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  • From: Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>
  • To: pennerkm AT mcmaster.ca
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] VERBS
  • Date: Wed, 27 Jul 2005 16:07:03 +0100

On 27/07/2005 15:06, Ken Penner wrote:

...

"All singing, all dancing" as a description of a product (e.g. http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/News/Details.aspx?NewsId=13356)?


I am unclear about what the "singing" might refer to in this article, but I
don't see that it excludes change or duration. Are you suggesting that when
it "sings" nothing is happening? Or that it is instantaneous?


No, my point here is that the meaning here is stative rather than dynamic, because a disk drive is a essentially static product. OK, it rotates, but I don't think this movement is what "singing" is about here.


"'Is that true?" he asked. 'No', he continued"? (OK, it takes a finite time to utter even the short word "No", but very few of
even the most
punctiliar verbs are actually strictly instantaneous.)


It seems to me that the event that is continued is the speech begun by the
previous statement, "Is it true?" It extends the event to include the new
statement, "No." One might argue that during the pause between the two
statements, the speaker was not "continuing," but in that case the "No"
would be a resumption, not a continuation of the speech. ...


Yes, this is a resumption rather than a continuation. Nevertheless, the verb "continue" is regularly used in this sense. That, I suppose, was my point, that the semantic domain of the verb "continue" is not entirely restricted to strictly durative senses.

... It is true that in
order for the continuation to be considered durative, the second part of the
event must cover a span of time. One could continue blinking, but only if
there was more than one blink. So the continuation is durative because the
statement "No" covers a span of time, even if it is very short.


Well, in practice any event, even the single blink of an eye, takes a non-zero time. But the semantic concept of punctiliarity does not exclude this, but only suggests that the event is considered to be brief and indivisible. If you object that "No!" is divisible into two phonemes, replace it the continued (or resumed) speech by "Ah!" or "Mm!" which is one phoneme.

"She is always creating a fuss"?


How do you interpret this one? Is there one "fuss" that is constantly in the
process of being created but which never actually comes into existence, or
several repeated "fusses" each coming into existence at a different time? I
think the latter, in other words, "she repeatedly creates fusses." At the
point the fuss exists, the event of creating has reached its telic point.
One could argue that that once created, the fuss must be maintained for a
span of time, thereby extending the telic point to a telic span. I am
willing to consider that possibility. But creating is still a telic event;
it is building up to something. Contrast a non-telic event, "He is always
twiddling his thumbs."


Well, I see your point that there is some kind of telicity in the action of creating. But I am not sure that the fuss here is something really being created in this sense. Another example, which excludes the repetitive interpretation which I did not intend, might be "She has been creating a fuss for the last hour". Well, presumably the fuss has already started, so this excludes the normal interpretation of this kind of sentence with telic verbs that the telic point has not yet been reached - and that it will be reached at some point in the future if the action continues. And the alternative that she has been repeatedly creating separate things is ruled out by the singular "a fuss". So the Aktionsart here has become somewhat complex, which illustrates my point that extended and idiomatic senses of verbs don't follow rules that Aktionart is uncancellable.

--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/



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