@article {7287, title = {Aspectuo-Temporal Underspecification in Anindilyakwa: Descriptive, Theoretical, Typological and Quantitative Issues}, journal = {Languages}, volume = {8}, year = {2022}, month = {12/2022}, pages = {8-46}, type = {Theoretical, quantitative, descriptive}, chapter = {8}, abstract = {

Many so-called \‘zero tense\’-marked (which we define as morphologically reduced and underspecified inflections) or untensed verb forms found in tenseless languages, have been characterized as context dependent for their temporal and aspectual interpretation, with the verb\’s aspectual content (either as event structure or viewpoint properties) being given more or less prominent roles in their temporal anchoring. In this paper, we focus on a morpho-phonologically reduced inflectional verbal paradigm in Anindilyakwa (Groote Eylandt archipelago, NT, Australia), which is both temporally and aspectually underspecified, and constitutes an instance of zero tense as defined above. On the basis of a quantitative study of an annotated corpus of zero-inflected utterances, we establish that in the absence of independent overt or covert temporal information, the temporal anchoring of this \‘zero tense\’ exhibits complex patterns of sensitivity to event structural parameters. Notably we establish that while dynamicity/stativity and telicity/atelicity are to some extent valuable predictors for the temporal interpretation of zero tense in Anindilyakwa, only atomicity (i.e., event punctuality) and boundedness categorically impose a past temporal anchoring\—this confirms insights found in previous works, both on Anindilyakwa and on other languages, while also differing from other generalisations contained in these works. Our analysis also shows that unlike several zero tenses identified in various languages (especially in Pidgins and Creoles), Anindilyakwa zero tense-marked dynamic utterances do not correlate with a past temporal reading. Rather, we show that Anindilyakwa seems to come closest to languages possessing zero tensed-verbs (or tenseless verbs) where boundedness monotonically enforces a past temporal anchoring, such as Navajo and Mandarin Chinese. We also show that aspect-independent temporal information appears to determine the temporal anchoring of all zero tense-marked unbounded atelic utterances (both stative and dynamic) in Anindilyakwa\—a fact at once conflicting with some claims made in previous works on zero tenses, while confirming results from past studies of Indigenous languages of the Americas (especially Yucatec Maya), concerning the role of temporal anaphora in the temporal interpretation of \‘tenseless\’ verb forms.

}, keywords = {(un)boundedness, aspect, aspectual underspecification, Australian languages, event structure, temporal underspecification, zero tense}, issn = {2226-471X}, doi = {10.3390/languages8010008}, url = {https://www.mdpi.com/2226-471X/8/1/8}, author = {Patrick Caudal and Bednall, James} } @conference {7090, title = {Aspect in Chinese: Toward a unidimensional model}, year = {2021}, month = {04/2021}, address = {Universit{\'e} Sorbonne Nouvelle}, abstract = {

The systematic study of aspect in Chinese started in the late 20th century, and due to typological considerations and to the influence of Vendler\’s (1957) seminal work, aspect in Chinese was compared to its counterpart in English, rather than Russian. Smith\’s model of aspect has also been widely used in Chinese linguistics, not the least because she herself published about aspect in Chinese (Smith 1990; 1994; 1997; Smith et Erbaugh 2005). But some linguists have argued for the specificity of Chinese regarding the expression of aspectual meaning.
Thus, in this talk, we start by reviewing works that adopt the bi-dimensional approach to aspect \– distinguishing \“situation aspect\” from \“viewpoint aspect\” (Smith 1997), while discussing the relevance of certain situation types for Chinese.
We then discuss propositions of three-dimensional models for Chinese, like Xiao and McEnery\&$\#$39;s (2004), where the analysis of situation aspect is split in two levels, to explain how aspect operates both at the lexical and the phrasal levels. Similarly, Jin (金立鑫 2008) advocates a distinction between Aktionsart (applying to lexical verbs ) and situation types (encompassing verb phrases). Such a distinction aims to disentangle what in aspectual meanings pertains to the
lexicon proper, as opposed to morphosyntax.
However, we aim to show that it is not a straightforward task, given the imbrication of the lexical and the morpho-syntactic levels as regards aspectual meaning. As exemplified in (1-3) below (examples from Lin 2004), alongside verb meaning, perfective grammatical aspect marker -le crucially contributes to the definition of situation types.
(1) State
zhe shuang xie hen po
this CL shoe very broken
This pair of shoes is lousy.


(2) State + -le \à Achievement
zhe shuang xie po-le
this CL shoe broken-PFV
This pair of shoes is worn out.


(3) Activity + [Achievement State+ -le] \à Accomplishment
zhe shuang xie chuan-po-le
this CL shoe wear-broken-PFV
This pair of shoes has been worn to tatters.


Building on the difficulty to ascertain the aspectual specifications of verbs abstracted from their morphosyntactic contexts in Chinese, we argue for a unidimensional model, ranging from the lexicon to aspectual syntax. We adopt Michaelis\&$\#$39; (2004) claims that the lexicon (verb types) and the morphosyntax (aspectual operators) basically use the same aspectual classes, the same
basic distinction obtaining at both levels. Focusing on three different aspect markers \– perfective -le, durative -zhe and progressive zai, we describe coercion as a central operation accounting for the versatility of aspectual types in Chinese.

}, keywords = {aspect, Chinese, coercion}, url = {www.aspect2021.sciencesconf.org}, author = {Saillard, Claire} } @unpublished {caudal:hal-03508953, title = {Aspectuo-temporal underspecification in Anindilyakwa: descriptive, theoretical, typological and quantitative issues}, year = {2021}, note = {working paper or preprint}, month = {Dec}, keywords = {aspect, Australian languages, null tense, present perfective paradox, underspecified tenses}, doi = {10.3390/xxxxx}, url = {https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03508953}, author = {Patrick Caudal and Bednall, James} } @article {bednall:hal-03481090, title = {Identifying Salient Aktionsart Properties in Anindilyakwa}, journal = {Languages}, volume = {6}, number = {4}, year = {2021}, publisher = {MDPI}, keywords = {Aktionsart, Anindilyakwa, aspect, Australian Indigenous languages, semantics}, doi = {10.3390/languages6040164}, url = {https://hal-univ-paris.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03481090}, author = {Bednall, James} } @inbook {caudal:hal-03153436, title = {On so-called {\textquoteleft}tense uses{\textquoteright} in French as context-sensitive constructions}, booktitle = {Tense, aspect \& discourse structure}, series = {Beihefte zur Zeitschrift f{\"u}r romanische Philologie}, year = {2021}, publisher = {de Gruyter}, organization = {de Gruyter}, keywords = {aspect, implicatures conventionnelles, modalit{\'e}, pragmatique, s{\'e}mantique, temps}, url = {https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03153436}, author = {Patrick Caudal}, editor = {Jakob Egetenmeyer and Martin Becker} }