TRABAJO DE FIN DE MÁSTER
«AN ASPECTUAL ANALYSIS OF TRANSITIVITY ALTERNATION»
Autora:
Andrea Romero Beato Tutor:
José María García Núñez
Máster en Comunicación Internacional.
Curso académico 2021-2022
Fecha de presentación:
Septiembre de 2022
FACULTAD DE FILOSOFÍA Y LETRAS
Página | 2 Index
Abstract ... 3
1. Introduction ... 4
2. Aspectual Classes of Events ... 5
2.1. Origin of aspectual classes and studies... 5
2.2. The four aspectual classes ... 6
2.3. Linguistic signs of aspectual classes ... 9
3. Beth Levin: Lexical semantics and alternations ... 14
4. The corpus: methodology. ... 17
5. Analysis of corpus: aspectual classes and transitive alternations ... 18
6. Conclusion ... 30
7. References ... 32
Appendix ... 34
Página | 3 Abstract
Verbs, depending on their aspectual properties, can be classified into five different aspectual classes: states, activities, accomplishments, achievements and semelfactives. This paper presents a study of these aspectual classes in relation to Levin’s alternations, specifically the transitivity alternation. Both topics will be seen from a theoretical point of view. Furthermore, examples taken from a corpus that we have compiled will be analysed to see if there is a change of aspectual class in the different variants of the alternations.
Keywords: Aspectual class, aktionsart, alternations, transitivity alternation, argument.
Los verbos, en función de sus propiedades aspectuales, pueden ser clasificados en cinco clases aspectuales diferentes: estados, actividades, realizaciones, logros y semelfactivos. Este trabajo presenta un estudio de estas clases aspectuales en relación con las alternancias de Levin, concretamente con la alternancia transitiva. Ambos temas serán vistos desde un punto de vista teórico. Además, ejemplos extraídos de un corpus que hemos recopilado serán analizados para ver si hay un cambio de aspecto en las distintas variantes de las alternancias.
Palabras clave: Clases aspectuales, aktionsart, alternancias, alternancia transitiva, argumento.
Página | 4 1. Introduction
In Ancient Greek, Aristotle came to the conclusion that not all states are the same and that we need to differentiate them by dividing them into two different categories: kenesis and energia. With this simple division, some scholars started to investigate the aspect of the different verbs, and it became a relevant topic of study. Ryle (1949), Kenny (1963), and Vendler (1957) are the scholars that helped create the four aspectual classes that we know nowadays:
states, activities, accomplishments, and achievements.
The study of aspectual classes can be applied to different topics, like for example alternations. Beth Levin (1993) introduced a classification of a large number of verbs from the English lexicon according to their diathesis alternation, meaning that a verb can be used in two different ways or have two different variants that slightly differ in meaning. For example, a verb may have a transitive variant, I eat an apple, and an intransitive one, I eat.
This caught my attention and made me realise that even though sentences like I read a book, and the book reads easily use the same verb, from an aspectual point of view they are very different. They are classified into two different aspectual classes since they do not share the same aspectual characteristics. The first one is classified as an activity and the second one as an accomplishment. So, it means that the same verb can be classified as a different aspectual class depending on their syntactic structure or complements. What could happen if this is applied to Beth Levin’s alternation? That is what we will try to find out in this work.
The main aim of this study is to analyse the different alternations that belong to the transitivity alternation in order to see if there is a change of aspectual class in the different variants, if there are anomalies, and what aspectual classes are the most frequent in the alternation.
To do so, to the work will be divided into four main sections. The first one is composed of Section 4 and Section 5, which form the theoretical basis of the study. In Section 4, we will explain the origin of the aspectual classes, the four aspectual classes and the different tests that can be applied to differentiate them. In Section 5, we will be looking at Levin’s approach. The second part is formed by Section 6. Here, we will see the different alternations. We will give a brief explanation of each alternation and provide a list of examples of the verbs that form the specific alternation. We will then analyse them in order to see if there is a change in their aspectual import or not. In addition, we will give a summary of the results of the study that will be accompanied by summarising charts. In Section 7, we will provide a summary of the whole
Página | 5 paper and draw relevant conclusions. An appendix will be provided where we will list all the examples that we have collected for the corpus that will constitute the empirical basis of the study.
2. Aspectual Classes of Events
2.1. Origin of aspectual classes and studies
Naturally, when we speak, we differentiate between two types of states. As pointed out above, this differentiation started to show itself in Ancient Greek. Aristotle named these two types of states kinesis and energeia. The first one refers to the predicates which contain some sort of change and are usually caused by some external end. The second one, energeia, has to do with an activity whose purposes change as soon as they begin (Filip 2011). This led to the creation of two more contemporary concepts: telic and atelic predicates. These terms were coined for the first time by Garey (1957), who explained that telic predicates are the ones that have an end, whereas atelic predicates are the ones that do not have an ending (Filip 2011). The study of these terms became the main concern of the studies and led to investigations of the aspectual classes and aktionsart (or aktionsarten).
Filip (2011) explains that aktionsart comes from Indo-European and Semitic studies of the 19th and 20th centuries. This term was coined by Agrell (1908) in order to give a label to the verbs with different aspectual content that were morphologically related. Aktionsart was used in opposition to grammatical aspect, which is the aspect expressed in Slavic languages by the perfective and the imperfective. During the 20th century, the difference between these two aspectual categories became the main point of interest for scholars.
Now, as for the origin of the term aspectual class, according to Filip (2011), this term is used interchangeably with the term Aristotelian class. The term refers to all the work that has been done in the past years (Ryle, Kenny and Vendler) and has had a major impact on the study of this area of linguistics. It was in the late 60s and the 70s that some logicians and formal semanticists created the foundations of aspectual classes within tense logic. Later, in the 80s, aspectual classes became an important field in linguistics and with the appearance of event semantics, it received a new boost. The main aim of this Aristotelian approach was to formulate a hypothesis to explain the existence of aspectual classes and give the tools to understand the compositional processes that were needed in the derivation of different aspectual classes from different linguistic levels: from verbal phrases to sentences.
Página | 6 Even though aspectual classes and aktionsart had a different origin, they became synonyms and were used interchangeably. This was because aktionsart started to move away from derivational morphology, and it became more linked to lexical semantics. This led to the assimilation of both terms since both were part of the area of lexical semantics (Filip 2011).
The fusion and developments of aspectual classes and aktionsart led to question the relation between grammatical aspect and lexical aspect, giving rise to two different opinions:
some scholars think that there is only one semantic dimension where we can analyse grammatical aspect and lexical aspect together. On the basis of alternative conceptual and analytical tools, other scholars claim that grammatical and lexical aspects are two totally distinct things (Filip 2011)
Moreover, as Filip (2011) explains, scholars continue to investigate aspectual classes due to the appearance of new issues, such as the discussion about their nature, whether they are of a linguistic or ontological nature. Some scholars think that they are ontological classes, meaning that they are inherent to reality. Others question it or even reject it, because they think that they are only inherent to the predicates of natural languages. Filip illustrates this last view with the sentence Ben eats ice cream which can describe multiple situations, like Ben ate ice cream or Ben ate a bowl of ice cream. Since there is nothing in the nature of the world that obliges us to choose one meaning or the other, we can say that the predicates are the ones that offer different descriptions of reality and categorize the world, and not the other way around.
2.2. The four aspectual classes
There are four main aspectual classes and a fifth one that not everyone acknowledges.
This classification is mainly due to Ryle (1949), Kenny (1963), and Vendler (1957). Firstly, Ryle (1949) created the term achievements as a contrast to activities. Kenny (1963) distinguishes states and activities from performances. And, finally, Vendler (1957) introduces the four classes that have become traditional in the field: states, activities, achievements, and accomplishments.
As Kearns points out, “the aspectual classes are classes of eventualities” (Kearns 2000:
201). The term eventuality was coined by Emmon Bach (1989), and it was used to cover both events and states. There are three main features to differentiate the four aspectual classes:
bounding, duration and change.
An event can be bounded or not (we can also use the terms telic and atelic to refer to bounding). If it is bounded, this means that it has a natural ending. Therefore, it is not possible
Página | 7 to conceive that the event has happened till this point is reached. If it is an unbounded or atelic event, it means that it does not have an ending, which means that the event can be said to have happened as soon as any single fraction of it happens (i.e., there is no particular point in the development that must be reached for it to have happened). Moreover, some events are durative, they take time, and others are non-durative, they take place at a point in time. Lastly, some events involve change, and some do not. The events that involve some type of change are heterogeneous, meaning that from one moment to another the event is not the same. The ones that do not involve any type of change are homogeneous events because the event is the same all the time (Kearns 2000).
As for the four aspectual classes, these are the characteristics of each one of them:
States Unbounded/atelic Durative Homogeneous
Activities/Processes1 Unbounded/atelic Durative Heterogeneous Accomplishments Bounded/Telic Durative Heterogeneous Achievements Bounded/Telic Non-Durative Heterogeneous
Figure 1. Features of the Aspectual classes.
Let us see some examples of each of these aspectual classes and comment on their features.
(1) Peter is blonde (state).
(2) Jane and Charly played cards (activity).
(3) Susan built a house (accomplishment).
(4) They won the race of horse riding (achievement).
Example (1) illustrates the three characteristics of states because the event described therein does not have an ending. Until Peter changes his mind and tint his hair, he will remain to be blonde. In addition, it is durative because it happens over a period of time. It is also a homogeneous event, due to the fact that Peter’s hair does not change from one moment to another of the period referred to.
The main difference between states and activities is that the latter are heterogeneous.
Example (2) shows this. When we think about people playing cards, the event is not the same all the time, meaning that, for example, in the period that they are playing, Charly will be
1 As Kearns (2000:202) points out, the aspectual class of activities can also be referred to as processes.
However, in this work, in order to avoid repetition, we will use the term activities because it is the one that Vendler uses.
Página | 8 throwing cards to the table while Sarah will be staring and waiting for her turn. These two roles will change from one participant to another as the game continues, showing that from one moment to another the event changes.
Unlike the previous aspectual classes, accomplishments are telic or bounded. This is the feature that separates them from activities. Example (3) exemplifies this. If we build a house, there is a time when the house will not need more changes and it will be finished, so the event will have finished.
Finally, we have achievements. The feature that makes this aspectual class different from accomplishments is the duration. Achievements are non-durative, as Kearns highlights, because they “are idealized to occur at a non-divisible point in time” (Kearns 2000: 203). What Kearns means with this is that achievements take place at a single point in time, which is the reason why they lack duration. In example (4), we can see that win a race occurs at a definite point in time, and not over a collection of them, as in the three examples reviewed before.
Apart from Vendler’s four aspectual classes, there is another one between achievements and accomplishments that some scholars consider when talking about aspectual classes. This is the class of semelfactives (Kearns 2000). This type of aspectual class is atelic/unbounded, non- durative and heterogeneous. Let us see some relevant examples.
(5) The boy blinked.
(6) Sarah knocked.
As examples (5)-(6) show, these events are bounded because they have a natural ending not have an ending. Like achievements, they lack duration, since they happen at a single point in time. Finally, they are heterogeneous. When we say that Sarah knocked, the event changes over time (for example, she will close the palm of her hand in order to knock, after that she will open it, and her arm will move during the action).
Therefore, our final table consists of five aspectual classes:
States Unbounded/atelic Durative Homogeneous
Activities Unbounded/atelic Durative Heterogeneous Accomplishments Bounded/telic Durative Heterogeneous Achievements Bounded/telic Non-durative Heterogeneous Semelfactives Bounded/atelic Non-durative Heterogeneous
Figure 2. Aspectual classes and their features.
Página | 9 Nevertheless, some scholars do not accept Vendler’s classification, and this schema has been the subject of multiple criticisms and revisions. One of the authors who took Vendler’s classification and made a correction to it was Dowty (1979). This author not only revised it but also provided a new classification. Instead of four (or five) aspectual classes, in Dowty’s classification, there are only three main aspectual classes: states, activities, and definite changes of states, the latter further is divided into two, single changes of state and complex changes of state.
According to Filip, Dowty’s classification is “defined by means of formulas of aspect calculus”2 (Filip 2011: 1197). What Dowty (1979) considers when using aspect calculus are the three main predicates DO (which refers to agentivity), BECOME (which refers to a definite change of state) and CAUSE (which refers to causation). However, Vendler's classification continues to be used by many scholars and is the one that we will use here.
2.3. Linguistic signs of aspectual classes
How do we know what type of aspectual class we are dealing with? Well, there are a few tests that we can apply to know which aspectual class a certain event belongs to. One of them is the use of time adverbials to see if an event is bounded or unbounded. Bounded (or telic) events can be modified by in time-adverbials because this kind of adverbial points out a period of time within which an event happens (Kearns 2000), as it can be observed in example (7)-(8).
(7) Matty recovered from an accident in five days (accomplishment).
(8) The mountaineer reached the top of the mountain in 40 minutes (achievements).
In contrast to bounded events, unbounded events cannot be modified by in time- adverbials since they do not have an anchor time (Kearns 2000). Instead, we can use a time adverbial headed by the preposition for, since they refer to a period of time measuring up an eventuality that need not have terminated. This can be seen in the examples (9)-(12) below.
(9) *The couple were happy in two years. (state).
(10) *Peter walked the dog in half an hour (activity).
(11) The couple were happy for years (state).
(12) Peter walked the dog for several hours (activity).
2 Aspect calculus is the framework created by Dowty (1979), which was used to make a decompositional analysis of aspectual classes and was the first model-theoretic approach to lexical semantics.
Página | 10 In the same way, it is anomalous to find a bounded event modified by a for adverbial, since the latter can only measure the duration of unbounded events (Kearns 2000). Since these aspectual classes have an anchor time, the result is an ungrammatical sentence.
(13) * Matty recovered from an accident for five days (accomplishment).
(14) *The mountaineer reached the top of the mountain for 40 minutes or so (achievements).
However, when we are talking about the future, the use of in time-adverbials can be found with all these aspectual classes without giving rise to anomaly.
(15) The couple will be happy in a year (state).
(16) Peter will walk the dog in an hour (activity).
(17) Matty will recover from an accident in five days (accomplishment).
(18) The mountaineer will reach the top of the mountain in 40 minutes or so (achievement).
Another test is the take time test. This construction is used mostly with bounded events.
With accomplishments, the time denoted by this construction is understood as the event duration, as example (19) illustrates, and with achievements as the end of the stated interval (Kearns 2000), as can be observed in examples (20).
(19) It took 30 seconds for Peter to eat the apple.
(20) It took 5 second for Lola to notice the kid in the park.
This test can also be applied to unbounded events. It outlines the interval of time that must pass before the beginning of the state (Kearns 2000). This construction is only acceptable with states, as illustrated in (21), since the sentence takes the same reading as an accomplishment, and it is anomalous with activities, as shown by example (22).
(21) It took two years for them to hate each other (state).
(22) *It took five hours for people to run in the park (activity).
Another way to distinguish between aspectual classes is using the simple present and the progressive tests. On the one hand, the simple present tense is used with non-state predicates (activities, accomplishments, achievements and semelfactives) to denote a routine or a habit (Kearns 2000).
(23) Edmund drove the car yesterday (activity).
(24) Karen eats breakfast but she does not eat dinner (accomplishment).
Página | 11 (25) She always arrives early (achievement).
On the other hand, with state predicates (i.e., the ones that denote states) the simple present tense alludes to states that happen at the same time that the sentence is being uttered (Kearns, 2000), as examples (26)-(27) illustrate.
(26) I see him now (state).
(27) I understand what you are saying (state).
The progressive test is the key test to see if a verb is a state. As Kearns (2000) argues, the canonical state verbs cannot be found in the progressive aspect and only appear in the simple aspect, as we can observe in examples (28)-(29). Nevertheless, some state verbs can work with the progressive but what they indicate is that the action is brief or temporary, as in (30).
(28) Michael knows Chinese.
(29) * Michael is knowing Chinese.
(30) Her family is living in Cataluña.
Furthermore, the progressive interacts with other two types of aspectual classes, accomplishments, and achievements. When we use the progressive with an accomplishment, the event becomes unbounded (in this case, we are talking about part of the event and not the whole event that the accomplishment predicate refers to) and, because of this, they can be modified by for time-adverbials but not by in time-adverbial (Kearns 2000).
(31) The family was painting a picture for six months.
(32) * The family was painting a picture in six months.
Apart from the use of time-adverbials, it can be observed that entailments change because of the lack of a final bound. For example, sentence (32) does not entail that the family finished painting the picture, which means that the accomplishment has been converted into an activity.
As for achievements, the use of the progressive is one of the main features that distinguishes them from accomplishments. The canonical verbs tagged as achievements (realize, notice, lose) cannot be expressed in the progressive aspect (Kearns 2000).
(33) *Andrea was losing her wallet when the dog barked at her.
Nevertheless, some verbs can be used both with the progressive and classified as achievements, for example win, die, reach the summit and arrive. However, this happens
Página | 12 because when these verbs occur in the progressive “they are considered to describe instantaneous transitions” and “have the structure of accomplishments” (Kearns 2000:217).
(34) The black horse is winning the race now.
Example (34) illustrates what has been said previously. If we say that the black horse is winning the race now, it means that in this exact moment the black horse is leading the field. So, it is an instantaneous transition.
Another characteristic that some aspectual classes have, and some do not, is agentivity.
There are four tests to check this: possible occurrence as the complement of persuade, modification by adverbs like carefully, deliberately and conscientiously, use in the imperative, and occurrence in the what x did construction (Kearns 2000). While accomplishments and activities can work as the complement of persuade, achievements and states cannot.
(35) I persuaded him to run a mile (accomplishment) (36) I persuaded Mary to swim in the river. (activity) (37) *I was persuaded to love chocolate (state) (38) *I was persuaded to die (achievement)
In the same way, accomplishment and activities can be modified by adverbs like carefully, deliberately, or conscientiously.
(39) I deliberately ran a mile (accomplishment) (40) I swam in the river conscientiously (activity) (41) *I carefully loved chocolate (state)
(42) *I consciously died (achievement)
As expected, states and achievements cannot appear in the imperative mood.
(43) Run a mile! (accomplishment) (44) Swim in the river! (activity) (45) *Hear the birds! (state)
(46) *Turn eighteen! (achievement)
Finally, the only aspectual classes that can work with the construction what x did are accomplishments and activities, again as expected.
(47) What I did was run a mile (accomplishment) (48) What I did was swim in the river. (activity)
Página | 13 (49) *What I did was hear the birds (state)
(50) *What I did was turn eighteen (achievement)
These tests only apply to transitive accomplishment and activity verbs, since, for example, the intransitive variant of an unaccusative verb, e.g. The lake froze in two days, can be an accomplishment but not agentive. Nevertheless, the tests usually do not work with achievements and states because they are normally not agentive, as the examples have shown.
The last tests deal with accomplishments and their internal complexity. According to Kearns (2000), accomplishments are the most complex of all the aspectual classes because they are the only ones that can be finished or can finish. We can therefore use the verb finish in order to see if an event is an accomplishment, since these are the only predicates that work nicely in this construction.
(51) Jones finished building his house (accomplishments).
(52) *Jones finished noticing the marks in the wallpaper (achievements).
(53) *Jones finished believing in colour therapy (states).
(54) *Jones finished tapping the table (activity).
Another way to check this is by using almost. This test is best understood by resorting to Neo-Davisonian logical forms (Davidson 1967, Parsons 1990). When we incorporate almost, three possible outcomes can occur depending on the type of aspectual class involved. If the event is an achievement, it will only have one reading, as in (55).
(55) Rose almost lost the glasses.
Past Almost Ǝe (Lose (e) & SOURCE (r, e) & THEME (the glasses, e))
This can only mean one thing: there was almost an event, and the event would have been one of losing and Rose would have been the source of the event and the glasses would have been the theme of the event. Moving on to states and activities, we find that both work the same way. In both cases, we will find an ambiguity in the relevant sentences. Let us show an example with a state.
(56) Susan was almost queen.
a. Past Almost Ǝs (QUEEN (s) & THEME (s, s)) b. Past Ǝs (ALMOST QUEEN (s) & THEME (s, s)
Página | 14 The sentence (56) can mean two things. One of meanings is that there was almost a state, and that state would have been one of being a queen, and Susan would have been the theme of the state. This is the interpretation corresponding to the logical form in (56a). Conversely, (56b) translates the interpretation of (55) where there was a state, and the state was one of almost being a queen and Susan was the theme of the state (for example, Susan was from the royalty, maybe she was a princess, but not to the point where she can be considered a queen). As we can see, there are two readings for a single sentence, one in which the state did not happen at all but was close to happening, (56a), and one in which almost modifies the property that constitutes the core of this state, (56b).
Things get more complex when we deal with accomplishments. This aspectual class has neither one nor two readings but up to three. Let us see one example.
(57) Hugo almost ran to the house.
a. Past Almost Ǝe (RUN (e) & AGENT (h, e) & GOAL (the house, e) b. Past Ǝe (ALMOST RUN (e) & AGENT (h, e) & GOAL (the house, e) c. Past Ǝe (RUN (e) & AGENT (h, e) & ALMOST GOAL (e, the house)
We have three different ways of reading sentence (57). Regarding (57a-b), we have the same explanation as we saw with example (56): in one case the event did not happen and in the other, it is the predicate that is considered by the speaker not to be completely applicable to the situation at hand. Nevertheless, here we have a new case (57c). On this reading, what the sentence claims is that there was an event, and the event was one of running, and Hugo was the agent of the event, and the house was almost the goal of the event, meaning that Hugo did run but he did not quite make it to the house.
3. Beth Levin: Lexical semantics and alternations
Beth Levin's study (1993) about alternations is another important investigation in lexical semantics that we will use as a reference in this work. In her book, Levin provides a classification of English verbs according to whether or not and how they undergo what is known as diathesis alternation. The central idea of this classification is that the syntactic realization of the argument structure of English verbs can be related to their lexical meaning.
For her study, Levin assumes that verbs have complex properties that a native speaker uses innately and does not perceive when speaking. As Levin shows in a few examples, a native speaker knows that (s)he can say (58a) but not (58b) e.g. (from Levin 1993:2).
Página | 15 (58) a. Monica covered the baby with a blanket.
b. *Monica covered a blanket over the baby.
What this shows is that there is an underlying knowledge on the part of the speaker and this knowledge is what helps us make judgements about what can work with a word and what cannot. Example (58) shows that an English speaker knows that the verb cover can express its arguments only in the first way but not in the second. Hale and Keyser (1987) argue that what helps the speaker to make these judgements is the meaning of the verbs, since alternations often follow a neat structural pattern. They demonstrate this point with the verb gally whose argument realizations vary with the meaning of the verb. They use the middle alternation to prove this. If we understand gally as see, the result of using the middle alternation is an ungrammatical sentence.
(59) a. The sailors gallied the whales (cf. the sailors saw the whales) b. *The whales gally easily (cf. *whales see easily)
By contrast, if we take the verb gally to mean frighten, things change.
(60) a. The sailors gally the whales (cf. The sailors frightened the whales) b. The whales gally easily (cf. Whales frighten easily)
Hale and Keyser demonstrate with this that the meaning of the verb is key to determine how a verb behaves argumentally. Apart from Hale and Keyser’s example, Levin provides a more complex one to make the point more conclusive. She chooses the verbs break, cut, hit and touch, which share some syntactic features, like being transitive or having two arguments (subject and object). However, from the argument alternations point of view, they are different, and specifically different in a way that is connected to the meaning of the verbs. For example, the middle alternation does not work with verbs like touch and hit3.
(61) The bread cuts easily.
(62) Crystal vases break easily.
(63) *Cats touch easily.
(64) *Door frames hit easily.
Levin concludes from her analysis that these verbs are different because “touch is a pure verb of contact, hit is a verb of contact by motion, cut is a verb of change of state by moving
3 This is only one of the alternations that Levin applies to these verbs in order to see their differences and how their meaning influences their behaviour.
Página | 16 something into contact with the entity that changes state, and break is a pure verb of change of state” (Levin 1993: 10). The study of the differentiation of these four classes of verbs reinforces Hale and Keyser’s conclusion that the meaning of a verb can influence their syntactic behaviour. Nevertheless, this hypothesis has been controversial, and some scholars disagree with, and ultimately reject it.
Before Hale and Keyser, Perlmutter (1978) had already proposed that meaning influences the syntactic behaviour of verbs in what he called the Unaccusative Hypothesis.
Later, Burzio (1986) developed this hypothesis further. The Unaccusative Hypothesis posits that the argument of unaccusative verbs (which are some intransitive verbs that only take one argument) are an underlying object, while the single argument of other verbs, the ones called unergative verbs, is an underlying subject (Levin 1993). With this, Perlmutter (1978) and Burzio (1986) prove that the meaning of the verbs determines their syntactic behaviour.
As pointed out above, these two hypotheses are the basis for Levin’s investigation.
Basically, the main idea of both studies is that the syntactic behaviour of a verb is determined by its meaning. Levin takes this idea and poses that if a verb’s meaning impinges on its argument alternation, then the verbs allowing the same argument alternations should form semantically coherent class. This is the idea that Levin considers when she classifies verbs. This is why we need to keep in mind that the verbs that belong to the same group need not be semantically synonymous (e.g., drive and fly belong to the same group of “drive verbs”, but they do not mean the same, for drive means operate a vehicle on land, while fly means to control an aircraft transfer money) but they must be syntactically alike. Even though the verbs are not synonymous from the semantic point of view, Levin says that the members of the group need to share some aspect of meaning to some extend.
Moving on to the specifics of Levin’s analysis, she posits that there are eight main alternations, but each one has one or more sub-alternations. For example, there is the transitive alternation, and within it, we find the conative alternation or the unexpressed object alternation, among others. Moreover, if only one of the verbs from a verb class presents that type of alternation, that verb is the only one that mentioned in the alternation. Here is where Levin presents a classification of verbs on the basis of the theoretical framework discussed above. To do this, she considers the semantic meaning of the verbs, how many arguments they have and how they work syntactically. She groups verbs into classes that are similar in these regards. She explains that some verbs have more than one meaning, and because of that, they will appear in
Página | 17 more than one class. For example, the verb sing is grouped into four different classes depending on its meaning. It is classified as a performance verb, a manner of speaking verb, a sound emission verb and a sound-made-by-animals verb.
4. The corpus: methodology.
In this second section, we will analyse the aspectual classes of the different alternations inside the transitivity alternation. In order to do so, we will follow a quantitative criterion. In this section, we will use a corpus to give real examples. To do so, we have done rigorous research in Sketch Engine using the corpus “English Web 2020 (enTenTen20)” as our corpus basis to build our own corpus. We have followed the following criterion to build our corpus.
We chose to work with the time-adverbial test, so we searched for examples in which the verbs of the different alternations are modified by in or for. The complete corpus with all the examples will appear in the Appendix, and in the body of the study we will choose only two examples per verb.
The first thing that we did to build this corpus was choosing the verbs that we will be working with since the alternations presented a large number of verbs. To do so, we used the wordlist tool, and we searched for the most frequent verbs in the corpus. From this list, we selected the five first verbs. However, in some cases, these verbs did not work. When this happened, we started using the verbs from the most frequent to the least until we find examples.
After having selected the verbs, we started to look for examples in which the verbs were modified by in or for time-adverbial. By doing this, we can observe what aspectual class we are dealing with in each variant of the alternations. We used the concordance tool to search for the different examples. Sometimes we made use of the simple search and sometimes we worked with the CQL search to make a more precise search. Nevertheless, in one of the cases, this test cannot be applied, and we are going to apply the progressive test. In this case what we did was apply the test to an example from our corpus.
Finally, we used graphs to make a visual overview of the different aspects we wanted to deal with in this study: how many alternations present a change of aspect, how many present anomalies, and how many have verbs that present in the same variant two aspectual options and which aspectual classes are present in the transitivity alternation.
Página | 18 5. Analysis of corpus: aspectual classes and transitive alternations
After explaining our two main areas of interest (aspectual classes and argument alternations), we will study how they affect each other with a series of examples taken from a corpus. English time-adverbials differ from one another in ways that can help us to distinguish the different aspectual classes. Recall that, as we saw previously, activities and states can be modified by for time-adverbials because they are unbounded/atelic, whereas accomplishments and achievements can be modified by in time-adverbials because they are bounded/telic.
In this part of this work, we will be searching for examples of the different alternations that contain these two time-adverbials and checking whether there is a change in the aspectual class of the variants of the relevant alternation. The group of alternations which we have chosen to analyse are cases of the so-called transitivity alternation. This alternation is subdivided into four sub-alternations: object of transitive = subject of intransitive alternations, unexpressed object alternations, conative alternation, and preposition drop alternations.
In the first sub-alternation that we have mentioned, the object of transitive = subject of intransitive alternations, we can find three different types of alternations that involve the direct object of the sentence becoming the subject of the verb and the verb changing from being transitive to being intransitive. The first one is the middle alternation. This alternation consists of a transitive variant that is formed by a subject, a transitive verb and an object (NP V NP), and an intransitive variant that consists of the object of the transitive variant becoming the subject and the verb changing to being intransitive:
(65) I can cut the tail in 5-7 minutes or less.
(66) Ram broke the bow in a second.
(67) I read the book in two sittings.
(68) Barron used one ad and sold the house in sixteen days.
By looking at the above examples, we observe that the alternation provokes a change of aspectual class. In the transitive variant we have events that are accomplishments because the examples (65)-(68) that we have found are modified by a time-adverbial headed by in. In the intransitive variant4, we find that some verbs stay as accomplishments, like examples (69) and (70), and the other two cannot be modified by in-adverbials.
(69) The meat cut in three minutes.
4 As we cannot find examples of the intransitive variant of the middle alternation the examples that we have provided are our own.
Página | 19 (70) The bow broke in four seconds
(71) *The book reads in two hours.
(72) *The house sold in two days.
As it can be seen, examples (71) and (72) are ungrammatical and shows that this verbs in the intransitive variant cannot be an accomplishment or an achievement. In order to know if we are dealing with states or activities, we are going to test the examples above with the progressive test.
(73) *The book is reading.
(74) *The house is selling.
As examples (73-74) demonstrate, we are dealing with states. By applying this test, we can observe that if we change the verb to the progressive aspect, the result is an ungrammatical sentence proving that they are states since only activities can occur in this construction.
The second sub-alternation is the causative alternation. This sub-alternation is divided into three different types of alternations. The difference between this alternation and the middle alternation is that the latter has an unexpressed agent, which the causative alternation does not (Levin: 1993). The first subtype is the causative/inchoative alternation, which is also known as ergative. The transitive variant (75)-(77) is composed by a subject, a transitive verb, and a direct object (NP V NP), just like the middle alternation. The intransitive variant (78)-(81) is syntactically like the middle variant of the middle alternation but with the difference that here we do not have an understood and unexpressed agent. The sentences consist of a subject and an intransitive verb (NP V).
(75) A journey to get their goods to market could involve hours of travel up and down steep valleys but the tuin can move the goods in an hour or less.
(76) The mechanic changed the tire in 15 minutes and was soon home.
(77) The experienced staff can improve the situation of the clinic in a very short time.
(78) Solution: The ball moves through 6m in 2s.
(79) Taking place in different cities, the location changes in a two-year cycle.
(80) Japan's oil demand increased sixfold in the twelve years prior to leveling out.
(81) I still can't believe Geralt's beard grows in real time.
In this case, the examples (75-81) illustrate that the aspectual class of these verbs does not change. As can be observed in both cases, the verbs are modified by the in time-adverbial
Página | 20 showing that we are dealing with achievements or accomplishments. In this case, both cases are accomplishments because the events are durative.
The second one is the induced action alternation. The main characteristic of this alternation is that the object is an animate volitional entity that is caused and/or moved by a causer. Here, we have the same syntactic structure as in the previous one. For this alternation, we could only find examples of both variants with the sequence walk the dog. We could not find examples of both variants of the other verbs with an object that is an animate volitional entity. However, we found one example of the intransitive variant with the verb run, which was added to our list of examples. Like the causative/inchoative alternation, the induced alternation does not present a change of aspectual class. Here, in both cases we have the for time-adverbial possible, and because all of the verbs in these examples are heterogeneous, we can say that these are activities.
(82) He walks the dog every day for an hour or two.
(83) Initially the rats ran at 15m/minute for 10 minutes on an 8% incline.
(84) This time the dog walked quietly next to him for a few minutes before slowly transforming into a woman.
The last alternation from the causative class is classified by Levin as other instances of causative alternations. As the name indicates, in this alternation we can find verbs that do not belong to the previous classes but all of them mean in their transitive variant that the subject causes the action on the object. As can be expected, the syntactic structure is the same as that of the other two, but even though this alternation is composed of different verbs, they all have some things in common. Levin describes them as verbs that “are felt to be basically intransitive verbs describing internally controlled action which in certain circumstances can be externally controlled (…)” (Levin 1993: 32). As the transitive variant in (85)-(87) and the intransitive one in (88)-(90) demonstrate, we have here another case where the aspectual class does not change.
In both cases, we find that the relevant events are activities, because the verbs are modified by for time-adverbials, and the actions are heterogenous
(85) He flew the plane for 15 minutes.
(86) Scientists have been ringing the bell for over 25 years.
(87) King hung the painting in his St Kilda office for some years before trying to sell it at auction in 1910.
Página | 21 (88) The kite flew at 6,000 ft for 4 hours and may have achieved 7,500 ft prior to line break.
(89) The bells rang for 100 years.
(90) The paintings hung in their dining rooms for decades.
The last sub-type of the object of transitive = subject of intransitive alternation is the substance/source alternation. Unfortunately, we could only find examples of one of the variants here and because of that it will not be considered in this work.
The second sub-alternation is called the unexpressed object alternations. This one is subdivided into eight different types, but they all have something in common. All the alternations have an intransitive variant where the object does not appear, although it is understood. The first one is called the unspecified object alternation. As its name anticipates, in this alternation we have a transitive variant that follows the same structure that we have seen (NP V NP), and an intransitive variant that lacks a direct object (NP V). Nevertheless, this unexpressed object is understood to be a typical object of the verb.
(91) Mr. Pashman wrote the book in one year, but he says he's been researching for 30 years.
(92) I ate the pie in 15 minutes, I was given 20 minutes to complete the challenge.
(93) I just finished reading the book in a single session.
(94) She taught 4th grade for 30 years.
(95) Kim Campbell Thornton has written about cats and dogs for more than 30 years.
(96) They ate in silence for a few more moments before Torrent turned to River again, trying to keep a conversation going.
(97) I've been reading here for weeks to prepare for this transition.
(98) We both taught in Maine for about ten years.
(99) He taught me in 15 seconds.
(100) You have been drawing under the Klaus moniker for about 12 years now.
As the above examples show, we have a change of aspectual class in this alternation. In the transitive version we find that the verbs are modified by in time-adverbials, confirming that in this variant the verbs are accomplishments. Teach is the only verb that in the transitive variant cannot be found with an in time-adverbial. This verb denotes an activity, since in the examples that we have found it can only be modified by for time-adverbials. Moving to the intransitive variant, we find that the events denoted by these sentences are activities. We see a change
Página | 22 because the verbs without the direct object here do not denote a natural ending, as the explicitly transitive examples did, and because of that, all the verbs can be modified by a for time- adverbial. Here, also, the verb teach provides an exception among the verbs of this class found in our corpus. If we look at example (99), we can see that this verb can be also modified by in time-adverbial, which, for the reasons discussed above, is an indication that it denotes an accomplishment eventuality.
The following alternation is called the understood body-part object alternation. This alternation differs from the previous one in that it only affects verbs that describe movement or gesture with specific parts of the body. Here the intransitive variant varies from the transitive one in that the body part is not specified. We can observe that this alternation does not change the aspectual import of the sentence. Both cases are activities, because they can be modified by for time-adverbial and express a heterogeneous event.
(101) He pointed his finger for six seconds only.
(102) Kylie washes her face for about eight seconds.
(103) You were nodding your head there for a while.
(104) Also, blink your eyes rapidly for a few seconds.
(105) Keep arms raised and slowly shrug your shoulders up and down for 45 seconds.
(106) This does not mean pointing at something for 5 minutes after you have passed it.
(107) Jon nodded for a moment and continued.
(108) Tim blinked for a second before replying.
(109) Standing there he shrugs for a second then realizes there is a phone in the corner.
The next alternation is the understood reflexive object alternation. Here what is not expressed in the intransitive variant are the reflexive pronouns that characterise the transitive one. The aspectual class of this alternation does not change either. Both variants are accomplishments, as the examples (110)-(115) illustrate. We can observe that the verbs are modified by the time-adverbial headed by in and that they are durative.
(110) It is difficult to change yourself in a day but at least give it a try.
(111) I would pack myself in a minute (or maybe I won't have to because I will already have everything I need in my new suitcase?) and then I will fly to a place with real winter (not like here in my hometown Jerusalem), a place where I will be able to cuddle in front of a
Página | 23 burning fire, forgetting all the deadlines waiting for me behind the corner. somewhere I will be able to totally rest.
(112) Girls need to stop crying and she should dress herself in five minutes like we do, to hop into the buggy in time for school.
(113) The squares changed in 6-10 seconds.
(114) She packed in ten minutes, and we used a four-wheel drive vehicle to get her to the airport.
(115) I dressed in 20 minutes which was unusual because I usually need an hour to get ready!
The fourth type of this sub-alternation is called the understood reciprocal object alternation. This alternation displays a different syntactic pattern. Like all other alternations belonging in the causative alternation, the transitive variant of this subalternation has a subject, a transitive verb and an object (NP V NP). However, the intransitive variant is different from the ones that we have seen so far. Here, we have two coordinated subjects, the second one corresponding to the individual denoted by the object in the transitive variant (NP & NP VP).
(116) Iran fought Iraq for eight years and gained nothing.
(117) Kira met Ethan for 2 hours at some party with her inebriated friends.
(118) Dr. Baginski visited Sophia for 20 minutes one morning.
(119) Jordan dated Harm for a year.
(120) Jackson and Bohlander fought for ten minutes ending with Bohlander securing the armbar victory.
(121) Ma and Pa meet for five hours before he leaves.
(122) Tang Dachuan and Yinxing married for many years and had a son.
(123) Yet, Aenka and Mario visited for two hours at a time, speaking eloquently while their words were recorded on tape by members of the group.
(124) Tim and Beverly dated for a year before marrying.
In this alternation, we find that in almost all the examples there is no change of aspectual class, as they are modified by for time-adverbials showing that they are activities.
The last type of alternation that belongs to the class of unexpressed object alternations is called the instructional imperative. As its name anticipates, all the examples found in this
Página | 24 alternation are in the imperative mood. The difference between these two variants is that the transitive one presents an object (V NP) while the intransitive is only composed of the verb (V).
Again, there is no change of aspectual class in this alternation. All the examples in (125)-(134) demonstrate that the verbs in these cases are activities, as they are modified by for time- adverbials. Besides the time-adverbial test, we find here that another test can be applied. On account of the compulsory use of the imperative, the imperative itself can be used as a test. As these verbs can be used in the imperative mood, we can state with some certainty that they are activities, as states cannot be used in the imperative.
(125) Round Two. Set the alarm for 15 seconds.
(126) Gently cook the onions and garlic for about five minutes.
(127) Cover the mug with a lid for 15 minutes.
(128) Remove the foil for the last 20 mins of cooking.
(129) Bake the cake for 50 to 60 minutes.
(130) Leave to cool and set for 30 mins.
(131) Lid it ...cook for 20 min.
(132) Turn off heat and cover for 10 minutes.
(133) Leave for 10 minutes, remove for 5 minutes, and turn buds.
(134) Cover and bake for another 45 minutes.
There are also another four types of alternation which belong to the causative alternation. However, we could not find any examples of these alternations that were relevant for this study, and because of that, they will not be analysed here.
The third sub-alternation is the conative alternation. Like the other ones, this alternation presents a transitive and an intransitive variant. The transitive one is composed of a subject, a verb, and an object (NP V NP). The intransitive variant presents a different syntactic pattern.
Here, the object of the transitive variant becomes part of a prepositional phrase (NP V PP).
(135) The state comptroller's office will continue to push the reforms in the upcoming session as well.
(136) You can pull the turbo in minutes and a novice mechanic can replace the water pump in well under an hour.
(137) We used to knock the door for 10 or 20 minutes then someone used to come to talk.
Página | 25 (138) Try to use as less bullet as possible to shoot the target in the shortest time to earn
more scores.
(139) The waters have been pushing at the SCOTUS dam for years.
(140) Slavery had stealthily struck at the country for years.
(141) Tommy took the bottle from me and pulled at the cap for a good five minutes without luck.
(142) I knock at the door for almost 10 minutes, but no one answers.
(143) This was after I shot at the artillery for a few turns - again no damage.
There is a change in the aspectual class of the verbs when the conative alternation occurs. In the transitive variant we can see that all the events are accomplishments, while in the intransitive variant they are activities. This change in aspectual import makes sense because we have here a change of meaning in the verbs and a corresponding change in thematic roles. In the transitive variant, the verb implies that the action takes place, and the direct objects is the patient. As is well known, the patient is the participant that undergoes a change of state. This means that, for example, if we push the car, the car moves. It therefore makes sense that the verbs in these cases are accomplishments. However, if we say that we push at the car, the preposition blocks the entailment that the car moves, and the prepositional phrase is no longer a patient but becomes a goal. We can see it more clearly in example (143), which says that even though the individual denoted by the subject shot something, there was no damage. Since the verbs do not imply that the action takes place, there is not a change of state either and it does not have a natural ending. Accordingly, we cannot say that the event is an accomplishment, but rather than it is an activity. The only verb that is different from the rest is the verb knock that in both cases, example (137) and (142), we find that the verb is semelfactive, as it involves a repetition of the action, and it is modified by for.
The last sub-alternation of the transitivity alternation is the preposition drop alternation.
Here, we have two different types of alternation. These two alternations follow the same syntactic pattern as the conative alternation. In the transitive case we have the syntactic pattern NP V NP and in the intransitive case we have NP V PP. The first one of these is called the locative preposition drop alternation. The verbs that can be found in this alternation are motion verbs that are modified by a directional phrase.
(144) The pair escaped the reserve three times in 13 months.
Página | 26 (145) Someone said Colin descended Tryfan in 7 minutes.
(146) She has travelled the world in an hour!
(147) We travelled the world for nearly three years, listening.
(148) We climbed Shuksan in a day.
(149) But last week, they climbed trees for 2 hours.
(150) After the war, Pansy left Britain behind for almost a decade.
(151) The song descended down the charts to number 43 for the next two weeks before ascending back to number 29 following the music video's release.
(152) I have been travelling around the world for nearly two years now.
(153) Those who don't mind walking further can climb up the hill for an hour or so more and enter the meadows at the high hills nearby, enjoy the full view of the valley and feel the breeze on the top.
This alternation is discussed in detail by Baker, who explains that motion verbs can change their aspectual classes depending on their goals. He argues that when we have a definite distance or goal and we reach or cover that goal, we have an accomplishment, whereas, we have an activity if either of those circumstances do not hold (Baker 1995). If we look at examples (144)-(149), excluding example (147) and (149), we see that in all of them there is a goal that was reached, demonstrating that these events are accomplishments. For this reason, all of them are naturally modified by the in time-adverbial. There are two verbs that can also be modified by a for time-adverbial in this variant, the verb travel (147) and the verb climb (149), which shows that they can also be found as activities. The intransitive variant examples (150)-(153) do not denote a definite goal or distance, so they are activities and can be modified by the for adverbial.
The last alternation is called the ’with’ preposition drop alternation. Here, in the intransitive variant we find that the verbs are modified by a with prepositional phrase (NP V PP) and in the transitive variant we find a direct object (NP V NP). In this alternation, we find a very small group of verbs that imply reciprocal actions. The difference with the previous alternation is that these verbs do not denote movement, but rather social interaction. As examples (154)-(159) demonstrate, there is no change of aspectual class in this alternation. Both variants are activities, as the verbs can be modified only by for time-adverbials.
(154) I met her for two seconds.
Página | 27 (155) I debated him for three hours on the John Ankerberg Show.
(156) I fought them for 4 years.
(157) The Pope met with Stefanini for forty minutes on 17 April.
(158) In one such case, Strang debated with Reuben Miller for four hours in Ottawa.
(159) Indrajit fought with Rama's army for three days.
To conclude this section, let us summarize the results of the study. After analysing almost every alternation of the transitivity alternation, we are going to focus on four main aspects. One of them is how many of alternations present a change of aspectual class. In addition, we will look if some of these alternation present anomalies and if they have a verb that present two options for the same variant, meaning that some of the verbs do not behave like the rest in its alternation. Finally, we will analyse what type of aspectual classes appear in this alternation and which one are the most frequent.
Figure 1. Alternations that change and do not change the lexical aspect of verb phrases
With the analysis of these alternations, we have observed that none of the examples shown can be classified as achievements and we can say that in the Transitivity Alternation all the verbs are classified as either states, activities, or accomplishments. In addition to this, from the twelve alternations that have been analysed, in two of these alternations we see a change of aspectual class while in eight we do not.
Change aspectual class Do not change 36%
aspectual class 64%
Página | 28 Figure 2. Alternations that present and do not present anomalies.
Figure 3. Alternations in which a verb had two options for the same variant.
Furthermore, we could observe that in a few cases there were anomalies, which means that there were some verbs that did not behave like the other verbs in its group. This are the cases of the verb teach in the transitive variant of the unspecified objects alternation and the verb knock in the transitive variant of the conative alternation. Moreover, some verbs can be classified into two different aspectual classes in the same variant, either the transitive or the intransitive variant. Here we find the verb teach again in the intransitive variant of the unspecified objects alternation, the verbs travel, in both variant, and climb, in the transitive variant, of the locative preposition drop alternation.
Present anomalies 17%
Do not present anomalies
83%
Verb present two options
17%
Verb present one option
83%
Página | 29 Figure 4. Aspectual content of alternations.
Finally, after analysing each of these alternations, we can conclude that there are more alternations that do not change their aspectual class than alternations that do change. The corpus of examples that we have put together prove that if there is no change of aspectual class the events are classified either as activities or accomplishments, the former being more common one. When there is a change of aspectual class in the alternation, we have observed that it is either a change from accomplishment to activity, the most frequent option, or from accomplishment to state. Another interesting result is that when there is a change of state from accomplishment to activity, the transitive variant always conveys an accomplishment eventuality and the verbs in the intransitive variant are always an activity event, and never the other way around.
To sum up, we can say that the most frequent aspectual class is that of activities and that the most expected change will be from accomplishments to activities.
Accomplishments 18%
Activities 46%
Accomplishments- Activities
27%
Accomplishments- States
9%
Página | 30 6. Conclusion
The main aim of this paper is to see if there is a change of aspectual class in the different alternations of the transitivity alternation by searching for corpus examples that contain the in and for time-adverbials, a reliable indicator of membership in the aspectual classes under study.
Although some alternations could not be used for our analysis, we have obtained some interesting results.
The first conclusion that we can draw from this analysis is that of the four aspectual classes (regardless of whether there is a change of the aspectual class on the alternation or not) the most frequent one is that of activities. Of twelve alternations, only three of them lack variants that could be classified as an activity. The second most regular aspectual class is that of accomplishments. However, they are way less frequent than activities. States are present in transitive alternations too, but only in the intransitive variant of a very special alternation, namely the middle alternation. Finally, we can say that there is not a single instance of an achievement variant in the transitivity alternation, or at least in the alternations that we have been able to analyse.
The second conclusion is that there are more transitivity alternations that do not undergo a change in aspectual meaning than alternation that do. We have eight alternations that belong to the first group and only four that fall within the second one. About the aspectual shifts that we find, the most common one is the one that goes from being an accomplishment to being an activity, and there is only one exception, namely the middle alternation. In this alternation, we found that the change is from an accomplishment to a state. What is interesting about these four cases is that we always find a case of accomplishment when there is a change, and that the accomplishments are always present in the transitive variant of the alternation but not in the intransitive one. So, we can confirm that in the transitivity alternation that we have analysed if there is a change of aspectual class, one of them will always be an accomplishment and will always be found in the transitive variant of the alternation.
Moving on to anomalies, the transitivity alternation has a few, like the verb teach, which was expected to be modifiable by in time-adverbials, just like the other verbs. The examples demonstrate that this verb can only be modified by the for time-adverbial. Only two verbs out of all the verbs that we have analysed within this alternation behave differently than expected.
Therefore, we can say that the verbs that form the transitivity alternation are more likely to behave as expected. i.e., according to the pattern found in this work. Furthermore, we have
Página | 31 observed that some verbs present two options within the same variant, that is, we find that they can be modified by in and for time-adverbials and depending on the adverb we will see that the verb undergoes a change of alternation or not, if we have an accomplishment and it becomes an activity or if it stays the same.
In conclusion, we can describe the transitive alternation as a fairly regular alternation in aspectual terms. We find that, for the most part, verbs do not undergo a change of aspectual class and the most common aspectual class is that of activities.
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