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Re: verbal aspect

Mari

I would encourage you to precis the dissertation and put it on 
the discussion group when you have successfully defended it.  With 
the full title and details we will be able to get a copy from UMI.

Thanks.

Glenn Wooden
Acadia Divinity College
Wolfville, NS


> From:           Mari Olsen <molsen@astrid.ling.nwu.edu>
> Subject:        verbal aspect
> To:             b-greek@virginia.edu
> Date sent:      Thu, 22 Sep 94 8:53:01 CDT

> Related to earlier queries on aspect in classic studies...I am in the
> process of completing my dissertation on "A semantic and pragmatic
> model of lexical and grammatical aspect" (aka aktionsart and verbal
> aspect).  I present criteria for distinguishing tense from grammatical
> aspect, and lexical from grammatical aspect, as well as criteria for
> recognizing semantic meaning vs. the pragmatic implicatures associated
> with a given form in a language.  The initial chapters lay out the
> theoretical groundwork, justifying the analysis from phenomena in a
> variety of languages (including NT Greek).  Chapters 5 and 6 apply the
> analysis to English and NT Greek, respectively.
> 
>     In the Greek chapter I address the analyses of Porter 1989
> (who claims Greek forms are all aspect and not tense) and Fanning 1990
> (who analyzes all forms as both tense and aspect, except the future,
> which he says is strictly tense).  I suggest that the SEMANTIC meaning
> of the forms has both, but not both in all forms.  Specifically I
> claim that the present and aorist are 'tenseless', encoding imperfective and
> perfective aspect, respectively.  I suggest that the imperfect is a
> past imperfective, the pluperfect a past perfective, and the perfect a
> present perfective.  The future I analyze as tense and not aspect.  
> 
>     Incidetntally, for e computanally inclined, the model
> includes a (privative) feature analysis that builds up interpretation
> of lexical and grammatical aspect and tense monotonically from the
> contribution of the various elements.  I'd be happy to send a copy of
> any or all portions of the thesis, if anyone is interested.
> (Defendable draft due to committee Oct. 3, so after that it should be
> in pretty good shape--at least to get the degree...)
> Mari Broman Olsen
> Northwestern University
> Department of Linguistics
> 2016 Sheridan Road
> Evanston, IL 60208
> 
> molsen@astrid.ling.nwu.edu
> molsen@babel.ling.nwu.edu
> Glenn Wooden
Acadia Divinity College
Wolfville N.S.
Canada

wooden@acadiau.ca