1st Edition

Telicity and Durativity A Study of Aspect in Dëne Suliné (Chipewyan) and German

By Andrea Luise Wilhelm Copyright 2007
    356 Pages
    by Routledge

    356 Pages
    by Routledge

    This book studies the linguistic representation of events by examining the relevance of two salient event characteristics-- telicity and durativity-- to the grammatical system of natural language.

    The study of events, and of event characteristics, is an important testing ground for theories on the boundary between extralinguistic and linguistic knowledge, and on the relation between semantics and syntax. Telicity and durativity are notions which have become increasingly influential in both the semantic and the syntactic, i.e., grammaticalized, representation of events.

    The book furthers the understanding of events through the comparison of two genetically and typologically distinct languages, German and Dëne Suliné (Chipewyan/Athapaskan), an indigenous language of Northwestern Canada. It contains the first in-depth documentation of the aspectual system of Dëne Suliné, and a careful analysis of the aspectual behaviour of German particle verbs. A stringent methodology considers semantic, pragmatic, and grammatical factors in both languages.

    The data reveal that telicity and durativity belong to profoundly different semantic and grammatical domains, and that neither notion is grammaticalized universally. While both notions are represented semantically in German as well as in Dëne Suliné, telicity is grammaticalized only in the former and durativity is grammaticalized only in the latter.

    Table of Contents



    List of tables



    List of maps



    List of abbreviations



    Acknowledgments



    CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION



    PART I: DËNE SULINÉ



    CHAPTER TWO: Viewpoint aspect and its influence on situation type in Dëne



    CHAPTER THREE: TELICITY IS NOT GRAMMATIZED IN DËNE



    PART II: GERMAN



    CHAPTER FOUR: TELICITY IN GERMAN



    CHAPTER 5: Viewpoint Aspect and Durativity in German



    CHAPTER SIX: The grammatization of aspectual notions



    APPENDIX 1: Dëne verbs and tests



    APPENDIX 2: German verbs and tests



    APPENDIX 3: The Dëne Progressive



    End Notes



    Bibliography



    Index

    Biography

    Andrea Luise Wilhelm