| This dissertation deals with the question of the representation and derivation of aspect in syntax. In the first part, it is argued that the correlation, observed in some languages, between Cases of the object and aspect is indicative of the syntactic presence and operativity of a formal feature of aspect. This feature is proposed to be linked to the aspectual properties of boundedness and telicity. For a certain set of predicates, it is observed that boundedness is a sufficient condition for the assignment of structural object Case; for another set of predicates, those of an affected theme, telicity is necessary for this assignment. These descriptions are put together in a single account when a functional feature, [+BOUNDEDNESS], is allowed to be checked in two manners. In the first case, the feature is checked and eliminated by the verb; in the second, it is checked and eliminated by the object. The ability of these objects to check aspect is traced back to the way predicate aspect is composed in these cases. In these predicates, telicity is compositionally derived from properties of the verb and the object. This unique checking relationship between object and aspect explains the special syntactic properties of these arguments and the Case assignment patterns in the languages considered.;The second part of this dissertation deals with the role of the affected object in the construction of aspect and its relation with other aspectual components of the sentence. It is observed that the objects that check aspect impose certain limitations on the choice of Outer Aspect, the aspectual meanings introduced by tenses. These restrictions are argued to stem from the dependency and interaction between telicity, boundedness and perfectivity. By proposing these connections, the analysis explains the ungrammaticality of certain object-tense combinations and advances a complete proposal of the representation and derivation of aspectual meaning in the sentence. |
