Sentence Semantics 1: Situations

Sentence Semantics 1: Situations

1. LANGUAGES commonly allow speakers to describe a situation as static or unchanging.

   • SITUATION TYPE: In DESCRIBING STATE the speaker gives NO information about the internal structure of the state.(adjectives are typically used for states) EX. Robert loves pizza. The pears are ripe.
     • STRATIVE VERBS: be, have, remain, know, love. These verbs allow the speaker to view a situation as a steady state, with no internal phases or changes.
       • DYNAMIC SITUATION (verbs are typically used for dynamic situations) EX. Robert grew very quickly. The pears ripened. Progressive can be used of dynamic situations this is because the progressive aspect, marked by –ing above, has connotations of dynamism and change which suits an activity like learn but is incompatible with a stative verb like know.

2. Stative in the past: Mary loved to drive sports cars. (We do not know if or how the state ended) Dynamic verb: Mary learned to drive sports cars. (The speaker is describing a process and focusing on the end point)

   • Adjectives and stative verbs are inherently static, i.e. that it is part of their lexical semantics to portray a static SITUATION TYPE.
     • DYNAMIC VERBS can be classified into a number of types, based on the semantic distinctions: DURATIVE/PUNCTUAL and TELIC/ATELIC
       • One possible distinction within dynamic situation types is between EVENTS and PROCESSES. EVENTS: the speaker views the situation as a whole. PROCESS: the speaker views the internal structure of a dynamic situation. Processes can be subdivided into several types, for example: INCHOATIVES and RESULTATIVES.

3. INCHOATIVES: are processes where our attention is directed to the beginning of a new state, or to a change of state, e.g. My hair turned grey RESULTATIVES: are processes which are viewed as having a final point of completion: our attention is directed to this end of the process, e.g. Ardal baked a cake

   • There are two important semantic distinctions in verbs: The first distinction is between DURATIVE and PUNCTUAL DURATIVE: is applied to verbs which describe a situation or process which lasts for a period of time. E.g. John slept PUNCTUAL: describes an event that seems so instantaneous that it involves virtually no time. E.g. John coughed (in Slavic linguistics the equivalent of verbs like cough, flash, shoot, knock, sneeze and blink are called SEMELFACTIVE VERBS) The second distinction is between TELIC and ATELIC TELIC: refers to those processes which are seen as having a natural completion. Telic verbs are also called RESULTATIVES, verbs like (paint, draw, and build) ATELIC: the verb can continue indefinitely. Verbs like (talk, sleep, and walk)

4. TENSE allows a speaker to locate a situation relative to some reference point in time, most likely the time of speaking. This information sometimes is given by a temporal adverb (yesterday and tomorrow) or by the endings of the verbs and the use of auxiliary verbs.

   • Tense is said to be a DEICTIC SYSTEM: are the ways in which a speaker relates references to space and time to the here and now of the utterance. The speaker can locate an event in the past, present or future: The progressives describe action as on-going and continuing. The perfect aspect allows speaker to emphasize the relevance of events in the past to the present. The simple tense can be seen as basically neutral with respect to aspect depending on other elements in the sentence.

5. These modal verbs have another function: EPISTEMIC MODALITY and DEONTIC MODALITY EPISTEMIC MODALITY: the speaker is signaling degrees of knowledge. DEONTIC MODALITY: where the verbs mark the speaker´s attitude to social factors of obligation, responsibility and permission. Deontic modals communicate two types of social information: OBLIGATION (must, should, need, ought) and PERMISSION (can, could, might)

6. MOODS: when distinctions (modality distinctions being marked by various means including adverbs and modal verbs) are marked by verb endings which form distinct conjugations. Example of mood: SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD: we can identify two opposite poles: one pole is the grammatical one of syntactic subordination. The other pole is semantic, where the subjunctive marks language specific types of irrealis mood, and is thus used for wishes, beliefs, exhortations, commands, etc. INDICATIVE MOOD: used for descriptions of factual, or real, situations.