From: Moon-Ryul Jung (moon@saint.soongsil.ac.kr)
Date: Sat Dec 23 2000 - 19:39:01 EST
Dear Rolf,
in recent discussions of aorist aspect and aspect in general, I learned
quite a bit from you. I would like to continue the discussion in two
directions: 1) the parameters by means of which to describe and explain
the role of aspect 2) the intuition behind the selection of those
parameters.
I think both are quite related. 2) should be tested and verified by
how the selected parameters explain the data.
I have some questions about 1) and 2).
About 1) Rolf has something to say. He said:
In lexical semantics and word studies we distinguish between 'word',
'concept', and 'reference'. The 'word' is just a semantic signal which has
no meaning in itself, the 'concept' is the 'entry' in the mental lexicon
signalled by the word, i.e. the total range of meaning that a particular
word can signal, which is stored in our mind. The 'reference' is the thing
in the world denoted by the word.
The concepts in the minds of people having the same presupposition pool
may
be quite broad; each concept use to have a nucleus which is easily
discernable but it becomes become fuzzy toward its border. It is the
context which helps the listener/reader to ascertain which side
of the concept that is made visible. In my view the contect does not
generate new meaning, it only helps make visible a part of what already is
there.
A distinction as the one above is almost never made in aspectual studies
or
definitions. For instance, when the words 'bounded' and 'complete(d)' are
used, to what do they refer? Do they refer to the real, objective event or
state, or just to the part of the event or state that the author has made
visible? In other words, Can we say that any event that is expressed by an
aorist factually is terminated?
---------------------------------------------
In my view the perfective and imperfective
aspects play about the same role in relation to events and states
(signalled by verbs) as the context does in relation to things and
qualities (expressed by substantives). The aspects do not generate new
meaning, but they make visible (by the interplay of several other factors)
a particular side of the events and states. It is from this point of view
meaningless to define aspects with words such as 'bounded', 'not bounded',
'punctiliar', 'durative' etc.
-----------------------------------
[MOON]
a very good point assuming that the aspect is one of the factors
that help the speaker refer to a particular side of the situation.
---
This does not mean that 'aspect' is a
metaphysical concept or is so elusive that it cannot be defined. MH
GENOITO! But to get a meaningful understanding we should analyse aspects
in
a similar way as words ara analysed, as mentioned above.I use three
parameters to distinguish between the aspects: 1) The kind of focus
(closeup/distance, details visible or not),2) the area of focus (length of
section of Event time intersected by Reference time), and 3) The angle of
fucus i relation the the nucleus (before/after nucleus, beginning/end
included or not).
-----------------------
[MOON]
Do you have five angles of focus: before the nucleus, after the nucleus,
the beginning of the nucleus, the end of the nucleus, the middle of the
nucleus?
--------------------------
Your arguments are consistent and logical, but we use completely different
systems of analysis. Each system may hava advantages and disadvantages.
But
I believe that it is important for any system to differentiate between the
'reference' (the real objective situation), and what can be compared to
'word/concept' (which part of the situation that is made visible.
--------------------------
[MOON]
I am confused here. I would think that the reference should be
the part of the situation that is denoted by the concept.
The reference is determined by the aspect and contextual
factors.
Moon
Moon-Ryul Jung
Dept of Digital Media
Sogang Univ, Seoul, Korea
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