Aspectual Grammar and Past-Time Reference (review)

This study examines aspectual meaning from two perspectives: first, from its universal character, presented here as built upon the fundamental conceptual division between events and states, and secondly, its grammatical embodiment in a particular language, English. The main thesis of this study is that the English present perfect represents an ambiguous aspectual form which has three readings with distinct grammatical, semantic, and discourse-pragmatic properties (resultative, existential, and continuative).

In Ch. 1 Michaelis outlines a general theory of aspectual meaning. She explores a three-tier model of aspect (consisting of viewpoint, situation, and phasal aspects) and shows how this model works with respect to English. Ch. 2 presents the construction grammar framework, in which the system of aspect is viewed as a coordination of locally applicable semantic, formal, and pragmatic constraints. M argues that phasal aspects in English are morphosyntactically rather than morphologically expressed. She illustrates this idea on two types of verb-phrase constructions: the inceptive and the progressive aspects. In Ch. 3 M argues that the three types of the English perfect system represent distinct grammatical constructions, defined by constraints on adverbial co-occurrence, interpretation, and use. She focuses on the meaning of the present perfect, which she infers through a constructional account built upon inheritance relations and pragmatic contrast. Ch. 4 investigates the individual form-meaning pairings in the perfect system and the interpretive constraints associated with three perfect forms. Ch. 5 examines the three distinct readings of the present perfect and provides evidence that the present perfect is ambiguous rather than vague with respect to these readings.

M’s analysis of grammatical phenomena makes use of comparisons between grammar and lexicon. Thus, the fundamental distinction between events and states is presented as similar to the distinction between count and mass nouns. Grammar and lexicon are argued to resemble each other within the construction grammar framework; the relationship between grammatical constructions is considered similar to that between words linked by the relation of polysemy. These parallels between grammar and lexicon serve to give a clear and suggestive overview of the described grammatical phenomena.

An interesting feature of the book is the range of languages M uses to illustrate her points. Even though the main focus of the study is the aspectual system of modern English, it is discussed in the context of a large number of languages varying from Latin to Mandarin Chinese. Frequent comparisons between the various forms that aspectual meaning takes in different languages offer unusual perspectives and interesting insights into the universal nature of aspect and provide solid grounds for the issues under discussion.

The study fully deserves its title, Aspectual grammar. Provided with a list of terms used in the study of aspect as well as with a detailed list of references, the book is based upon a large number of fundamental works on aspect and can serve as a reference book for anybody working on aspect in English or in any other language.