State of the question in the study of the Lexical Aspect. A cognitive proposal for the classification of events

Working paper

Marta Coll-Florit (mcollfl@uoc.edu)
IN3 PhD Research Fellow

Abstract

The fundamental aim of this article is to draft a state of the question in the study of the Lexical Aspect, all information connected with the internal temporary structure of the occurrence described by a verb or predicate. In our paper, we will analyse the problems with traditional models and offer an alternative aspectual classification proposal based on a cognitive approach. Crucially, we will present the hypothesis according to which aspectual categories can be conceived as different points in an Activity-Achievement-State-Achievement aspectual continuum. From this new focus, we will consider that the lexical aspect may become a hugely useful criterion in the semantic disambiguity process and representation of meanings of a verbal lexical piece, an essential necessity in the field of natural language processing.


Keywords

Aktionsart, cognitive linguistics, semantic disambiguity


Submission date: September 2006
Published in: January 2007
IN3 code: Working Paper Series WP06-005