi-perfectivity within Discourse Representation Theory that relies on the inclusion of an imperfective operator in the lexical meaning of Thai accomplishment verbs as well as the notion of maximal event relative to an event description. We show that this latter notion is strictly weaker than the traditional notion of telicity, thus demonstrating that (a)telicity is not the sole property of event descriptions relevant to the semantics of grammatical aspect.

Deverbal Nominals and Telicity in Japanese.

Kishimoto (1996) observes that the NP modified by a deverbal nominal with kake is restricted to the object of a transitive verb and the subject of an unaccusative verb, excluding the subject of a transitive verb and an unergative. In this paper we first claim that kake nominalization should recognize the two meanings, the "halfway" reading and the inception reading, for its accurate description. Based on the observation that the "halfway" reading occurs with (transitive) accomplishment verbs while the inception reading is possible with any verb, we further claim that telicity is a key notion to account for the "halfway" reading. Moreover, we argue that the "halfway" interpretation requires that an event extend over an interval so that a halfway point of the event can be measured. Achievement verbs, although telic, denote a punctual event, and therefore the nominal cannot receive the "halfway" reading: it can only have the inception reading. We also demonstrate that telicity can be invoked by contextual information. Our analysis overcomes the problems that Kishimoto's macrorole-based analysis faces and yet subsumes its generalization: the lowest ranking nonagent macrorole argument generally serves as the delimiter of the action denoted by the verb.

The Acquisition of Tense‐Aspect Marking in Japanese as a Second Language

Researchers have argued that the developmental sequence of tense‐aspect morphology in second language (L2) acquisition follows a universal pattern (the Aspect Hypothesis; e.g., Robison, 1995). Although such a tendency fits the acquisition of typologically similar languages (English, French and Spanish), the universal claim requires testing against non‐Indo European languages. This study tested the Aspect Hypothesis using L2 Japanese (JSL) data. Experiment 1 showed that in oral production data, 3 learners of JSL showed stronger association of achievement verbs and past marking (‐ta), and of activity verbs and progressive/durative marking (‐te i‐), than native speakers. Experiment 2 showed that in an acceptability judgment test of tense‐aspect forms, 17 learners of JSL had more difficulty correctly judging the acceptability of the progressive/durative marker (‐te i‐) with achievement verbs than with activity verbs. The results extend the applicability of the Aspect Hypothesis to a non‐Indo‐European language.

Narrative Voice and Second Reading: Relation and Response

What concerns me here is the reading of two texts, visual and verbal, and our relation to them as readers of this double object and as willing subjects. I intend both senses of the expression willing: We are willing to be the ones looking doubly, but we also wish to retain control over our perception and reception. We would, to the extent possible, assure a multiplicity of viewpoints and nuances in our reactions, choosing to look at the object not just by leave of the artist and the writer, but by our own will to see, taking the latter as an achievement verb in Ryle's sense. My initial supposition is as follows: In each work of art implicit questions are posed, some of which the keen observer-writer or critic -will feel impelled to answer, consciously or not. There may of course be a prior conception on the observer's part of what the object to be read will be read as, in which case the work observed will serve simply as a vessel for that subjectively held idea, receiving what is projected upon it. Into that holding, in the more interesting cases of reading, the antiphonal response set-up of implicit question and partial answer will be put in play, folding in, making a pli for further complication. The very density resulting from projection, interrogation, and answer, all doubling in upon each other, provides the sort of written text that elicits the most intense responses of any genre. Call that, then, the first reading. Now my own point of focus concerns the reaction of the second reader, the comer-after. This belated This article is a chapter in the book The Art of nterference, forthcoming from Princeton University Press, and is published with permission. Copyright ? 1990 by Princeton University Press.