Aspect - Introduction

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 (in aspectual composition) and adverbial modification. Regarding the expression of aspectual distinctions in German, we will look at the so-called Rheinische Verlaufsform, as in:

(1) Ich bin die Koffer am Packen.

(2) Ich bin im Moment Drehbücher am lesen.

(3) Das sind wa jetzt grad am ausbügeln.

(4) Ja, da bin ich auch grade drin am lesen.

(5)  ... da haben wir es ja schon, nur auf party am spekulieren.

In this connection, we will addres the differences between the varied expressions of Rheinische Verlaufsform and the standard Verlaufsform in German, as in an einem Pullover stricken; am/beim/im V sein, dabei sein zu V, and the so-called ”absentive” construction, as in schwimmen sein; moreover, both the standard Verlaufsform and the Rheinische Verlaufsform will be contrasted and compared with the grammatical progressive form in other languages, most prominently in English (e.g., We were packing our suitcases).