Summary of the Selection Theory & The Tense/Aspect/Modality Interface Linguistics 7430 Fall 2007 Part 1: Summary of the Selection Theory I. The selection theory of aspect is based on the following ideas: • The basic semantic split in the domain of aspect is between states (situations that include R) and events (situations that are included within R). • Aspectual grammar is used to indicate overlap/sequence relations within texts; it shifts verb meanings for the purpose of indicating such relations. • Verbs (or rather verb-argument combinations) have internal structure, which we can represent either as temporal units (states and transitions) or units of causal structure (operators like CAUSE and BECOME and their arguments). • Verbs fall into one of four Aktionsart classes: states, activities, achievements and accomplishments. • Aspectual markers have combinatoric requirements, which we describe in terms of the components of verb representations that they select. o The English progressive selects a state within the temporal representation of an activity. o The Latin perfective past selects for an onset transition (inchoative reading) or an offset transition (episodic reading). o The present tense in all languages selects for a state. • There are two kinds of aspect markers: pure aspect markers and tenses that select for aspectual classes (aspectually sensitive tenses), like the perfective past in Latin or the present in all languages. o Pure aspect markers are often type shifters, like the phasal aspects progressive and perfect in English. These constructions exist in order to shift the semantic type of the verb. o But any aspectual-class-selector is capable of shifting type, if it triggers coercion: the enrichment of a word’s semantic representation to resolve semantic conflict between a word and the combinatoric requirements of the marker with which that word is combining. • There are two kinds of type shifts: explicit (performed by dedicated, compositional type shifters like the progressive) and implicit (coercion). The progressive in English does both: o Explicit: She’s pacing back and forth. (The progressive selects a state within the temporal representation of the activity predicate pace- back and forth.) o Implicit: I’m liking this idea. (To ensure that the progressive receives the type it needs, the state predicate like- this idea is augmented up to a [homogenous] activity via addition of onset and offset transitions.) • Implicit and explicit type shifts work in the same way: they involve one of three operations on verbal Aktionsart structure: o Selection: She was phoning everyone she knew (selection of medial state). The Eagle has landed (selection of final state). I am leaving (selection of initial state).o Addition: She was winning the race when she was tripped (addition of preparatory process to achievement, creating accomplishment). I’m liking this idea ( addition of onset and offset transitions to state, creating a homogenous activity). o Concatenation: We used to go to a movie every Friday (event replication triggered by frequentative adverb). The light was flashing (concatenation of homogeneous activity up to heterogenous activity). II. State predications frequently have event readings in context. A. Inchoative vs. Episodic: Which of two coerced readings (inchoative or episodic) a state will have is determined by context. Excepit Seleucus fabulae partem et took-up:3sg:perf:act:ind Seleucus:N story:G part:A and “Ego” inquit “non cotidie lavor. “I:N” says “not everyday bathe:1sg:pres:act:pass. Fui enim hodie in funus. Be:1sg:perf:act:ind anyway today in funeral:A. Homo bellus, tam bonus Chrysanthus, Man:N fine:N so good:N Chrysanthus:N animam ebuliit. [...] spirit:A bubble-out:3sg:perf:act:ind Heu, eheu. Utres inflati ambulamus.” Alas, alas. Bladders:N inflated:N walk:1pl:pres:act:ind. Molestus fuit, Philerosque Annoying:N be:3sg:perf:act:ind Phileros:N-and proclamavit: “Vivorum meminerimus”. shout:3sg:perf:act:ind: “Living:G remember:1pl:perf:act:subj!” “Seleucus took up his part of the story and said: ‘I myself don’t bathe every day. [...] I was at a funeral today, anyway [so I couldn’t bathe]. A fine man, the very good Chrysanthus, has bubbled up his soul. [...] Alas, alas. We humans are nothing but inflated balloons walking around.’ [...] He [Seleucus] became annoying, and Phileros shouted: ‘Let us remember the living!’” (Petronius, Satyricon 42-43) Fuimus Troes, f u it Illium. Be.1pl.indicative.perfective Trojans.NOM, be.3sg.indicative.perfective Troy:NOM ‘We were Trojans. There was Troy.’ (Aeneus to fellow Trojans after the sack of Troy, Vergil, Aeneid 2.325) B. The English past tense is not aspectually sensitive, so state→event coercion is ‘pragmatic’ rather than morphosyntactically triggered: (1) She flipped the switch. The light was blinding. (2) Elle a tourné l’interrupteur. La lumière était/a éte éblouissant. III. English past-tense state predications are also ambiguous in reported-speech contexts. A. They can indicate either anteriority or simultaneity relative to report time:(3) She said that she preferred white to red. (ambiguous: simultaneous or anterior) (4) She said that she selected white. (unambiguous) (5) Elle a dit qu’elle avait préferé le vin blanc au rouge. (6) Elle a dit qu’elle préférait le vin blanc au rouge. B. They can even indicate simultaneity with respect to a future time, disallowing their representation as E,R…S (Declerck 1995): (7) Ashcroft said he would read the document later when he was stronger. Note that R is the time of Ashcroft’s report. Part 2: Tense, Aspect and Modality I. Defining modality. Modality in general is said to pertain to the factuality status of a proposition. I look at it this way: modal distinctions express the speaker’s stance toward the proposition being conveyed or the situation depicted. Is the situation likely to come about or not likely? How certain is the speaker that the proposition is true? Modal