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1、Sentence Semantics 1: SituationsPresented by: Xia HuijunContents4Introduction123Classifying SituationsModality and EvidentialitySummaryIntroduction Languages allow speakers to construct different views of situations. In this chapter, well learn 1) How languages allow speakers to classify situations
2、by using semantic distinctions of situation type, tense and aspect. 2) How systems of mood and evidentiality allow speakers to adopt differing attitudes towards the factuality of their sentences. Key notions: situation type, tense, aspect, mood, evidentialityIntroductiondescriptions of situationssit
3、uation type 情景类型tense walked : focusing on the manners on not driving attaining of ones goal :destination feat/achievement if HE is a criple who made great efforts to cover the distance. Processes can be subdivided into several types, for example inchoatives (表始动词) and resultatives(结果动词). Inchoative
4、s are processes where our attention is directed to the beginning of a new state, or to a change of state. Resultatives are processes which are viewed as having a final point of completion: our attention is directed to the end of the process.Dynamic verbsEg. My hair turned grey. The whole sentence: r
5、esultative ; the change from initial state(color) to the present state (grey): My hair is no longer the color it looked. My hair turned grey. Focusing on the end point of the process5.22 (p.110)*She is having a sister in New York. have a sister: as a possession only has two state: haveor dont not ha
6、ve. It is right to say : She is having a sister soon : Her mother is on the way to give birth to a she. She is having a babyDynamic verbs There are two important semantic distinctions in verbs underlying different dynamic situation types. The first distinction is between durative (延续动词) and punctual
7、 (即时动词), and the second is between telic(终结动词)and atelic(非终结动词). Durative is applied to verbs which describe a situation or process which lasts for a period of time, while punctual describes an event that seems so instantaneous that it involves virtually no time. Eg. John coughed. (punctual)John sle
8、pt. (durative) Telic refers to those processes which are seen as having a natural completion. Eg. Harry built a raft. (telic/ resultative)notice While verbs may be inherently telic or atelic, combining them with other elements in a sentence can result in a different aspect for the whole. Eg. a. Fred
9、 was running. (atelic)b. Fred was running in the London Marathon. (telic)c. Fred was running for the governor.(process/ durative ) The telic/atelic distinction interacts with aspectual distinctions: a combination of either the English perfect or simple past with a telic verb will produce an implicat
10、ion of completion. However, the combination of a progressive aspect and a telic verb does not produce this implication. eg. Mary painted my portrait. Mary has painted my portrait.Mary was painting my portrait.The portrait is finished.A system of situation types Speakers use their knowledge of these
11、semantic distinctions- stative/dynamic, durative/punctual, telic/atelic- to draw distinctions of situation type. While these distinctions are principally associated with verbs, combining a verb with other elements in a sentence, like object noun phrases and adverbials, can alter the situation type d
12、epicted. (Fred was running in the London Marathon.) The task for the semanticist is to show how the inherent semantic distinctions carried by verbs, and verb phrases, map into a system of situation types.5 situation types identified by C. S. Smith With three semantic categories or features: stative,
13、 telic andduration, the five situation types can be identified as follows:Situations StaticDurativeTelic States+n. a.Activity-+-Accomplishment-+Semelfactive-Achievement-+Examples of each situation type She hated ice cream. (state) Your cat watched those birds. (activity) Her boss learned Japanese. (
14、accomplishment) The gate banged closed. (semelfactive) The cease-fire began at noon yesterday. (achievement)Notice: It is important to remember that situation types are interpretations of real situations. Some real situations may be conventionally associated with a situation type. But other situatio
15、ns are more open/optical. Eg. Sean was sleeping. (activity /process)Sean was asleep. (state)the same real world situation, but two different interpretationsTense and aspect Tense and aspect systems both allow speakers to relate situations to time, but tense allows a speaker to locate a situation relative to the time of speaking, while aspect allows a speaker to portray the internal temporal shape of a situation. In English, tense is usually marked on the verb by endings and the use of special auxiliary verbs. Eg. a. She spoke to
