Die Kompositionalität von Aspekt und ihre Bedingungen
Ein russisch-finnischer Vergleich
Luka Szucsich
In this paper I present an analysis within a principle & parameter framework modelling the interplay of lexical semantics (and its mapping to syntax) and the interpretive devices contained within the syntactic category Aspect to account for aspectual compositionality and its absence in certain contexts. Lexical semantics encodes thematic relations, i.e. types of relations between arguments of the respective verb (= verb classes). This information is not directly aspectual. Grammatical aspectual features range over time intervals correlated with predicates the verb is composed of. Thus, indirectly argument information has a bearing on aspectual interpretation. This approach makes it possible both to maintain a 'measuring out'/ feature transmission analysis (aspectual compositionality) and, at the same time, account for the phenomenon that certain verb classes do not allow for feature transmission. The main claim is that the lexical representation has to contain an additional predicate corresponding to a resulting situation which is uniquely linked to the internal argument. Otherwise, feature transmission is ruled out. These assumptions require fine grained lexical representations of verbal entries.
Linguistische Beiträge zur Slavistik. XII. JungslavistInnen-Treffen Gießen 2003.
Hg. Monika Wingender. München: Sagner 2005 (= Specimina Philologiae Slavicae 144),
171–195.