| All simple predicates in all languages are observed to have one of three 'natural' temporal structures: state, change, or process. These three aspectual types are exemplified by the predicates: stink, die, and swim. A number of syntactic phenomena in a variety of languages are then sensitive to these aspectual categories.;Second, the aspectual system developed is compatible with the syntactic structures of X;Specific correlations from Japanese, Italian, and English are reviewed. In particular, it is argued that what are known as unaccusative predicates are always states and changes and never processes, where unaccusative predicates are intransitive predicates with underlying direct objects. The cross-linguistic nature of the three aspectual classes is then investigated and an event-based semantics is developed to account for the characteristic behavior of each kind of aspectual structure. While this analysis draws extensively from the work of David Dowty, it has two advantages. First, it makes possible a comparative analysis of the English progressive and the Japanese te-iru construction. Thus, while the English predicate is dying is progressive, its apparent Japanese equivalent, sinde-iru, is perfective. The verb sinu 'die' never has a progressive interpretation in Japanese. |
