Aspectuality

This paper deals with properties and restrictions of progressive markers (Romance progressive verbal periphrases, PVP) and relates these to the question of the degree of grammaticality these constructions have reached in the respective languages. In analysing the process of grammaticalisation of PVP, a distinction is drawn on two levels: on the level of internal structure and the level of system. After introducing progressivity as a subcategory of imperfectivity, and progressive markers as the means of expressing it (§ 2), the (in)compatibility of Romance PVP with states is examined in more detail (§ 3). This investigation is based on French, Italian, (European and Brazilian) Portuguese and Spanish data elicited in several broad-based acceptability studies conducted as part of the SFB 833 project “Verbal and Nominal Aspectuality between Lexicon and Grammar” (2017–2020). As opposed to common interpretations, different states and state-types are shown to be compatible with progressive verbal periphrases to varying degrees. Romance languages differ in their levels of acceptability of states in PVP – and the degree of compatibility correlates with the degree to which the construction is integrated in their respective language systems. The concluding remarks (§ 4) summarise the theoretical implications of the data analysis, which can be seen as an empirical verification of existing theses concerning the degree of grammaticalisation of Romance PVP.

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The The time updating imperfecto in Spanish

Egetenmeyer

2024

Moenia

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The Spanish imperfecto may be used to update time in a narrative or a report. We take this phenomenon as a core property in order to account for a set of uses of the imperfective past tense-aspect form. We delimit these uses and sub-classify them according to their roles in the more abstract temporal structure. In order to do so, we apply the prominence-based account of temporal discourse structure by Becker & Egetenmeyer (2018). The findings of our analysis of the Spanish imperfecto are tripartite. First, we show that the typical narrative imperfect is only one instantiation of the updating imperfect and that there are also other interesting uses. Second, not all uses classified as cases of the narrative imperfecto in the research literature fall into our class of updating uses. Third, although there are unquestionable parallels with respect to the French updating imparfait, the assumption that the two forms have the same usage potential needs to be dismissed. We show that, within our more fine-grained categories, there are important differences between the two languages

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Aspectuality

Cited by 5 publications

References 63 publications

Morphologie des Italienischen

Morphologie des Italienischen

Zur Beziehung von progressiven Verbalperiphrasen undstates. Ein erster Bericht aus Studien zu romanischen Sprachen

The The time updating imperfecto in Spanish

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