Aspect

This course examines the grammatical expression of aspectual distinctions in typologically distinct languages (Germanic like English and German), Slavic, and Finnish, among others). The topics will include, but not be limited to: (i) typological and formal questions about what makes an aspectual marker (im)perfective; (ii) the interaction between (im)perfectivity and aspectual classes/telicity, (iii) the semantics of perfectivity and imperfectivity, and its delimitation from genericity (aka habituality); (iii) the interaction of grammatical aspect and aspectual classes with quantification (especially in aspectual composition) and adverbial modification. Specifically regarding the expression of aspectual distinctions in German, we will explore the so-called Rheinische Verlaufsform